Breast Cancer, Grief and the Next Small Step

Some mornings the only thing you can manage is to get up and brush your teeth, and Lisa Espinoza believes that might be enough for today. It is the heart of her book, First, Brush Your Teeth: Grief and Hope in Real Time, written every single day in the year after her youngest son Chandler died, and it became the thread she followed when breast cancer arrived in January 2022. Lisa is an author and speaker who knows hard seasons from every side. She lost her mother to lung cancer on the 4th of July 1983, when she was just 18, and has spent decades coming alongside people in grief. In this conversation she walks Bron through a routine mammogram that turned into biopsies on both sides, a long wait over Christmas, and a frightening decision between a lumpectomy with radiation or a double mastectomy. Bron and Lisa talk about how to make impossible decisions when you are already overwhelmed, why the anticipation of wires, tracers and scans was far worse than the reality, and what it felt like to cry over a bottle of hormone blocker tablets before taking the first one. There is plenty of laughter too, including a bidet that Lisa's husband Chip installed just in case and now loves far more than she does. Serenity Rising is an interest only podcast. Nothing in this episode is medical advice, so please talk with your own treating team before making any change to your care. In This Episode • Losing her mother to lung cancer at 18, and the legacy of loving motherhood she carried into raising her own children • The routine mammogram in December 2021, biopsies on both sides, and why her mammograms now happen in January • The patient advocate's phone call: this is a blip on your radar, not the end of the game • Lumpectomy and radiation or a double mastectomy, and the friend whose calm voice of reason helped her choose • The bidet her husband Chip installed just in case, and who ended up loving it most • Making impossible decisions when you are frightened: the next right decision, not the one ten steps down the track • Why the anticipation of biopsies, wires and scans was worse than the real thing, and being where your feet are • Crying over the hormone blocker bottle, and what actually happened once she started taking it • Taking your research to people who can interpret it, and asking for help when you are at capacity • Bron's field of dots, and why the path only joins up behind you • Being a professional at creating stories in her head, and learning not to borrow that trouble • Where First, Brush Your Teeth came from, and the sacred small step that connects every hard season of her life • What serenity means to Lisa: trust and peace, and the two buckets she doesn't carry alone Make every day count my friend. Bron xx Resources Mentioned • First, Brush Your Teeth: Grief and Hope in Real Time by Lisa Espinoza do we have a link for this Ann? • Lisa's Substack, where she writes about grief, resilience and hard seasons • Kerri Chinner on A equals A, Serenity Rising Series 2: https://push.fm/fl/x4qge6fe Connect With Lisa Website: https://lisaespinoza.com Substack: https://blog.lisaespinoza.com Instagram:   / lisa.espinoza   Facebook:   / lisachandlersmom