S2 EP 21 - Cancer Changes Everything: Listen to Your Heart
3/17/202619 min
What I thought was a routine appointment turned into an 11-hour stretch in the ER—and then the words no one is ever ready to hear: stage four metastatic cervical cancer. I’m sharing this with a shaky voice but a steady purpose, because my best friend Tanya is fighting for her life, and right now, I’m one of her primary caregivers.
This has made me really think about what chosen family actually means when the crisis isn’t abstract. Tanya is my person—the friend who crossed countries, built a life from nothing, cared deeply for others...
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSuzanne M. Swain· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Welcome. It is a beautiful day to bust some cognitive distortions. Hey, y'all. My name is Suzanne M. Swain, EDS, LMSW, and I am a child therapist, educational specialist in all things schools and middle school. Well, today's a special edition. I need to talk to you from the heart today, and I have an update that I need to talk to y'all about. And to be honest, I just, for the first time, it's the 30th episode, so woo-hoo, we made it to 30, and we're almost at 200,000 downloads, so I want to thank everybody out there in the community. I cannot thank you enough. This has been-- I started this toward the end of August. This has been my passion project, and I, I haven't made a single dollar off this podcast. I was determined to go all PBS style where it's not for profit, it's just for learning, and then if something works out, donations only kind of thing. But here's the thing. Folks, I need your help. I need to tell you about someone that's part of the MSMP community that y'all don't even know about, and this is Steve's best friend, Tanya. Her name's Tanya Bieches, and she is my person. In, in life, you only have a couple of people, and if you're lucky, you have one, and if you're super lucky, you have two. Well, in my life, I've had two best people that are my person, my rock, my everything, my chosen family. You have your birth family and your chosen family. Well,