Why does the second cancer hit harder than the first? Even when it’s smaller? Even when you’re a psychotherapist?
Dr. Erin Gray, two-time cancer survivor (BRCA2 breast cancer in her early 40s, then thyroid cancer eight years later), had her own answer when it happened to her. The thing that separates the diagnoses you survive well from the ones that wreck you isn’t preparation. It isn’t knowing what comes next. It’s a guide.
In this conversation, Erin walks through both of her diagnoses, what changed between cancer #1 and cancer #2, the question that comes before every other one when you’re newly diagnosed (or carrying a known mutation, or facing a recurrence), and what patient navigation (a clinical intervention with thirty-five years of outcomes data) does, plus why most patients never get to experience it.
Also in this episode: the breast MRI moment where the radiologist pulled Erin aside before she could even get dressed; why her oncologist told her not to Google “triple negative” and what proved him right in the chemo room; the 28% lower recurrence risk from 150 minutes of cardio a week; and what no one tells you about the second time around.
Dr. Erin Gray is a psychotherapist specializing in patients with chronic illness, co-host of Wicked Psychotherapists, and author of Crushing the Cancer Curveball.
Erin’s counseling website: www.bewellwithincounseling.com
Erin’s podcast website: www.wickedpsychotherapists.com
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