[MUSIC]
This business we have, my husband and I opened up in 1993.
So we have it for about 21 years.
We do, some contract work for the multiple company, and
we also make the children's clothing.
And we make the athletic team wears, and we wholesale.
My life before the cancer diagnose, I was so
busy involved with the work.
I didn't have much of time to have a hobby,
so I guess you could say that my hobby was the work.
I always did have a problem with my stomach and a lot of time,
indigestions and discomfort.
And I could feel a bloating over my stomach, upper area,
upper stomach area.
So I just felt that it was just more than indigestion.
So, then we had some testing done, through the endoscopy
that it was diagnosed that I had stomach cancer.
When my family first found out, my husband was devastated.
I have two daughters that, of course, are very much involved
in my life, and which I love them greatly.
And my daughters
really, they were very proactive over my illness.
>> When she told me that she was told she has stomach cancer,
I could hear the nervousness in her voice
>> And of course,
when you hear that, me being a nurse and knowing that
sometimes gastric cancer is found when it's already so
invasive, I had to take a step back, because we didn't know.
We have to see where we're going from here,
cuz it wasn't staged or anything like that, so
we didn't know what we were dealing with.
>> My cancer was diagnosed by local doctor in this area.
And the treatment options that I was told, we weren't happy with.
So my daughters felt as though we needed a second opinion, so
we decided to go to Johns Hopkin and we have Dr.
Duncan's expertise.
All the information that he has given us was just so
much information and he spent so
much time explaining to us what the all the steps to follow.
And after the long consultation that he had given us,
well we decided right there and that it is Dr.
Duncan that who is going to be my surgeon.
And it was so worth the travelling that two and
a half hours.
Dr. Duncan in Baltimore, and
my oncologist in town, they were able to work together,
to come up with the right medication for me and it worked.
I just had a second CAT scan done, and I'm cancer free.
>> When you're a patient, being in our shoes, you see so
many people that it could be cultural,
it could be the age of the person.
So many people are just afraid to go to physicians.
They're afraid of what they might find.
But, if I could just tell them, just go, just go, just go.
Cuz that's the difference between maybe surgery and
some chemotherapy, to save your life versus
doing chemotherapy for just palliation to kind of make you
more comfortable towards the end of your life.
>> And I think it's so
important that you kind of have to know your body, your body
symptoms that what it's telling you that something's not right.
I think it's so important that you listen to your body,
that it tells you, hey,
something's not right about your stomach, go get help.
Results of getting medical help, I'm here today.
[MUSIC]
My outlooks of life after the surgery,
after the second round of chemo, it had changed great deal.
But for better.
I no longer work 16 hours a day.
[LAUGH] And I try to listen to my body and
say, hey, you had enough.
Then I learn to stop.
I'm trying to live more healthier life than I
did before.
I want to be here for a long time for my family.
[MUSIC]