today we're kicking things off with our story of inspiration we'll meet a woman
who says a network of support got her through a cancer diagnosis Trisha Lesch
first recognized something was off with her health last summer
I noticed I had what I thought was a canker sore on my tongue to bother me
and I let it go for a couple of weeks her doctor gave her a topical medication
but it didn't go away to finally be biopsied it was one of those kind of
shocking moments I never fought somebody in their thirties who never smoked never
drink heavily doesn't have an HPV link to get done cancer Tom cancer is a
malignant growth of the front part of the tongue or the back part of the time
most people would have symptoms of pain or bleeding or the very hopefully
familiar symptom of the store that doesn't heal I would say within three or
four weeks of a sore that doesn't heal on their tongue would be the time to see
their doctor it could be some type of swallowing or ear pain it was a bit
shocking and then all of a sudden all the questions come like why me why would
this happen I was most concerned about how my diagnosis and my energy levels
would impact my children tricia teamed up with dr. Stenson and her colleagues
to come up with a plan of action we knew we could be aggressive with the
treatment in order to give her the best chance of survival she underwent a
partial loss ectomy in addition we did some reconstruction of a set of a tongue
which has helped her to maintain her speech as well in function hearing that
you have to have surgery to remove part of your tongue and impact your speech
and your ability to eat it's really kind of kind of overwhelming Trish's family
rallied around her helping her focus on getting better I've been very lucky to
have a huge support system in terms of my husband first of all and then our
families our parents or our siblings I would say emotionally
they've all been fantastic they've been there for me to kind of talk through my
seizures and so forth Tricia also had one more person on her
support team then Bornstein was partnered with Trisha
through the organization imerman angels so MMN angels is 101 cancer mentoring
become the largest one-on-one support community in the world
we're that like-for-like experience that went through the same type of cancer and
beat it so you're there to talk as much or as little to email as much or as
little or to meet in person as frequently or as infrequent as the
mentee want I think the biggest fear for me was the fear of how the the
treatments would impact my quality of life how losing part of my time would
impact my speech and my ability to communicate with my kids being able to
speak with that and somebody that's already been through this and to hear
that he was able to eat normally and speak normally was a huge relief serving
I was able to help guide her through both the pre surgery experience of a pre
treatment experience for her with all the anxiety that comes with that and
then the post experience as well with the impact on your speech on your taste
and so forth after months of treatment Tricia got the news she'd been hoping
for I'm doing great I am cancer-free which was fantastic
news is it's been great to be back to that being back on the soccer field and
seeing my kids is really been great so I'm happy to be back to normal
she's doing quite well she's gained quite a bit of her way back her speeches
I think if you didn't know her before you would say her speech is normal
I definitely cherish every every minute that I get with my kids and now having
my full energy back so I can go play soccer with them and backyard she now
hopes to give back to others through imerman angels mentoring others going
through tongue cancer I would like to be able to give back to somebody else the
gift that I was given and if I can do anything to help somebody else get
through their journey I'd be more than happy to I would say that to keep a
positive attitude about it and life will get back to normal and
like