- It's crazy because if we saw each other on the street,
neither one of us would know
that either of us would be cancer survivors.
- So I started a singing career really early on
at the age of seven, so by the time I was 15,
I was a pretty accomplished mariachi singer
and I had even been on a few TV shows but that all changed
when I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
For a while, my grandma would always notice
a lump in my neck when I would be eating
but we thought she was just being paranoid
because she had just finished fighting cancer herself.
I still went to the doctor and at the time I had a cold,
so the doctor thought
that it was just swollen lymph nodes or something
but months passed by and the lump was still there
so we went back.
And after realizing that it definitely
was not just swollen lymph nodes,
I was immediately sent for biopsies
and the results that were supposed to take three days
got back to us in one.
I mean, I remember being in my room getting ready
and my mom getting a phone call.
She comes into my room with this look on her face
that I just knew something was wrong.
And I asked her.
It was like, I have cancer, right?
And she was a little bit taken aback by my acceptance of it
and I wasn't upset, I wasn't mad.
I kinda just felt like it was something in my life
that I knew I was gonna have to get over.
So within the next two weeks,
I had surgery and had a tumor the size of a golf ball
and my thyroid removed
and I remember waking up from surgery
and my parents being there and asking me
if I was feeling okay but the first thing I noticed
was that I couldn't speak louder than a whisper.
I tried to talk and the doctors thought
that I was just in pain
and they said I would get better the next day
but it didn't get better
and it turns out that I got a paralyzed vocal cord
after my surgery.
So that's pretty much when it really hit me the most
because I couldn't yell, I couldn't scream,
but most of all, I couldn't sing.
Soon after my surgery, I got radiation
and I had a full-body scan.
And unfortunately, it was not clear so my mom did research
and begged to be referred to this specific doctor
that we call our angel doctor now
and he was really skeptical about taking me in
because someone else had already gone in and worked on me.
I had a second surgery a few weeks later
and this time he put a device down my throat
during the surgery that sent these electrical impulses
to my vocal cords
that would prevent them from becoming paralyzed
which is something that probably
should have been done the first time.
The next surgery went really great.
I woke up and my vocal cord was not paralyzed
so that was a really good thing.
So then I had another dose of radiation and another scan
and it still did not come out clear.
So yeah, ever since then,
besides having to take thyroid medication every single day
for the rest of my life,
even though my doctors have said
that it's safe to say I'm cancer-free
because there hasn't been any growth,
every time that I go, it is one of the things on my mind
is just like what's gonna turn out this time?
I've definitely have just learned to love life
and just live every single day to the absolute fullest.
Yeah, I think it's just something
that I wouldn't really ever change about my life,
even though I have asked myself
why would I get the cancer that affected me
in the way that I loved the most?
But I think overall, it's made me a better person
and just an optimistic, strong girl.
- The summer of 2015,
I was going into my senior year of high school.
I was playing varsity volleyball
and I was an AP student.
I had had some pain in my knee during practices sometimes
but I continued to play through it.
I went to my doctor for a physical
and she denied me clearance to play, obviously.
So I went and got an MRI and after about a week of testing,
I was diagnosed with Stage 2 osteosarcoma
with a tumor about the size of a golf ball
in my left proximal tibia which is my left knee.
For me, one of the most difficult parts of getting cancer
was not actually the cancer itself
but rather the life that I was thrown into afterwards.
I struggled severely with anxiety and depression
after I finished treatment
and I've always struggled with depression
but I was supposed to be the happiest I could possibly be.
I was cancer-free.
How could you not ask for a better possible outcome?
But I was in a really dark place.
I felt like I lost my sense of identity.
Before cancer, I was this intense athlete and AP student.
After cancer, I was barely good at walking
and my brain was mush from the chemo.
I hadn't socialized in over a year
and I was so self-conscious
about the way that my hair looked or the lack thereof,
and my scar,
and the weight that I had gained during treatment,
and I had no idea who I was gonna be now.
Even though it gave me all of these physical problems,
all of these mental problems,
I found a way to cope, to overcome it all,
and I think one of the biggest gifts
that my cancer gave to me
was the gift of a positive outlook on life.
I think I choose to live everyday as if it's my last.
I live everyday to the most
and I think life is definitely not perfect
but it's wonderful
because I have this little voice in the back of my head
that's always there that just reminds me
of what happened and what can happen
and I use that not to fuel my life with fear of relapsing,
of getting cancer again,
and even though I was dealt a really difficult card,
I'm grateful for it
because it made me the person that I am today.
- Well, I think that one of the first thoughts
was that our stories are really similar
even though it's really different and it really...
- [Girl] I know, every time.
That always happens. - Yeah.
- I just didn't know I could connect with someone
that was going through cancer,
even though it's a different type of cancer
'cause I think in my head, it's always like,
everyone's experience is totally different
but it's crazy to see someone my age
go through the same thing and feel the same things.
- It's crazy because if we saw each other on the street,
neither one of us would know
that either of us was a cancer survivor.
- Yeah.
And I think another thing that really resonated with me
was just the fact that you went through something,
losing something that you love to do
and I think that a lot of people,
when I tell that to people
that haven't gone through something like this,
they don't really understand.
- So I finished treatment in June
and then I went to college in the fall.
So I was still bald and I was wearing wigs
and I ended up getting hair extensions
but people would ask me about my wigs
and I was so self-conscious
if my scar came up or something like that.
I didn't wanna talk about it, not because I was ashamed
but I knew that people weren't gonna get it.
Cancer makes people really uncomfortable.
- [Girl] Yeah, it does.
- One of my life mission goals
is to help ease that conversation,
is to just sort of casually bring up like,
oh yeah, I had cancer.
And I think even though
it's obviously a really tough subject to talk about,
I think it's really important
to be able to have these kinds of conversations.
- Yeah.
- One of the biggest things
that I heard from people around me
when I was going through treatment
was like they didn't wanna hurt my feelings
by saying the wrong thing
and so they just didn't say anything at all.
It's way better to say something little,
like I don't know what to say to you right now,
I'm so sorry, I love you.
That's such a good simple sentence and that's all you need.
And I think the more people that know that,
the better because everyone knows someone who has had cancer
but at some point in your life,
you're gonna have to send your well wishes or whatever
to someone who's going through treatment
and if you have the right thing to say
or even just knowing that it's better
to say something than nothing.
- And I think I'm also really comfortable telling my story
just because I think that there's just this preconception
of what cancer is
and I think that people think
that everyone goes through it the same thing,
'cause I remember a lot of times people would ask me,
oh, did you lose your hair?
Not everyone goes through the same path of treatment.
Or they would think that because I didn't lose my hair
that it wasn't as extreme as other ones
but it is true to an extent
but it's extreme in its own ways.
So I think that people just need to understand
that everyone's story is different
and even though it is different,
they're all bad.
- I think I have to live the best life I can,
I have to be the best person I can
for all the people that didn't get the chance
to be their best selves, to live their life.
I wanna say thank you for sharing your story.
I didn't know what this was gonna be going into it
but I'm so glad that I got
to meet another anyway cancer survivor.
I wanna huge and hug. - Come on!
My mom was definitely always the one
who would be really, really bummed out afterwards
and I would kinda just look at her and be like,
mom, it's okay.
We'll just maybe next time.
And she really always says that she learned from me
and how I was always very positive
and she's like, I could never comprehend that.
- My mom says that all the time!