Thanks to chemotherapy plus taxotere and perjeta, Heidi Slansky survived Stage III breast cancer.
- Bruce Morton
- May 16, 2022
- 18 min read
DESCRIPTION
In her early forties, Heidi Slansky of Keller, Texas was in the best shape of her life. She was a fitness fanatic and loved playing tennis. Her doctors had already started her on annual mammograms at age 38, and it was just a couple years later, in 2013, because of a mammogram, she was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer that had already metastasized into her lymph nodes.
This was very difficult, as children were ages, five, seven and nine at the time. After engaging in a bit of research, Heidi learned her family has a mutation of the CHEK2 Gene, which trigger breast cancer and a variety of others cancers. Heidi if she had known about the mutation earlier, at an age earlier age, she would have far more proactive in paying attention to potential indicators of breast cancer, it would could have spotted at an earlier stage.
Heidi Slansky opted for a double mastectomy with reconstruction. The procedure was accompanied by an extremely aggressive chemotherapy regimen that included the drugs carboplatin, taxotere, perjeta and herceptin, that plus radiation therapy. Heidi went through six chemotherapy treatments, and said the last two were the toughest. Because her husband was working, he was often unavailable to drive her to her treatments, so she had to do it.
Like many undergoing chemotherapy, Heidi went bald. She tried wigs, but didn’t like the idea, so she chose to wear lots of hats. She also was tired all the way, which made the tough job of raising three small children even tougher, having to plan the occasional nap after her kids’ activities. It was in the summer of 2014 that Heidi started feeling and trending toward survivorship.
As difficult as chemotherapy was, Heidi Slansky is glad she went through the regimen, saying she would do anything to be there for her family.
Heidi later had a second cancer journey, but it was nearly as impactful as Stage III breast cancer.
When making an annual visit to her dermatologist, the doctor found a spot on the bridge of Heidi’s nose that was cancerous. It turned out to be basal cell melanoma, which was easily treatable. Heidi had a lengthy incision made across her face, leaving her with a scar. Heidi is just thankful it wasn’t the more challenging basal cell carcinoma, but either way, she urges anyone spending a lot of time in the sun to use sunscreen and to try to stay out of the sun during mid-day hours.
When Heidi was diagnosed with breast cancer, she lived in Kentucky. In 2016, she and her family moved to Texas, in the Fort Worth area. She doesn’t think patients ‘fight’ cancer, believing much of that is done by doctors and nurses; and yet, inspired by pursuit of fitness and her personal cancer, she began a nonprofit for women diagnosed with breast cancer and those who have survived breast cancer called StrongHER. While it offers many services, it has a number of fitness classes for women in which they put on boxing gloves to dramatize their ‘fighting’cancer, on the premise that going through the physical motions of ‘fighting’ empowers the women in the class.
By way of advice, Heidi Slansky says there are lots of support resources out there, and for the person diagnosed with cancer to choose the resource that best fits them. When Heidi was on her cancer journey, she preferred action over talk. At the same time, she admits not everyone in a cancer journey wants to be of a class in yoga, pilates or anything with boxing gloves, all of which are offered by StrongHER. Heidi reiterates be they support groups or hospitals or churches, there are lots of support options.
Additional Resources:
Support Group: StrongHer https://www.cancerstrongher.org
TRANSCRIPT
Bruce Morton: Greetings and welcome to the Cancer Interviews podcast. I’m your host, Bruce Morton. Some of our episodes have featured guests who not only survived cancer but have felt the need to engage in a no-nonsense effort to assist those on their respective cancer journeys. Our guest on this episode is one of those cancer warriors. She is Heidi Slansky of Keller, Texas, who founded the organization, Cancer StrongHER, and we are going to hear her story. Heidi, welcome to Cancer Interviews.
Heidi Slansky: Thank you, Bruce, nice to be here.
BM: It is our custom to learn more about our guests by first asking them to tell us about their lives exclusive of their involvement with cancer. So, Heidi, tell us about where you are from and when time allows, what you like to do for fun.
HS: Well, I do like fun. I currently reside in Keller, Texas. We have been here since 2016. I have three active teenagers in the house. My husband is ringmaster of all, I suppose, and we are doing our best to live our best life every single day. When I am not running my non-profit, Cancer StrongHER, I spend tons of time on the tennis court and that’s my happy place.
BM: In addition to running Cancer StrongHER, you, too, are a cancer survivor. If you would, describe your health prior to your breast cancer diagnosis.
HS: I was diagnosed in 2013, and at the time, at the age of 40-41, I was in the best shape of my entire life. I was just super active, a fitness fanatic, doing everything I enjoyed doing, so I went into my cancer diagnosis in the best possible shape.
BM: There had to be a juncture in which you or your doctor noticed something was abnormal. Describe that if you would.
HS: Cancer wasn’t even on my radar at the time because I was still young, I was healthy. I didn’t have a huge history in the family, but I did have an aunt on my father’s side who passed away at the age of 41 from breast cancer. That would have been in the 70s and nobody really talked a lot about it. I was much, much older when I realized it was breast cancer that took her life. I remember visiting her, she wore a turban, as a small child, I thought that was very unusual, that’s not something you saw very often, but that was really my only experience with cancer; but because we had that one case, my doctors had the foresight to start my mammograms at the age of 38. To be honest, I had no idea that I had a cancer growing inside of me. If it had not been for those annual mammograms, I would have had no idea at all. At the time of the diagnosis, I was Stage III and it had already metastasized into my lymph nodes.
BM: Heidi, there is no such thing as a good time to learn one has cancer, but because of your knowledge of a family history, to some extent, did that soften the blow?
HS: I don’t know about softening the blow. That’s a tough one to take when you are that young. My kids were five, seven and nine at the time. So, the thought wasn’t about me, it was about what will happen if this completely gets out of hand. We weren’t starting from an early-stage cancer. It was already at an advanced stage, which was very tough, especially when you are taking a young family along for the ride. When you are diagnosed you naturally want to find a reason why, why does this happen? For me, no one had ever heard of genetic testing or go through that process of genetic testing, so that was one of the first things that I did after diagnosis. It turns out my family has a mutation of the CHEK2 Gene. It is a very nasty mutation because it is a culprit in breast cancer. It is a culprit in so many other cancers, thyroid cancer, bladder cancer, ovarian cancer, colon cancer, kidney cancer. Actually, my father succumbed to two of those cancers and passed away in 2020 from kidney, and it was all related to this genetic mutation. I know that genetic testing can be a very scary process for a lot of people, but for me, having that knowledge is power. Had I known that mutation could have been a culprit in my health I would have probably paid attention to some of the signs a little bit earlier. They were there. I was just too busy to take notice. We could have probably caught this at an earlier stage, perhaps. My cancer in particular exploded very quickly, but even if we had caught it a month earlier, we would have been in much better shape.
BM: Stage III. Did you have much in the way of options in terms of a treatment plan?
HS: I didn’t have options. They pretty much throw the book at you, and I am very thankful they did. I did the most of everything I possibly could, so chemotherapy plus Carboplatin, Taxotere, Perjeta, and Herceptin. I did double mastectomy with reconstruction that lasted for years and years, plus radiation therapy.
BM: Your chemo experience. What was the toughest part?
HS: Chemotherapy was my first line of treatment. I told you I was already in pretty great shape going into that, but the chemotherapy was tough. There is just no way around that, and as you progress, it gets tougher. I went through six treatments, and I will tell you those last two treatments were pretty rough, and I had three small kids at home, and I just kept going every single day. We were living in Kentucky at the time, northern Kentucky, we had no friends or family, had just moved there. My husband wasn’t available to take me to all my treatments. I had to suck it up and get myself there to all those treatments. He participated when he could. I met some wonderful friends because of the cancer that I had. It was my kids’ teachers that rallied around me and offered help, offered food and really became my support group. We are still wonderful friends to this day, but it took having that cancer in that community with the biggest, most open hearts.
BM: You might not have had to wear a turban, but I suspect as a part of chemo, you suffered some hair loss. How difficult was that?
HS: I went bald. I tried wigs; it just wasn’t me. I tried to just rock the boat, to be honest. Of course, when I was bald it was the coldest winter in the history of northern Kentucky. I did wear a lot of hats, especially that winter. It was cold. It was beyond cold. I still went up to my kids’ school all the time, went to have lunch with them. The community knew I was sick. I was bald with chemotherapy, the surgery and the radiation, and you don’t look well by the time you have gone through that. That community was just so open, and they were okay with me showing up like that and I tried making it not scary for the other kids, but it is a part of life for my kids especially, to see that was okay to still be able to get there and be with them was a big deal. When you lose your hair, there is no way to hide this especially when you are around your kids, and that’s when they really started getting scared. I would always tell them that mom has more strength to spare, and I got that strength for all of us, so that was kind of our thing. Being strong and always having extra strength was always our way of getting through this and luckily, I was able to maintain that. It’s tough, though. It’s tough when you are in such a state of sickness and you are trying to stay as strong as possible for the sake of your family, for the sake of yourself. I was just glad that I was able to maintain that positivity throughout.
BM: Raising three small children is no small chore all by itself, but a well-known side effect of chemo is fatigue, sometimes extreme fatigue. How were you able to deal with the fatigue and raising three kids?
HS: When I had the opportunity I would take a nap, take a nap and get back to it. My youngest son was in kindergarten that year and they only had a half day for kindergarten, and I tried to work that half day as best I could and be ready for when all the kids came home or their after-school activities or whatever it was, just to be prepared for them. It’s a tough balance.
BM: As a non-parent, I don’t doubt it. I can only try to imagine that immense challenge.
Heidi, there came a point in which you started to get the upper hand on cancer. Can you describe how that felt once it became apparent you were on your way to survivorship?
HS: I had been through the worst of it in 2013 and 2014. I had had my surgery in the spring of 2014, followed by radiation. I was able to take some time to get away and go to our family ranch in Texas and just do some healing. That was a big deal because up until that point it was a case of trying to get through every single day and do the best we could amongst all of the chaos. But it was really that summer of 2014 that I was finally able to get a little rest and recuperation. When we got back to Kentucky that fall, I told you about my support group, they just continued to rally around me. I had done one of those breast cancer 5K walks. We all got into one of those photo booths and put on this goofy stuff. Everybody else wore pink paraphernalia, but I put on boxing gloves for the first time in my life. I had never hit anything, never boxed before, but I put these pink boxing gloves on, and I felt completely empowered. I knew there was something to that feeling because during treatment we talked about fighting the cancer. That’s how we referred to our interaction with the cancer, fighting cancer. Upon recollection, I really didn’t feel like I got to physically, tangibly fight anything. I felt like I spent countless hours in the hospital, in doctor’s offices, in waiting rooms, in infusion rooms and it was really the doctors and the nurses doing the bulk of the actual fighting while I just kinda sat there and took and then my fight started afterwards at home just trying to stay healthy. But, to put those boxing gloves on, I knew there was something to that feeling of empowerment, I knew there was something that other cancer survivors were probably longing for, and that was really where the seed of the non-profit that I started, Cancer StrongHER, began.
BM: Getting back to your cancer journey, Heidi, I ask this question of people who experienced chemotherapy, and I always get the same answer. Nonetheless, I want to ask it of you. As unpleasant as it was at times, are you glad chemotherapy was part of your treatment plan?
HS: Oh, absolutely. I would have done anything. I would have tried anything to stay there for my kids and my family.
BM: You also went on a journey with skin cancer. Many times, skin cancer can victimize people who spend a lot of time in the sun. You like to play tennis. A lot of time that is out in the sun. If you would, talk to us about what led to your skin cancer journey.
HS: I am a child of the 80s. We would go outside and slather on the baby oil and sit outside for hours on end. We just didn’t know any better, so I am sure years and years of sun exposure did the damage. I need to be out in the sun getting that Vitamin D or I just don’t function the way I like to. Of course, in my later years I use a lot of sunblock, but by then, the damage was done. I had had a few suspicious areas here and there over the years, but a few years ago I went in for my annual check and they found a spot on the bridge of my nose, and it was cancerous. It was basal cell, thank goodness, that is very easy to treat, but they made a lengthy incision across my face, and I have a scar there. It is just a visual, forward type of cancer to have. I know a lot of people that play tennis that have basal cell carcinoma, but melanoma, some of the things that are not as easily treatable, so diligence is key, keep up with that sunscreen.
BM: Beyond sunscreen, do you have any advice for those who like to spend a lot of time in the sun?
HS: Try to avoid those mid-hours. I always want to get some sunshine, but I try to get out there in the mornings or evenings and leave the mid-day to itself. And wear lotsa hats.
BM: So, you had a journey with breast cancer, a shorter journey, but a journey nonetheless with skin cancer. From that experience, and you have already tipped us off a little bit because of the presence of the boxing gloves, which were a part of your past as well as your present and future, but talk to us about what part of your cancer journeys inspired you to found Cancer StrongHER?
HS: I told you about the seed that was planted in 2014 with the boxing gloves. As luck would have it, I left my friends in northern Kentucky when my husband got a job back in Texas. We moved to the Fort Worth area in 2016. I had to find a whole new crew of doctors for all of the things I was seen for because of that CHEK2 genetic mutation. I see a lot of different doctors, and they screen for many, many different cancers all the time. Once I settled into that and found my team again, I knew I wanted to do more. There is a gap in treatment, so, you are done with treatment, and there are some hospital systems that will help you physically try to get back on your feet, but there is a gap. You are just sort of let out into the void oftentimes after your treatment with a body that is nothing like you started with before diagnosis. I will never be that same person. I will never have that same level of fitness, but I wanted to try. I wanted to get back to some sense of well-being, some sense of control of my own physical destiny, and I knew that this was missing. I wondered what type of program is there for someone who has been through the rigors of treatment who wants to get not just back on their feet, but…better, and become the best person they can, physically and mentally. As luck would have it, my neighbor was Stacey Mitry, a former FBI agent, happened to also teach boxing when she was with the FBI. I told her a little bit about my story and how I would like to bring some sort of tangible fight to cancer survivors or people that are going through treatment. She said I should bring my daughters over and that she would teach all of us a little bit about boxing. Of course, there I was, and I absolutely loved that tangible fight. I loved that feeling. So, I started bouncing ideas off Stacey and she was my right hand in starting this organization. She is the one I went to with my ideas. She was kind of my editor on my idea for a business plan, what does it look like, what does it even take to start a non-profit. Because she had the background, not only in boxing training, but just group exercise and that type of thing, that’s part of what she does in empowering women, it was just the perfect partnership at the perfect time. We had this great plan, but I had this great plan worked out, but nowhere to take it. I mean, where are you going to find a boxing gym that will work with a brand-new non-profit that has practically zero dollars in the bank? It just so happens there was an all-female boxing studio that opened in Grapevine, Texas. The owner’s name is Madeline Ricci, and she opened this amazing studio called The Hook, and as soon as that cropped up at the just right time on our Facebook feeds, I got in touch with her, and I told her about the non-profit we were trying to start, and Madeline was all in from the beginning. She had lost her mother to cancer and her heart was there in the right place and she was willing to bear with us while we got started as a non-profit. So, we became a 501© (3) in April of 2018. We held our first boxing class in May of 2018. That was our very first fitness program. For me, it was very important that all of our fitness programs are completely free for female cancer survivors. The organizations that I have been involved with, some of them are national organizations, every time I wanted to get involved, I had to pay to participate, and that was okay for awhile, but I thought this is not how I want to run my organization. Everything I do here is to support the survivors and nothing needs to be out of pocket. I just really want to take care of our survivors. So, we started with that boxing program and then later that year we started a yoga program, a wonderful restorative yoga program. Then we added a tae kwon do program, again getting back to that bringing the fight empowerment type of feeling. We realized we needed a little balance, so we added a pilates class in 2020, and then a fabulous tennis program with an amazing local facility and they opened their hearts to us as well. One got one class in with them and then COVID hit, and we had to shift what we were doing.
BM: Heidi, talk to us about the way slipping on the boxing gloves has not only empowered you, but has empowered the people who participate in Cancer StrongHER.
HS: That boxing fitness class, that’s our signature class. If you would, just see the smiles on the faces of the survivors when they are done with that class. Hitting things is not something we try to promote as a society, but we talked about fighting cancer. When you see women being able to work out some of that frustration that they have or some of that anger that they might have and just be able to smile and have the camaraderie with their fellow survivors, it’s pretty special.
BM: And for Cancer StrongHER, what is its web address?
HS: They can go to www.cancerstrongher.org.
BM: I know that you serve the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but with the website are there ways that people who don’t live in the Metroplex can access your website and there are things they can learn in their cancer journey?
HS: Certainly. And this is a great segue to where we left off talking about COVID. When COVID shut down all of the in-person training that we were doing, I did a shift, and we were able to do a library of classes. Yoga classes, fitness boxing classes and they are all available on our website for anyone to access.
BM: We are going to wrap up, but this is sort of a big subject we want you to address as we wrap up, and that is the subject of support groups in general. If you were speaking one-on-one with someone who had just been diagnosed with cancer, what would you say to them by way of extolling the virtues of getting involved with a support group?
HS: There are a lot of different types of support groups out there, and each one is not necessarily right for each person. For me, I did attend a lot of sit in a circle type of support groups and talk about what’s going on, but for me that wasn’t and isn’t what I particularly need. I prefer action over talk, so for me, an active support group was what I needed and why I formed Cancer StrongHER, so that is part of our mission, building that community of support for each other and do it actively. Study after study after study shows that physical activity can help reduce recurrence rates and that is our overarching goal with Cancer StrongHER is let’s cut those recurrence rates, but this is a totally different type of support group. We are not right for everybody. Not everybody wants to box or do pilates or do yoga or tennis. We have so many different programs. You might not want to do our programs but try them out and see what’s out there. They are at your local hospitals, your local churches, there are so many non-profits that offer these types of services. We’re lucky in the DFW area to have a lot of options and a lot of different types of support groups, but you should find the one that’s right for you.
BM: Fabulous. Heidi, thanks so much for your time and the sharing of your story, especially your past, present and future with Cancer StrongHER, as it has a lot to offer people, and while you can only partake of Cancer StrongHER in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, there are still pearls of information that can be had on its website, so Heidi Slansky, thanks again, thanks for sharing with us.
HS: Thanks so much, Bruce.
BM: And that will bring to a conclusion this episode of Cancer Interviews. Remember if you are on a cancer journey, you are not alone. There are people like Heidi with the information and inspiration that can help you on your way. So, until next time, we will see you on down the road.
Additional Resources:
Cancer StrongHER
SHOW NOTES
TITLE: Heidi Slansky, Founder & CEO of Cancer StrongHER – Keller, Texas, USA
When Heidi Slansky survived Stage III breast cancer AND skin cancer, she wanted to come to the aid of female cancer survivors in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Inspired by slipping on boxing gloves and how they made her feel like she was truly fighting cancer, Heidi founded Cancer StrongHER. Its mission is to help women physically and mentally by provided a forum to actively carry the fight through boxing fitness, tae kwon do, yoga and pilates. At all times, the classes she offers are free of charge. Those outside Dallas-Fort Worth can learn more about what Cancer StrongHER has to offer by checking out its website, www.cancerstrongher.org.
Time Stamps:
03:20 Because of a family history of breast cancer, Heidi began getting mammograms at age 38.
04:55 She was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer.
06:38 Her treatment plan included chemotherapy.
09:02 Describes how she dealt with hair loss.
12:24 Heidi recalls moving closer to breast cancer survivorship.
16:30 Describes her journey with skin cancer.
20:30 Heidi recounts what led to her founding Cancer StrongHER.
28:30 Says anyone on a cancer journey should get involved with a support group, but it is important to find the right group.
KEYWORDS (tags):
breast cancer
chek2 gene
carboplatin
chemotherapy
double mastectomy
taxotere
bruce morton
radiation therapy
cancer bootcamp 101
perjeta
basal cell carcinoma
heidi slansky
herceptin
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