July 15, 2026 | 33 mins

In this episode of Rewired Minds, host Bri Salsman speaks with Kathy Hammond, a grade four glioblastoma survivor. Kathy shares her unexpected journey from a heart attack scare to discovering her brain tumor. She discusses her life before the diagnosis, her active lifestyle, and the shocking moment she learned about her condition. Kathy details her surgery, recovery, and the emotional impact of her diagnosis on her family. She emphasizes the importance of advocacy, finding hope in clinical trials, and her commitment to living life to the fullest despite the challenges of glioblastoma. Kathy's story is one of resilience, determination, and a desire to inspire others facing similar battles.

Tumor Type: Glioblastoma (GBM)
Tumor Grade: Grade IV
Symptoms: numbness
Treatment: surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, Optune, clinical trial
Patient
Current Stage: In Treatment

Resources
Check out a list of the most common medical terms relating to the brain tumor experience: rewired-minds.com/terms
Connect with brain tumor organizations here: https://www.rewired-minds.com/braintumorresources

Connect with Rewired Minds
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Instagram: @rewiredmindspod
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Connect with Kathy Hammond
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathy.hammondschmidt?mibextid=LQQJ4d&mibextid=LQQJ4d
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kathyhammond1626?igsh=Mnd2NThoaXJhNHRy&utm_source=qr

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Disclaimer
The stories shared here are personal accounts from the brain tumor community for informational and awareness purposes only and are not intended as medical advice. Always consult with qualified healthcare professionals regarding your specific situation. Most importantly, take care of yourself as you listen and process.

Bri (00:06)
I'm Bri Salsman, a brain tumor survivor and identity integration coach, and you're listening to Rewired Minds, a podcast that shares brain tumor stories that change us. Sometimes guests use medical terminology, so I've partnered with Northwestern Medicine Malnati Brain Tumor Institute to provide definitions of common terms. You can find the full list in the show notes. Most importantly, take care of yourself as you listen and process.

Bri (00:29)
Today's guest is Kathy Hammond. Kathy has a grade four glioblastoma that was diagnosed in 2024 after thinking she was having a heart attack. What an experience.

While Kathy isn't being compensated for her participation in this podcast. It's important to disclose that she is a paid patient advocate for Optune Geo by Novicure.

Thank you so much for being here, Kathy.

Kathy (00:52)
Thanks for having me.

Bri (00:53)
You’re thinking you're having a heart attack. I mean, I know we're gonna dig into this further, but wow. That's my initial thought to that.

Kathy (00:58)
Right?

Yeah, it was pretty wild. And honestly, like by chance that they came to the conclusion that I had a brain tumor. Yeah.

Bri (01:08)
Wow.

Let’s back up a little bit and start with life before. Paint a picture for us. What did life look like before all of this got turned upside down?

Kathy (01:10)
I had a pretty average life working a full-time job in manufacturing as an account manager. Two wonderful daughters, Ashley, who actually just graduated college and was home kind of biding her time until she started her full-time job. And then my youngest daughter, Taylor Grace, who is 21, and she was home for the summer from college.

And at the time I was married and kind of just doing life, working, working out, getting ready to enjoy the summer. Did some travel here and there just living. That's how I can explain it. It was pretty normal.

Bri (01:54)
What was your relationship with your health at that time?

Kathy (01:57)
I pretty much was careful about what I ate, stayed away from fast food, all the sodas. I mean, I do have a sweet tooth. That was a downfall. I would occasionally have a glass of wine. But overall, I was healthy. I was working out at least five to six days a week doing weight training, cardio, some yoga in between. And so that was really important. I worked a healthy lifestyle into my day every day.

Actually, I had just gotten done doing a physical with my doctor and she's like, your numbers are good. The only thing was, which is so funny now looking back at it, my cholesterol is always a little higher than normal. And I never wanted to go on cholesterol meds, so she would have me go and do an MRI of my heart to make sure I didn't have any calcium buildup. I just got the results back right before that and it was all good.

Bri (02:52)
And so had you always been active like this or is this something that you kind of developed in adulthood?

Kathy (02:59)
No, so when I graduated college, I'd probably gained 20 pounds. I got into running, got into eating healthy, and that was a big part of my life. And then in 2015 and 2017, I ran the Chicago Marathon.

Bri (03:14)
I live in Chicago myself and so I always go out for the marathon and cheer people on. I bring my dog with me, which people are more excited to see the dog than they are me, of course. and that's fine. That's fine. And every time I go out, I think, maybe I could do a marathon. And then just as quickly as that thought comes into my brain, it exits the other side. So I'm always just so in just awe and admiration of people who run one marathon, let alone multiple. That's really impressive.

Kathy (03:43)
Well the thing for me for running, I always felt like it was so freeing. You put your headphones on, lace up your running shoes, and then you're off. But I could never for a long time, bring myself to run more than maybe five miles. I didn't think I was capable. And then 2013, 2014, I had friends who were like, oh, we're running the Chicago Marathon. And I signed up and I said, if I get in the lottery, I'm going to do it. And sure enough, guess what? On my birthday, I got an email that said, you're in. And I'm like, oh no.

Bri (04:21)
Happy birthday to you, huh?

Kathy (04:24)
Right? Yeah, I trained with a group of girlfriends and we did it. It was the most incredible feeling running across the city of Chicago. It's my hometown for the last 35 plus years and it was amazing. So amazing I had to do it back in 2017.

Bri (04:38)
That's wonderful. What do you feel free from when you're running?

Kathy (04:43)
Stress, problems, just everyday stuff. It's my time to really not think of anything. Just listen to fun 80s music.

Bri (04:55)
I love it. So you're working, you've got a family, you are taking care of yourself, generally feeling healthy. And yet somehow along the way you thought you were having a heart attack. So what happened there?

Kathy (05:09)
So a little backstory with the heart attack situation. I have a brother-in-law who passed away about seven years ago from a heart attack. It just happened, like out of nowhere. I started feeling some sensation in my left arm and it kind of didn't go away and I just felt strange. So when I started feeling all those things, I went back to my brother-in-law who just had Easter dinner and died basically. It was very heartbreaking for all of us.

Bri (05:40)
Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, Kathy.

Kathy (05:45)
So feeling that, I was in tune with my body, like something's not right. So the first thought I had was maybe it's a heart attack, I don't know. And I actually that night was gonna go to a workout class and I came home instead. My family was kinda, you're fine, you just wanna get out of making dinner, you don't wanna work out, kinda joking around, but I was like, I really don't feel right.

My husband at the time was a nurse and he kind of was like, you probably just don't feel good. Take it easy. My sister, I had talked to her, she's like, you're having a panic attack. So I went to bed and woke up the next day and went to work. And then all day I still felt like there was something wrong. Like my arms still felt funky. I felt like I had kind of like a double beat in my chest.

And then my youngest daughter calls and says, hey, do you want to go to our workout class tonight? I'm like, okay, I'll go, but I'm going to walk. I'm not going to run. Almost at the end of the workout, I started getting this numbness on my right side of like my face around my lips. And that's when I'm like, something's wrong.

Bri (06:51)
What, maybe 24, 48 hours time period is what you're talking about here, it sounds?

Kathy (06:56)
Yes, the night before I was feeling ill and then the next day I go to my workout class I pulled in the driveway and my ex-husband's standing there and I’m like, you can come with me or you don't have to come with me but I'm going to urgent care.

Bri (07:10)
What were you thinking they might tell you there? Like what was in the back of your mind?

Kathy (07:15)
I didn't know. I just knew that something wasn't right. I was scared that if I just forgot about it, it would turn into something different or bigger. So in my head, I'm like, I just need somebody to tell me I'm not having a heart attack.

Bri (07:29)
That's really interesting, Kathy, because so many people go the exact opposite path of, I'll wait and see how long it lasts or see if it goes away or see if it gets worse. But your initial inclination was I want to go find this out so that I can maybe cross it off and release the worry.

Kathy (07:49)
Exactly. I'm not one to really go to the doctor a lot unless I'm really sick. So when I'm in the car and I'm saying I'm going, I knew that I just needed peace of mind because something just didn't feel right. And I just wanted a doctor to do the tests and say, you're fine, nothing's wrong, it's probably anxiety. And then, that's it, go home and go about my life. But it didn't work that way.

Bri (08:16)
Yeah, so what did end up happening?

Kathy (08:18)
We go to urgent care. When you say that you think you're having a heart attack, all of a sudden you're put up to the top of the list basically. And at this point, I didn't feel nauseous. I didn't feel anything. I just had this tingling sensation still in my left arm, a little bit on my face. The nurse comes in, they hook me up to all the machines. They took some blood and about twenty five minutes later, the doctor and the nurse come in and they say, you're not having a heart attack, but I can't rule out that you're not having a stroke.

I mean, stroke wasn't even a thought at all. I’m like, stroke? That happens to old people. I'm not old.

So he said, I would go to the emergency room. Do you want to go by ambulance? And my ex-husband said, no we can drive. So we get in the car, we drive there, and, you know, kind of joking around, this is gonna be a big bill, I'm not gonna get any ice cream after the visit, you know, just kind of joking, because was I doing this and then nothing's gonna happen, but, it doesn't hurt. And that's why we have insurance.

So we go to the hospital. It's a stroke protocol. They put me into the CT scan of my head to see what's going on. That was it. They put me in a room with my husband. And then in walked the doctor and she looked white as a ghost. She goes, me pull up the scan that they did. It looks like you have some type of not mass, but some type of shadow on your right temporal lobe of your brain. It's probably like the size of an acorn. And I said, well, is it cancerous? And she said, you know, we really can't tell. And I mean, I was in shock, but not shocked that I was breaking down, bawling, screaming, crying.

In my mind, I'm like, okay, let's just see what we need to do. I had advice family member when I was going through some issues with my first marriage and they said, why don't you make a list? Make a list and check things off the list as you go through.

When she's telling me that I have some type of something on my brain, I'm mentally in my head making a list of what we need to do.

Bri (10:29)
And what's on that list?

Kathy (10:30)
Well, the first thing on my list is I have to get a hold of my ex-husband, the father of my children, to make sure he's got the girls. I needed him to know what was going on. The next one was making a phone call to my brother so that he could call my parents. I think that would have been too hard for me.

The third was getting a hold of my uncle who is a doctor to kind of get his wheels moving then get admitted to the hospital. Let's see what this is all about. I did make a phone call to my best friend in the whole world. And she lives in Nashville and told her what was going on and told her if she could call my other best friend in the whole world and she said she would.

The next thing I knew I was having people all over me giving me an IV, medication, making sure that I wasn't going to have any seizures. And they're like, we're taking you to the ICU. And I'm like, excuse me? I had two C-sections. Those are the only two times that I've been in the hospital and all I can think about in the back of my mind, and I know this might sound really crazy, but I'm like, I didn't shower from my workout.

Bri (11:36)
I grew up in the South and so my grandmother is always like, always make sure you have a clean pair of panties in your purse. You never know what's gonna happen.

Kathy (11:44)
Right? Right? Make sure you put some lipstick on before you leave the house. That's what my southern grandmother would always say. Yeah.

Bri (11:50)
The things that just pop into our brain in moments like this.

Kathy (11:51)
Right? Yean. I mean it's crazy. And so at this point, my ex-husband gets a hold of who we need to get a hold to. The girls were told that I need to stay in the hospital for observation. You know, they're older. It's not like somebody had to go and stay with them. Then they did a whole bunch of tests on me. They also did a full body PET scan, MRI.

Now this is the part where I was going to be in the machine for like 45 minutes. They gave me something to kind of make sure I relaxed because that was a little freaky. Of course, I'm worried. I told my ex-husband like, I've got to get a hold of work. So he did go home that night and got some stuff, came back and had like my work computer. I'm logging into work, making sure I'm getting everything done. And you know, I'm still on the list.

So fast forward, it's the next morning. They were giving me Keppra for seizures. I'm like, a seizure? I might have a seizure?

It just escalated quickly the next day. We had the neurologist come in, the surgical neurologist. He came in and explained what he thought it was. The size and where it's located is good. But, we should be getting it out. And at this point, I have my ex-husband in the room, my parents. They're all there. I have my uncle on the phone, he's listening in. He's saying, yeah, I think we should get in there and get it out. I’m like, do we get a second opinion? And he's like, well, if you want, you can. We can discharge you and get a second opinion, but I'm going on vacation starting on Saturday.

And so at that point we did like a mini family conference and I'm like, I want to get it done. I felt comfortable getting it done at the hospital where I was at, all the things, and this is what we're going to do. I told the doctor. He's like, we'll get it scheduled for tonight then.

Bri (13:35)
Wow, very quickly. Wow.

Kathy (13:37)
Very quickly, yeah, very quickly. About an hour later in walks my two best friends, Shannon and Wendy, they drove from Nashville and Southern Indiana to come give me a big hug and kiss.

Bri (13:48)
Those are some really great friends. I can see why they are your best friends in the whole wide world.

Kathy (13:50)
Right?

Shannon's husband tells the story that Shannon got off the phone. She's crying. She's like, Hammond is going to have to have brain surgery. And he goes, well, pack a bag, get on the phone and call your friend Wendy and let's go.

Bri (14:05)
That's amazing. And so you do end up having the surgery then. And what comes after surgery?

Kathy (14:12)
The doctor comes in and he says, I feel it was a successful resection. Feel we got 100 % of it, all good things. But I can tell you from what I see, more than likely, it is cancerous.

I don't know if I really had a clear thought in my mind. I heard cancer. I kind of thought it was gonna be cancer. I said, well, what's the next step? And he's like, well, we're gonna get you set up to see the oncologist. You're gonna go home tomorrow. I just had brain surgery and this doctor was telling me I'm leaving the hospital tomorrow.

Bri (14:43)
And how is that sitting with you? Are you okay going home that fast?

Kathy (14:47)
Yeah, I'm very trusting of the medical field and doctors. Yes, I trust him. I was sitting up, I was eating, I did the walks. I wasn’t in pain pain. I just want to see my daughters. Because first of all, I'm their mother and I love them with all my heart, but all I could think about it was, how could this be happening to me that I'm gonna not be able to see my youngest graduate college or being at their weddings or seeing my grandchildren.

That was what was really, really weighing on my mind. And then I thought, God, there's so many things that I want to do in life that I haven't done.

Bri (15:25)
Yeah, one of the things that you shared before we started recording was that your diagnosis led you to be the best version of yourself. What did you mean by that?

Kathy (15:34)
In my mind, I was like, I need to live my life. And what do I need to do to make sure that I'm gonna be around for my daughters and my family?

I had never really heard about glioblastoma. I mean, I knew that John McCain died from it and Bo Biden and Ted Kennedy. That's how I knew about. I saw like the numbers and I'm like, yeah, no, I'm not going down the hole. Not going down the rabbit hole.

I want to find thrivers. Let me find people that are out there that are living, that have been living. What are they doing?.

Bri (16:07)
How did you find those people?

Kathy (16:09)
Thank goodness for social media and Google. I mean, I just started putting in glioblastoma survivors stories, and it led me to a few people who were thriving to the point where they were advocating for research and they were running or they were living their best life. Those are the people that I want to focus on. In my head, that was the poster that I was looking at.

Bri (16:32)
Sure, sure. And so what did that mean was next for you?

Kathy (16:37)
Let’s get this show on the road, people. I want to get it going. I'm thinking the longer I'm waiting, the harder it's going to be to do anything if there's any cancer left in my brain.

So we were in the doctor's office, and the nurse goes, you're gonna be okay. You're strong. I didn't really know what they meant by that. That's when the oncologist came in and he kind of explained the grades of the type of tumors in the brain. Then he said it was a grade four glioblastoma. I'm like, oh my goodness. And I could see that my ex-husband's face went white. My dad was a little bit in shock and I'm looking there like, okay, wait, how is this happening? The first reaction and question from people in the room were how long? I didn't want any of that.

Bri (17:22)
Yeah, what was your first thought? What was your first question?

Kathy (17:25)
What's the plan? I want to get my list together. I went back to the list.

Bri (17:29)
This is a theme I'm hearing.

Kathy (17:25)
Yeah, let's do this.

Bri (17:26)
Let's do this marathon.

Kathy (17:33)
Right, and that's one of things I thought about too. I’ve trained for two marathons, and so you have a calendar, you have a list, you know what you have to train for, you know your mileage, all the things. So in my mind, that's how I'm processing all of this.

One of the best things out of that meeting with my oncologist is he said, he doesn't give a prognosis because every patient is different. How old are they? Where was it located? What's their health like? Is there any other underlying situations? All the things. So that made me feel good because, in my mind, when I heard cancer, I always thought of it like, you get a stamp.

I mean, listen, he said, here's what the median is. But what is not taking consideration, there's a lot of people that are less, a lot of more, like years. So it's an average. We're going to do standard of care. The protocol basically was five days a week for six weeks. We're doing radiation and then chemo, with the pill.

I said, okay, when can we start?

So a few days later, they made this contraption for your head for radiation, which looks like a ski mask that you would wear in like a horror movie.

Bri (18:49)
I'm very familiar with this. I have one of these myself.

Kathy (18:52)
I mean, I, I'm like, are you kidding me? And so all of a sudden this kind of just ramped up. I got it printed out a calendar. I got my, my people. My dad came out and drove almost every day to take me to treatment. I had other friends who would take me and my sister came in and one of my other really good friends. My husband at the time took me a few times. My daughter did too.

So six weeks, five days, they bring you in and then they literally put this head piece on and lock you like click, click, click, click.

Bri (19:27)
And there is no room to move either.

Kathy (19:29)
No, and talk about if you want to have a panic attack. I mean you could have it right having that thing put on your head and snapped in.

Bri (19:38)
But you're not going anywhere even if you have that panic attack.

Kathy (19:42)
No, you're not.

I closed my eyes and I just visualized all of my relatives who have passed away cheering me on. I had my mother, I had my grandparents, I had family, I mean, all cheering on. Even my two dogs who we had to put down. They're all cheering me on. And then I also have my daughters to the side saying, you can do this. And that's what I focused on.

And so, yeah, I did the standard six weeks of radiation and that was done. And then I did six rounds of 23 days of chemo and five days off. And then I did a clinical trial as well.

Bri (20:23)
Yeah, let's talk about the clinical trial for a moment. The surgery, radiation, chemotherapy that's standard of care these days for glioblastoma. At what point did you start thinking about a clinical trial and how did you navigate making that decision?

Kathy (20:37)
I have an uncle who is a physician. He was doing a lot of background work. We wanted a brain tumor board because as, as my uncle said, you want somebody looking at it all the time.

Bri (20:50)
Yeah, and just for listeners who may not be aware, a brain tumor board is basically a team of doctors who review cases and collectively make recommendations and give one another advice. And they typically are a team of doctors who are very in tune with what the cutting edge technology is, the cutting edge treatment, the newest trials to really give a progressive and holistic perspective of it. Am I describing that accurately in your experience, Kathy?

Kathy (21:23)
Yes. That was the thing is that we wanted to be treated at a facility that had a brain tumor board. And then also, we asked what kind of clinical trials are going on. Because something that really stuck with me is that if it couldn't help me, maybe the information that they found from it could help somebody else down the road.

There was one that they had thought about and I wasn't a candidate for it just because they look at your makeup of your tumor and all that kind of stuff and where you're at. And then there was another one, it was kind of pairing medication that's already out there with the chemo pill that I was taking to kind of help maybe open up the blood brain barrier to help get the chemo across. I did all this for six rounds. And then you really don't do anything for about four weeks. Until they do an MRI to see where everything ends you're kind of in limbo.

I have a very special grandmother who was 98. She was going to be 99. They were going to give me some medication to take for to help with any kind of headaches or anything I might have on the plane, which I had none.

I went down to Florida to see her because I needed to hug her and it was wonderful. My relationship with my husband at the time changed and decided that it just wasn't gonna work. We had had issues before all this happened and did therapy and all the things. At the end of the day, there's two sides to every story, but I knew that I needed a situation where I wasn't gonna have any stress. And my focus really needed to be on my daughters as well, because they're my life. And I'm not ashamed to say that, that my kids are my life. Because all I ever wanted to be growing up was a mother. That's all I ever wanted to be. So that was my focus, came home and then did the MRI about a few weeks later and everything looked good. Stable scan.

Bri (23:20)
So had you done the clinical trial at this point or this was prior to the clinical trial?

Kathy (23:24)
No, the clinical trial was done. I did six weeks of chemo and radiation and then the additional six rounds or yeah, five or six rounds. Sorry, my memory. I had a brain tumor. Did I tell you that? That's my excuse all the time when I can't remember all the details, but the clinical trial was with the chemo.

Bri (23:45)
Okay, so they're alongside one another.

Kathy (23:44)
Correct. Correct.

Bri (23:44)
And so you had this stable scan and how long has that lasted? Where are you today?

Kathy (23:55)
They do suggest using Optune. I said, sure, I'm all in. That started in October. So Optune is a tumor treating fields. So it's electrodes that are trying to interfere with the cancer cells that are in your brain, if there is any, because they need to meet up to divide basically. The electrodes from the Optune are interfering with any kind of cancer that's going to be spread. So I was starting that in October of 2024.

Bri (24:31)
This is ignorance on my part, I'm going to own that before I even ask my question. But if you've had if you had a stable scan, what made you a candidate for Optune or how did this come into the conversation?

Kathy (24:40)
My understanding is that glioblastoma, it can come back. It's treatable, but it's not curable. And so yes, I had a good surgery. I had positive results from standard of care. The DNA makeup of the tumor itself was positive that it would react well to chemo. So there was all good stuff. Then you get MRIs every two months to see where you're at. And then if there's a reoccurrence, then they kind of decide from there, okay, so what's the next step?

How my doctor kind of explained it to me, it's kind of like an insurance policy and it's FDA approved. So they've done all the testing and some people choose to do it. Some people choose not to do it. It's a personal decision, but my medical team really thought that based on some of the studies that it could add maybe more life expectancy to me. So I said, you know what, okay, fine. Yeah, let's do it. Let's do this thing. Again, I trust my doctors.

Bri (25:46)
That same theme again. Let's do this. I like that attitude. I like that perspective. And so this is something that you will have for a period of time. Is it the rest of your life? Is it on and off? Tell us a little bit more about how it works for those who haven't heard of it.

Kathy (25:48)
So it's really based on working with your doctor. You do want to try to wear it more than 75% of your day. So that equals about 18 hours a day. You have to shave your head. You have these adhesives they look like lithium batteries placed between like a big bandaid, let's just say that. I wear it probably about 20 hours or more a day. And I sleep with it. I work out with it. I walk with it. I cook with it. I vacuum my house with it.

How my doctor explained it really is that think of the tumor as a meatball in a bowl of spaghetti. So you eat the meatball, they take the meatball out, you eat the spaghetti, they get the margins as best they can. But you may have a little marinara left in the bowl, you want to do all you can so that's not going to spread.

My thought was I'm gonna do it as long as I need to do it. And at some point down the road, maybe I'll choose that I'm gonna take a little longer break. I've traveled with it. I'm working full time from home and I wear it when I work. I sleep with it. I've even named my Optune. Her name is Olive. Olive the Optune.

Bri (27:17)
I love it. I love it so much. I've heard people naming their brain tumors, but I haven't heard of people naming their treatment equipment. I love that. That's amazing.

Kathy (27:24)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I was always known as the girl with the hair. Like, I had huge 80s hair and I knew that when I was gonna start using the Optune that I was gonna have to shave my head and I cut my hair really short just to get used to it and then I had a party and I invited all my friends over and we shaved my head. It was so fun and I didn't cry. I'm like, you know what? I guess I kind of took the emotion out of all of that stuff.

Bri (27:56)
I think what I hear through your entire story is just taking the bull by the horns. This is not going to define me, I'm going to define it. I am in a situation where I have very little control, I'm gonna take the control where I can.

Kathy (28:12)
Yeah, because I just felt like at the end of the day, don't want to die.

How can I say this?

My family wouldn't let me talk about it. I got some ducks in a row, legal things I need to take care of. I mean, it's not that we weren't gonna talk about it, but it's like, let's just, let's live for the day, right? Today I feel good. I woke up the next day, like, I feel good today. So that's how I've like approached all that.

When I hear terminal, that's used a lot with glioblastoma diagnosis. It's terminal. So I kind of changed it and said, it's a chronic illness. I'm always going to have it. Life is terminal, right? Nobody has kind of discovered how we get to live forever. That’s how I use it. Now it may not fit everybody how they're comfortable to use it but, for me, I don't have a terminal illness. It's chronic, it's here.

I remember having conversation with my uncle saying that, I’m gonna do everything I can, whether that's doing a clinical trial, whether it's wearing the Optune, whatever it comes about, I'm gonna do all it takes because the longer I can thrive and I can do things. There's so much on behind the scenes, that hopefully one day they'll find something that will cure it. I mean, look how far we've come with breast cancer or colon cancer or pancreatic cancer. There's so many things that are changing in the cancer world that we just need to think ahead and be positive. And so that's why the way that I've chosen to push through is I want to be an advocate. I want to support others who are going through this. I want to try to wake up every morning and have a positive attitude. And I want to live life.

Bri (29:57)
I love that so much. Kathy, how has all of this rewired your mind?

Kathy (30:01)
That I'm my own person, that I am the one who's gonna decide what I wanna do. And it's to live life. And I wake up and I am happy when I wake up in the morning. I can't say that's always gonna be like that, but I've always thought I'm gonna wake up and this is going to be a good day. You know why it's a good day? Because I'm alive and I feel good. Don’t put off the trip. If you're going to do something, do it.

Bri (30:30)
Get your list together.

Kathy (30:32)
Yeah, get your list together. That was one of the things. This time last year, I had a lot of changes. I was doing well. I was back to work. My company has been amazing. They've let me work from home, which is really great because, listen, just because I'm doing good doesn't mean I don't get more tired than I did before. You need to conserve energy. It takes a lot to stay healthy. And so my company was wonderful that they were allowing me to work from home.

And then I said to my girls and my siblings, what are we doing? I always wanted to go to Italy. Always. It was on the bucket list. And it was always something. Oh when the girls graduate or when this happens or when that's…

I’m like, I want to go to Italy. So we started planning a trip to Italy. Then we decided my girls and my siblings, we went to Hawaii and that was amazing. And it was wonderful. I don't want to put things off like that anymore. I guess that's how it's changed me. I want to wake up happy every day. I want to be able to decide for myself where I want to go. I wanna do things for me and my girls and my family.

Bri (31:39)
That's absolutely wonderful. I can already tell that there are going to be listeners who want to connect with you and hear more and dive deeper and ask questions. For those listeners, how can they get in touch with you?

Kathy (31:54)
They can find me on Facebook. They can find me on Instagram.

Bri (31:59)
I will be happy to put your information in the show notes for people to find you. I appreciate you taking the time to connect today and share your story.

Kathy (32:08)
It's my pleasure, I love it. I wanna do all I can to advocate to turn glioblastoma from treatable to curable. That’s my goal. I wanna advocate, I wanna be out there. I’ve seen so many things that are happening that are exciting and we should be talking more glioblastoma. It shouldn't be a secret.

Bri (32:28)
I agree wholeheartedly. That's part of the reason why I'm doing this podcast is so that we talk about the things that we don't talk about around brain tumors. That's the only way to get answers.

Bri (32:41)
Thank you for being part of the Rewired Minds community. Full show notes, resources, and a transcript for today's conversation can be found at rewired-minds.com. If you or someone you know has a brain tumor story to share, I'd love to hear from you. Visit rewired-minds.com to learn more about collaborating on a future episode. This podcast is a one woman labor of love. It's a true honor to bring it to your ears and facilitate connection among the brain tumor community. If this episode resonated with you, please rate, review, and share with someone who might need to hear it.

Bri (33:13)
The stories shared in this podcast are personal accounts from the brain tumor community for informational and awareness purposes only and are not intended as medical advice. Always consult with qualified healthcare professionals regarding your specific situation.