How We Get Thru Podcast: Wellness, Healing & Spiritual Tools for Growth in Real Life · Jen Hershey

S3 Ep 92 Navigating Cancer and Life’s Uncertainties with Sarah Arvizu

·53 min·3 clips

A doctor says he can tell Sarah’s breast mass is cancer from mammogram and ultrasound alone.

1. How We Get Thru Podcast: Wellness, Healing & Spiritual Tools for Growth in Real Life centers on Sarah Arvizu’s stage three triple negative breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. 2. Host Jen, a licensed therapist, speaks with Sarah Arvizu, who also hosts Creating Sunshine and brings firsthand experience with cancer, motherhood, and public storytelling. 3. The episode asks what changes when a healthy-seeming person finds a lump, waits months for answers, and then has to rebuild life around treatment. 4. Sarah says she found the lump herself in the shower in late July or early August 2024 and initially thought it was a cyst. 5. She explains that she had an IUD, no cycle, no primary care doctor, and had to wait until October to get seen. 6. Sarah describes how the mammogram and ultrasound happened in November after her primary care referral. 7. She recalls the imaging doctor saying, “we're going to assume that it's cancer until we know that it's not.” 8. Sarah says her primary care doctor later told her that the imaging was enough to call it cancer before the biopsy came back. 9. She explains that the biopsy in December and the oncology visit in January finally clarified the cancer type and stage. 10. Sarah says her oncologist called the cancer stage three because the mass had reached 5.5 centimeters and triple negative breast cancer is aggressive. 11. She notes that only 10 to 15% of breast cancer cases are triple negative. 12. Sarah explains that triple negative means the cancer is not fueled by estrogen, progesterone, or HER2. 13. She says that difference changes treatment because many other breast cancers are treated with hormone blockers or ovarian suppression. 14. Sarah says she started chemotherapy in January and has completed five rounds with one more to go before surgery. 15. She describes chemo as a three-week cycle with treatment on Thursday, a white-blood-cell injection on Friday, and exhaustion over the weekend. 16. Sarah says chemo brain has made her forget why she entered rooms and even lose track of a friend's name. 17. The interview style is direct, personal, and reflective, with Jen asking follow-up questions and Sarah answering in concrete detail. 18. The tone stays candid and supportive, with discussion of fear, waiting, work leave, parenting, and asking for help. 19. People navigating cancer, single motherhood, or learning to ask for support. 20. Listeners looking for a lighter wellness chat without illness or medical detail.

As heard by us

A candid cancer story about diagnosis, support, and the relief of speaking openly.

Sarah Avizu's story stays close to the hard middle of cancer: diagnosis, insurance frustration, and the strain that lands on both body and mind.

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Why you'd press play

Need a real, steady conversation about cancer, fear, and support?

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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