My advice to those newly diagnosed with cancer

The best advice I can offer to anyone is you’ve got to believe. You’ve got to think positive and you’ve got to—you can’t do it every day, and that’s ok. You’ve got to accept that there are some days when you’re going to be down. And there are some days when you’re going to just feel like you’re losing the battle. But you’ve got to, the one thing that you always can believe is that starting the next day, it's going to be different. And that those down days are always going to be followed by up days—by good days. There’s this roller coaster up and down but you’re going to get back to good days. It’s never bad day, bad day, bad day, bad day. You can’t believe that. It does bounce back. You have a couple of good days in a row and ride those out, focus on those good days.

But I think you’ve got to believe. You’ve got to surround yourself with good people. I knew when I was fighting cancer, I only wanted to be around people who were upbeat and were positive, and were like my cousins were, who wanted to laugh about this thing, find ways to lighten it up, just not make it so intense, not make it so serious. But try as much as you can to lighten it up and have fun sometimes. And surrounding yourself with good people and funny people and positive people who support is just so crucial.
I also would advise people—I think one of the key tips is to get a 2nd opinion, and a 3rd opinion. That is huge. A lot of people just don’t know that. When you first get diagnosed, you think the guy in the white jacket, your oncologist, is THE oncologist for the world. All the doctors are the same. They’re all going to say the same thing. Not the case. They’re human. Lots of times they are great situations with fighting cancer. Go get a 2nd opinion, a 3rd opinion. Make sure there’s a consensus, that the doctors agree. Make sure you know what you’re dealing with, that you know what treatment options are available. All that stuff is important. Empower yourself, learn. Learn what Bleomycin affects. Learn what Cisplatin affects. Learn about your drugs and what they can most likely do to your body ahead of time. The more you know—knowledge is power. The more you know, the more you can really stay focused on beating it.

Also, to key thing I think to check up, because the more you know, you can check up, and my mom did this for me and my family but to make sure to check with the nurses that they’re giving you the right chemo—that it’s going to Room 6, not Room 8, it’s going to the right room. Mistakes do happen, unfortunately, in the medical world. Or, I’ve seen situations where someone had a mastectomy and they took the wrong breast. Crazy stuff like that. But the more you know about it, the more you’re double-checking in the system. Empower yourself as a cancer fighter. Learn everything you can. Talk to your doctors, ask questions. Those are your rights. It’s your life, protect your life. Ask these questions, and you may save yourself. It may be a situation where it really is saving your own life. I want to empower people in every way, survivors will tell you that every day. We all know that as survivors. It’s the best thing you can do for yourself, to learn as much as you can about it so you can really make sure that things are going the right way and the treatments are accurate, and they’re right.