This week on the UpLift Women’s Wellness Podcast, I sat down with my friend Lindsay to talk about something most wellness spaces don’t want to touch: the raw, messy, and often minimized reality of breast cancer and reconstruction.
Her story isn’t about statistics or pink ribbons. It’s about the medical grind, the disrespect she faced, the grief of losing her old body, and the saving grace of female advocacy in healthcare.
🌿 What Lindsay Shared
Diagnosis & Treatment: Stage Zero DCIS sounds like “best case scenario,” but it still meant a double mastectomy.
Genetics: Both she and her sister were diagnosed in the same year, despite testing clear for BRCA1/BRCA2.
Healthcare Trauma: A male surgeon dismissed her request to remain small post‑reconstruction with a joke. A female nurse, Amber, became her advocate and fought for her choice.
Recovery: Five hours of surgery, tissue expanders that felt like “Tupperware under your skin,” weeks of drains, and six weeks of feeling detached from her own body.
Emotional Impact: Lindsay described it as trauma, grief, phantom pains, numbness — a “double amputation.”
Social Misunderstanding: Because she didn’t need chemo or radiation, people minimized her experience. What helped most? Friends who validated her reality instead of offering toxic positivity.
💪 Why This Conversation Matters
This episode is about more than cancer. It’s about:
Advocacy when the system doesn’t listen.
The importance of validation over empty positivity.
The reality that “Stage Zero” doesn’t mean “no impact.”
That’s the same energy we bring into Strength Coaching and Therapy with Auria: care that respects your boundaries, your story, and your choices.
👉 If you’re rebuilding after medical or emotional burnout, explore Move to Mend™.
🛒 Support the Movement
Every conversation like this is part of our rebellion against toxic culture. Keep us loud and visible by checking out the Head 2 Toe Strength Shop. Every tote, tee, and sticker fuels the work we’re doing to make wellness radically real.
📞 Ready to Connect?
If you’re tired of being minimized, book your Alignment Call. It’s free, it’s 15 minutes, and it’s the easiest way to see if our model fits your life.
🌿 Bottom line: Lindsay’s story proves that silence around women’s health is dangerous. Advocacy, validation, and honesty matter — in healthcare, in relationships, and in wellness.
🎧 Episode 9 Show Notes
Bethany and Auria speak with Lindsay about her deeply personal and traumatic journey following a diagnosis of Stage Zero breast cancer. Lindsay shares the medical challenges and emotional toll of her double mastectomy and reconstruction, including frustrating interactions with medical professionals and the struggle to process the grief and trauma of losing her old body. The conversation highlights the need for specialized, compassionate care for cancer survivors and the importance of supportive friendship that acknowledges pain without resorting to "toxic positivity."
Key Discussion Points & Time Stamps:
03:05: Family history of breast cancer (mother passed in 2003) and entry into the high-risk breast program.
04:31: Receiving a callback after the 2022 MRI revealing an abnormal blood flow pattern, leading to the cancer discovery.
06:25: Genetic testing comes back clear (not BRCA1/BRCA2), a factor that could have prevented the early cancer detection if testing had been done years earlier.
07:22: Diagnosis of DCIS (Ductal Carcinoma In Situ) Stage Zero cancer, the "best case scenario possible."
08:23: The shock of the surgeon recommending a double mastectomy rather than a simple lumpectomy due to the risk of deformity.
11:26: The value of true friendship and supportive actions, contrasting with the "knee-jerk reaction" of immediately demanding to come help.
15:23: Apprehension about the male plastic surgeon and the uncomfortable conversation about breast size for reconstruction.
16:41: The plastic surgeon's highly disrespectful joke when Lindsay brought in her sports bra to explain the size she desired.
20:01: Describing the initial tissue expanders as feeling like "Tupperware under your skin" and waking up realizing they were too big.
21:36: The inability to wear a bra for six months post-surgery and the benefit of the expanders providing no movement.
25:18: Nurse Amber is credited as a "savior" for advocating for Lindsay's desired A-cup size against the plastic surgeon's larger recommendation.
32:58: Discussing the extreme physical toll and difficult recovery of the double mastectomy and reconstruction.
34:26: Detailed description of having post-operative drains and the relief when they were removed two weeks later.
39:15: Recognizing the entire experience (surgery, pain, recovery) as a "trauma" and the ongoing process of "grieving" her old body.
42:21: The mental health challenge of being a fitness instructor during the six-week recovery period and finding healing through gentle movement (Groove fitness).
46:42: The pain and guilt of feeling judged by others who minimize her experience because it was Stage Zero and didn't involve chemo/radiation ("you didn't really have cancer?").
50:22: Drawing a comparison between a double mastectomy and a "double amputation" due to the intense surgery, grief, and phantom pains.
55:23: The permanent loss of feeling in her breasts following the surgery.
58:46: The power of a friend who offered simple validation ("Well, that sucks") over forced, "fake positive" responses.
01:01:02: The challenge of feeling compelled to be "over positive" as a Christian and finding solace in the raw, honest grief expressed in the Biblical Psalms.
