Feel for Your Life.

 

Manon Bolliger  02:42

Wow. That’s, that’s quite amazing. Wow, yeah, I mean, it’s so great because it just when I read, you know, your bio before I was wow. This is, you know, so many people were hit different ways, but to actually use something that you had to go through and then make it easy for others is quite, quite remarkable. So tell me a little bit more what this app is. How does it work? What do people need to know?

 

Jessica Baladad  03:09

Yeah, so I created the tools and resources that I wish I had before and during my breast cancer diagnosis. So I saw some other tools that were out there, and I thought they were okay, but they just missed the mark for me. So I wanted to create something that showed you how to perform a self exam. And you need to track your self exam so you can notice any differences or changes. Let’s say month one, everything’s okay, but by month four or five, you start to do a self exam, and you’re like, Hmm, was that there before? Did I record that? And you can go back and look at your progress, and from there, you can set a monthly reminder. You can change it if you need to. Whenever I had a menstrual cycle, I used to do my self exams right after my period, and then now that I no longer have one. I do it at the same time every month. So also inside the app, you have resources that talk about your breast density and how to take risk reducing measures against breast cancer. And just give you tools and resources for talking to your medical provider about how to have these conversations. And this year, with AI becoming so big and popular I had to jump on that I knew that there were ways that I could, you know, put it into the app to really help anybody understand what they’re going through with their body and these scans exams. So let’s say you have a screening, and you get this pathology report back, and you’re reading it, and it’s like, what does this mean? I don’t understand it. And you start Google things, and it doesn’t make sense. So I took the guesswork out of that. You can copy and paste your pathology report from your online portal and put it into Breast Friend AI, that’s the name of the AI that I came up with inside of the Feel for Your Life app, Breast Friend AI is going to translate all of that medical jargon for you and break it down and into terms that you understand, while also giving you specific questions to ask your medical provider about your pathology report so that you don’t feel like you’re in the dark about what’s going on with your body.

 

Manon Bolliger  05:23

But that’s so important, because I think a lot of anxiety comes from receiving the report, not understanding it, and then not getting that call back, you know, saying that it’s clear, or it’s fine, or, you know, that it could be something else, or it’s benign, or, you know, you never really…there’s so much lack of communication. And I think anxiety, what I’ve seen anyways, is really paramount to address. So I’m assuming that this gets addressed with the app.

 

Jessica Baladad  06:01

Yeah. So we even have a little term in the breast cancer community called scanxiety, where you are afraid of getting scans and exams. I mean, they’re necessary, and we joke about it, but it’s real that we have that fear of getting scanned, because it’s like, oh my God, what if they find something and oh, my God, what if I get the news in my online portal before I get to talk to my doctor about it? So what I’ve learned about Breast Friend AI is that the patients who are stage three and stage four, especially the stage four community, they’re used to hearing news that is altering the course of their life. So they like to just better understand some of the terms and what to expect at their next doctor’s appointment. So they’ll use Breast Friend AI for that, but I will find women who just got a mammogram. It’s posted to their online portal, and then it’s like, oh my god. Do I really want to know what this means? Let me just, let me send Jessica B on Instagram first or something. And you know, it’s just like, what does heterogeneous breast density mean? And it’s actually a benign term. It’s, it doesn’t mean you have cancer. It just means you have dense breast tissue spread throughout the breast, and it’s in different degrees, and it varies. And so, you know, it’s…people have a lot of different feelings about it, but ultimately, I want women to understand how their screenings work, how the pathology is done, and what they can do to empower themselves to get through that fear, because knowledge helps overcome that anxiety.

 

Manon Bolliger  07:42

And also, I mean, there are women that mammograms…I mean, it’s quite a contentious subject right now, because there’s definitely countries in Europe that no longer use mammograms, and they use thermography and instead. But even for those who use mammograms, they say that women with dense tissue that it’s not very reliable. Have you seen that or heard about that?

 

Jessica Baladad  08:09

Yeah. So actually, that kind of makes it relevant to the new FDA regulations that have just gone into effect. The FDA said, starting in the month of September, this went into effect on September 10, that mammogram providers now have to tell women about their breast density so that they can have supplemental screenings like MRIs or ultrasounds or, you know, I support women who want to use thermography, if that’s what is getting you to talk about your breast health, to take those risk reducing measures against breast cancer or whatever you may use that for. Go for it, as long as you’re having those conversations and you’re taking care of yourself, I fully support that.

 

Manon Bolliger  08:47

I think that’s very important. Because, you know, it’s not, it’s just like every therapy is not always right for everyone. And then the what about the the results once you have that? Do you have any part that helps women sort of normalize, as in being able to say, Okay, well, you know what, my body is quite capable of dealing with certain things and at certain times, it might be wise to make different decisions, like there’s so such a spectrum, there of possibilities, right? Whereas, if you…if it’s all mishmashed, then again, it’s anxiety producing.

 

Jessica Baladad  09:31

Yeah, I can see that. I know with Breast Friend, with Breast Friend AI, it’s not really meant to be a doctor. It’s really supposed to be like the friend that you wish you could have with you at your appointment. So I’ll have friends who take the app with them to their doctor’s appointments to prepare them. You know what I’m going you can tell Breast Friend AI, I’m going to the doctor to ask about X, Y or Z. What do I need to ask the doctor about? And you know, it’ll give you a list of questions and help you prepare for that if you want a second opinion, it will recommend. It will ask you, where are you from? What areas are you looking for? And it’ll give you a list of places that you can also check out if you want to get you know the opinion of another provider. So I mean, like I said, I created the tool that I wish I had before and during my breast cancer diagnosis. I really thought this through and really empathize with how a woman would feel going through this.

 

Manon Bolliger  10:23

I can totally see it for everything you could ever you know, it could be for bladder issues and you know, is it cancerous? When do you worry what? You know, regurge, you know. When do you worry about esophageal cancer? When do you like? I’m not saying diagnose, but even going through the questions to put people sort of at ease or in, you know, with solutions of who they could approach next. Yeah, I think I knew it was remarkable. I think it’s great you’ve done that.

 

Commercial Break  10:59

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Manon Bolliger  12:08

So how did it go for you? And do you want to share a little bit your own, your own journey?

 

Jessica Baladad  12:15

Yeah, so after my diagnosis, I thought about the women before me and my family who had been diagnosed. I became the fourth generation on my dad’s side of the family to have breast cancer. 14 women altogether have had breast cancer, and we have no known gene mutation that science has discovered yet. So I can sit here and point to why and what happened, and, you know, wallow in that, but I refused. I knew that I could control, what I could control. And I thought, you know, cancer ran in my family until it ran into me. So I talked to my oncologist, who had treated one of my aunts and my grandmother, and they’ve both, they both passed before I was diagnosed. And I thought, Okay, what’s the plan of action here? And I said, throw the book at me. I’m not afraid. I want to do what needs to be done. So yeah, I did do 16 rounds of intense chemotherapy. I had a double mastectomy. I did five straight weeks. It was a total of 24 rounds of radiation. I had a preventative hysterectomy, and I said it was a complete hysterectomy. I said, remove anything that can produce hormones in my body, because my cancer was it did test positive for being hormonally fueled. I said, remove everything. And then I had what’s called Deep Flap reconstruction. So, you know, my body’s just kind of been through it. I thought, since science would allow me to use my own body’s tissue to recreate my breasts, I wanted to explore deep flap and what they did is they took fat tissue and blood vessels from my stomach and placed them into my chest to recreate my body. So it’s my own body’s tissue that I kind of went from a what I get a transplant, you know, I can’t think of that, but basically it’s my own body. I transplanted, sort of like a transplant recipient. I was able to take from my stomach and put in my chest. So, yeah, it’s lots of really funny jokes with my friends and whatnot about that we but that was the journey that I took and I went from…I was diagnosed in August of 2018 I officially went into remission in May of 2019 and then, yeah, the other surgeries, about the hysterectomy and the reconstruction follow during covid.

 

Manon Bolliger  14:56

That’s quite a…quite a journey. But it sounds like you just, that’s it. You just committed you’re gonna do this path and everything that they can offer. And you know, it’s sounds like you know, if you’re aligned with something, for whatever reason, you’re gonna have good results. At least, you know, much more likely to have good results, you know?

 

Jessica Baladad  15:24

Right, and I just thought, go hard or go home. I saw how cancer had just gone through my family. And what’s crazy, I was in the best shape of my life. I worked out five, six days a week. I ate well, I did the organic stuff. You know, I arguably one of the healthiest people in my family, but I learned that you can’t outrun your genes. And, you know, I don’t want to get too philosophical or anything, but the way that it was explained to me is, you know, with cancer, a cell goes rogue and it mutates faster than your immune system can keep up with so don’t point fingers. Don’t blame yourself. You didn’t do anything wrong. There’s so much shame around cancer, like, what did I do wrong? Did I eat the wrong thing? Did I not do enough for myself? And I just thought, I can’t waste time thinking about the what ifs. I have to think about what’s going on now if I want to have a future for myself. And today, I’m back in the gym six days a week. I’m eating well, I’m eating right. I’m taking care of myself to keep cancer out of my body in the future. You know, just doing the best I can for myself in the present, and whatever happens is going to happen in the future.

 

Manon Bolliger  16:39

But you can see that that’s a mental mindset, right, that you you’re connected to, you know, like, everyone’s journey can be very different there, you know, I also had a diagnosis of a cancer, and I had a different set of, you know, belief systems. And I did the deep down search of, what did I do wrong, you know, or…

 

Jessica Baladad  17:10

That’s totally normal to do that. I get it. We the first thing that we do is we start to blame, you know, when we’re in a situation that we have to confront that makes us uncomfortable. That is totally normal. I just know I had seen it a lot in my family. I’m like, Well, I can blame this and that and attack it or sit but, yeah, I don’t want to invalidate you. That’s totally normal.

 

Manon Bolliger  17:32

No, I wasn’t meaning it as a invalidation. I’m just saying, and it wasn’t so much blame as discovery. You know? What else you know? I’m eating organic, I’m doing all these things. You know? What else could be creating the internal environment that was affecting me this way? And so it’s just, it’s a different course. But I didn’t have a history. There was no history. So I think we come across the path that’s right for us, almost instinctively, like you knew, just like I knew, and we did different things. But it’s, it’s interesting. It’s such a it’s such an opportunity for for growth as well. You know, when you’re faced with this.

 

Jessica Baladad  18:17

Right. Absolutely, I think the term is like post traumatic growth, and I can see, you know, just in the short conversation we’ve had, you’ve overcome something, and you’re telling your story, and you’ve created something out of that. And you know, you didn’t let that stop you from what you knew, what was meant for you and your future. And I approached it, you know, with the same mindset as well. So I think you know how you handle in any adversity like that makes a huge difference in the outcomes that you’re going to get.

 

Manon Bolliger  18:49

Yeah, no, I agree. That’s I think the point I was trying to make is we may all have different paths. I just, I just think it’s amazing that you learned how to create an app.

 

Jessica Baladad  19:04

Yeah. Well, my friends were baking bread and collecting plants, and I’m I burn things when I try to bake. I’m not a baker. I can cook, okay, but I just thought, this isn’t really my thing. But I figured, you know, it’s either the end of the world or I might actually make something out of this. So I’m just gonna go for it, because why not. And I had a mentor and got the tools and resources that I needed to learn and spent time doing that. I was raised by my dad, and he has a technological background, so his influence in my life also influenced me. I grew up as a creative so I took a hobby and took my educational background and my breast cancer experience and Feel for Your Life was born.

 

Manon Bolliger  19:51

And at this point you’re also bringing it into schools to do self exam, and you were part of the writing of the legislation. In Tennessee, from what I understand, yeah, tell us a little bit that whole process, because that’s a lot of forward work.

 

Jessica Baladad  20:08

Yeah. So I reached out to my local representative for the state of Tennessee, who represented our district, and I said, Hey, I’m a breast cancer patient. I found this lump in my breast while performing a self exam. This is a problem. This is an issue. You know, 40% of breast cancers are diagnosed after a woman feels a lump, and that’s according to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. And so I presented him all of these statistics, including, you know, according to the young survivors coalition, it’s 12,000 women under the age of 40 get diagnosed with breast cancer every year, and yet, mammograms are easily available for women 40 and above, that’s when insurance starts to kick in for those for that coverage, I said, we’ve got to do something about this. And I told him my story about doing self exams. He met with me in his office, and we talked about crafting a piece of legislation called the Feel for Your Life Act, which would require high school students to learn about doing self breast exams, testicular exams and skin exams. We know that teenagers are very aware of their bodies at those ages, so as they go into adulthood, let’s teach them how to take care of themselves as well.

 

Manon Bolliger  21:18

Yeah, no, I think, I think that’s that’s really important too. And it sort of, it becomes, then part of your self knowledge, right? It’s, not like dividing your body as this thing that you try to compete in beauty. It’s, actually, it’s part of your health. It’s, it changes the attitude completely.

 

Jessica Baladad  21:38

Yeah, it’s self care. Self exams are self care.

 

Manon Bolliger  21:43

Our time is already up, but do you have any last things you’d like to share or where people can find about this app?

 

Jessica Baladad  21:51

Sure. I was going to say there are just a like five little things I tell people on how to advocate for their breast health. Number one, find a great doctor. Number two, do your self exams. You can do those with the Feel for Your Life app. It is free to download and use in the App Store and the Google Play Store or at feelforyourlife.com number three, the best screening for you is the screening you will show up for, whether it’s thermography, a mammogram and ultrasound, get into a screening routine with your medical provider. Number four, understand your breast density and what it means for your breast health. And number five, understand your genetic disposition to cancer. And that’s all cancers because and some, I’m not a doctor, but I’ve learned that sometimes they correlate one cancer may correlate with another. So talk to your doctor about your family cancer history and get into a routine that can help you take risk reducing measures against cancer and disease.

 

Manon Bolliger  22:53

All right. Well, I’ll leave it with your words and thank you so much for coming on to have this important discussion.

 

Jessica Baladad  23:00

Thank you so much for having me.

Ending

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