SPEAKER: I need to plan
for my future.
If I plan scan-to-scan, which
is every three to six months,
it's no way to live.
My name's Lindsay Curtis.
In June of 2016,
my journey with advanced breast
cancer--
also known as metastatic breast
cancer, began.
Metastatic breast cancer
is incurable.
So it is about controlling it,
not curing it.
However, the interesting thing
about our illness
is once you can get it more
chronic, it's still--
as my friend
says, radical uncertainty
that we live with.
But you have, I have days
of also incredible normalcy.
you know, I have a very full
life, but I have scans all
the time.
I am on oral chemo every day.
And that's the tricky part
of our disease.
You want to cherish each day,
but if you're just living
for just tomorrow
you can't build a future.
My doctor will say this is not
a death sentence.
We want you to plan.
We want you to get on
with your life.
She told me a cautionary tale
of a patient she had who's
looked at a statistic
and said my life's over in five
years I'm not going to plan
for the future,
I'm going to blow my money,
whatever.
She came back, it was five
years, she's doing great.
She burst out in tears.
She said, I wasn't planning
to live past now.
So I've not planned.
I don't have things I'm
passionate.
I don't have a purpose.
I don't have relationships.
My medication I'm on for 4
and 1/2 years only came out
maybe a couple years before I
was diagnosed.
Since I was diagnosed a testing
showed I have a mutation that I
have a next line of treatment
that's only been
out the last couple of years.
So that's how quickly things are
changing.
Of course, we want to shoot
for a cure,
but until that happens,
I think more and more,
we're going to see people living
with this longer and longer.
My own oncologist at M.D.
Anderson was joking around.
She was like, do you have
a boyfriend? (LAUGHS) She's just
like,
come on, get on with your life.
Like you're good.
Date.
You know, you get a lot
of different reactions.
How do you talk about it?
You've got to respect them
enough to know they're an adult,
it's their choice.
You're not putting them
through something.
As long as you're
honest and open, they can handle
it.
You have to give people
that opportunity, you know,
and know what you see
is a weakness to it,
they might see as a strength.
I think one of the most
important things you can do
is having purpose,
relationships.
For me, working with kids
is just every day it just gives
me meaning.
It is the most amazing feeling.
Just finding that purpose
to keep you going--
just thinking back to when I was
a newly diagnosed patient, if I
just had a place to go and see
that it was even
possible to live that long.
Because all you see are very
scary statistics.
I didn't know, really,
that long-term survivors
existed.
Wonderful ladies who have
lived 10, 15, 20 plus years,
having full lives and purpose.
I think it's good to plan
for the future.
My life is not over tomorrow.
And that's the important thing.