61 | * Special Episode* Beyond the Diagnosis: Laura Reutter's | Journey of Strength

Welcome to this special episode of Off-Balance in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Breast cancer affects 1 in 8 women in the U.S., with over 316,000 new invasive cases expected this year. Sadly, more than 42,000 women and 500 men will lose their lives to this disease.

Behind every number is a story of courage, loss, and hope — and today, we honor the story of Laura Reutter. 

What defines a woman when cancer takes parts of her body? Laura Reutter faced this question head-on after her 2016 breast cancer diagnosis led to a bilateral mastectomy, fundamentally changing her life's trajectory. 

"Everything gets flipped upside down," Laura explains, describing how cancer reshapes not just your body, but your entire existence, from where you live to who remains in your life. The phenomenon of "ghosting" left her isolated as her 14-month treatment plan made maintaining friendships nearly impossible. When treatment ended, she faced an identity crisis: "I had to figure out what defined me."

Laura's journey from patient to certified senior patient navigator reveals profound insights about healing. Now having supported nearly 700 individuals through breast cancer, she shares startling truths, like how 85% of breast cancer cases have nothing to do with genetics, while offering practical wisdom for anyone facing life's unexpected challenges.

The conversation takes a fascinating turn when Laura describes discovering dragon boating, an ancient Chinese sport that has become a global competitive outlet for breast cancer survivors. The paddling motion, once discouraged for women who had lymph nodes removed, actually helps prevent lymphedema. Through this community, Laura found purpose, friendship, and competitive joy, even qualifying for international competitions.

Laura's perspective on "aesthetic flat closure" challenges conventional narratives about wholeness after mastectomy. Her powerful tattoo art transformed what society might view as loss into beautiful self-expression. "I wanted to look in the mirror in the morning an

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Laura's Cancer Journey
• 3:33 The Shock of Diagnosis and Isolation
• 7:15 Reclaiming Confidence After Treatment
• 12:32 Life as a Patient Navigator
• 17:53 Finding Community Through Dragon Boating
• 26:40 Flexibility and Hope in the Journey

Transcript

Intro : 0:01

You're listening to the Off Balance Podcast, where faith, family and business collide, hosted by Brooke Stemming, doctor of Business Administration, business Coach and Resilience Expert. Each episode features real-life conversations to help entrepreneurs like you build resilience and lead with confidence.

Dr. Brooks : 0:38

Welcome back to Off Balance. I'm your host, dr Brooks. A breast cancer diagnosis can leave women feeling afraid, isolated and unsure of themselves. Today's conversation is about finding courage in the journey and embracing wholeness on your own terms. My guest today, Laura Reuter, embodies resilience and purpose. After her breast cancer diagnosis in 2016, laura chose to face life not with fear, but with boldness. She's a certified senior patient navigator who has walked alongside nearly 700 individuals through their own breast cancer journeys, offering both wisdom and compassion. A passionate advocate for aesthetic, flat closure, laura proudly embraces the fabulous, flatty lifestyle, breaking stereotypes and helping others feel whole just as they are. Laura, welcome to Off Balance.

Laura Reutter : 1:24

Thank you for the wonderful intro. Thank you.

Dr. Brooks : 1:27

Thank you so much for joining us today. I am so excited to have you. Before we get started, can you just tell our listeners exactly who you are and what it is that you do?

Laura Reutter : 1:38

Yes, as you stated, I'm a senior certified patient navigator about five years experience, now five and a half years. So I speak with women, some men it is unfortunately becoming more prevalent in men now. I speak with them all the way from diagnosis throughout the treatment plan, set expectations I help them out with like insurance, finances, sometimes just the listening ear. Sometimes they just need to talk or vent and I say you can vent away, just let me grab a coffee. Absolutely so, just trying to make an impact. After what I went through, I want to make sure that I just do my best to try to help others and bring them along.

Dr. Brooks : 2:15

So you actually walked alongside nearly 700 people through their own difficult journeys. How has witnessing their experience shape your understanding of the confidence, and what does reclaiming it look like in real life for you?

Laura Reutter : 2:30

Yeah, reclaiming, I really had to dig deep to find those bits of joy. To find those bits of joy every day. It doesn't have to be something over the top, but just finding something every day that made me smile. And trying, just doing my best to when I was going through my treatment, just trying to find that joy was extremely hard. It really dig deep with my faith and my faith. I tend to keep that private, mainly because I work with as a navigator. I work with people from all education lives, all financial aspects, all different faiths, and I want to make sure that I'm respectful of that and talk with them about their faith and not necessarily impose my beliefs on anybody, but holding strong through all that, that's for sure.

Dr. Brooks : 3:24

Yes, I can only imagine. So can you take us back to when you were first diagnosed and how did you feel in real time?

Laura Reutter : 3:32

It's a shock. It's an absolute shock when you're diagnosed. I was relocated to Austin, was living a very. I was married for 25 years and divorced for five years, and so a brand new life and just really enjoying it here in Austin, and suddenly I've got a breast cancer diagnosis. What are you talking about? It has nothing to do with genetics. As I found out later, 85% of breast cancer has nothing to do with genetics. It just comes as a shock, and what you learn real quick when you're diagnosed is that everything that you have known gets flipped upside down. Everything gets flipped. I ended up with a different house. I ride a motorcycle different motorcycle. There's a phenomenon called ghosting. Unfortunately, what happens it's breast cancer.

Laura Reutter : 4:21

Any type of cancer can be isolating, very isolating, because your entire life gets taken over by a team of doctors, all kinds of appointments, and so your friends and family. You can't keep up. Sometimes they invite you and they invite you, and then pretty soon you don't get the invites. It isn't that they don't love you, it isn't that they don't have intentions good intentions it's just like my diagnosis or my treatment plan excuse me, it was 14 months long, so that's a long time, and so I had to. Part of my healing process afterwards was as a grown adult. I had to go find new friends. Like I'm like how do you, where do you even start with new friends? Because my hobbies changed too and I'm like I don't even know where to even start with friends. So yeah, you got to take little steps along the way and heal yourself. Try to keep a sense of humor about it.

Dr. Brooks : 5:10

I had no idea that the majority of cancer was not hereditary, because a lot of the times when you are even screened for breast cancer, if you don't have a family history or if you're not at high risk, then they'll let you actually start getting your mammograms at the recommended age. So I'm so glad that you brought that to the conversation, because I was not aware of that. You said that you were initially in shock. What was a specific moment when you started to shift and embrace the journey that you were on?

Laura Reutter : 5:39

It wasn't until I was after I was done with my treatment. So all the way through my treatment which is somewhat common you're in the fight, everybody that loves you, you got to fight, you got to fight, you got to stay in the fight, which is beautiful, so I call it armor up emotionally. And so I'm just like we're not dealing with emotions, we're just fighting all the way through, we're just fighting, fighting. And then I got done with my treatment and the physician said the team of doctors all went away and they said we'll see you in three months for a follow-up. And I'm like, okay, I'm good.

Laura Reutter : 6:15

And then, about four months later, because I thought I had it not my faith, my spirit, not my, I just thought I had it. And then I didn't know anything when I was done. Again I had no, no friends, I had a real big motorcycle. I couldn't getting it's a matter of physics trying to get thing and in and out of the garage I had to. Basically, I walked into a support group the community, so important. I walked into a support group and just said I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know because all that armor there was nothing to fight for All that armor fell off, and so now it was time to really find my emotional balance after that and find out what was. What did I want my life to look like after what I had been through?

Dr. Brooks : 7:02

I can imagine that was scary. What gave you the confidence to go to a focus group?

Laura Reutter : 7:07

I don't know if that was really confidence or I was just wore down emotionally, like I had nothing left in the gas tank, just like I got nothing. The confidence during the rebuilding process was there's some moments there of confidence of, first of all, just looking at my body again. You know, you just try to ignore it. Some women don't. First of all just looking at my body again, you know, you just try to ignore it. Some women don't look at all, don't have mirrors, others just embrace it right away. Again, it's very individual, but for me that wasn't my plan to be flat. Some women choose to be flat.

Laura Reutter : 7:37

Aesthetic, flat closure is the proper term. To go flat right out of the gate. Many athletes will do that the runners, swimmers, golfers. They're like I'm done with my breasts. That's fine, but with me I wanted to go larger. I was supposed to be. I'm like I'm done with B cups, let's go with C or D.

Laura Reutter : 7:58

And my low point was basically I did chemo first and then had a bilateral mastectomy. I had to have a single mastectomy. I chose to have a double because I wanted everything the same aesthetically not cancer but aesthetically. And my low point was I had the bilateral mastectomy within a week and a half. Infection happens in 20% post-surgery infection and I basically had to go in for what they call an explant. They have they had expanders put in which are like implants but they're flatter, and then they expand them to expand your skin to a certain size and then you go for a secondary surgery to swap it out for an implant that would be in your body for 10 years and with that infection, yeah, I basically had to go explant, go back into surgery and have the expander taken out. And I remember being in the hospital just crying with my plastic surgeon saying all the plastic surgeons have beautiful books of before and after shots and I'm like I'm not going to make your boobie book am.

Laura Reutter : 8:51

I. So it was horrifying because I lost my second set of breasts. I'm like I'm not even growing up enough to handle one, let alone two. I'm like how could I lose two sets of breasts? So that was probably my low point and my confidence After all. That was probably my low point and my confidence after all that was said and done. At the very end I said I'm just going to go, whatever you can do with flat. So it wasn't.

Laura Reutter : 9:09

My chest is not nice and neat, it's a little lumpy, bumpy. So in the beginning, yeah, it was very difficult and my confidence had to come from trying on different clothes for anything women's blouses, dresses, any nice clothes. They're made with certain forms. Yeah, I couldn't wear those. What do I even wear when I want to go out in the evening? So, trying on new clothes and giving myself the grace and love to say you know what? I'm going to power shop for the day. I'm going to try on 30 different things, grab stuff that I've never worn before and just rifle through and if I come home with one, that's okay, that's okay. So there's a little bit of confidence with that.

Laura Reutter : 9:50

And looking at the scars and some women believe their scars are, they would never hide their scars with tattoos because that's what they've been through the battle scars. Much respect, that's beautiful. For me, I have an artistic side and I wanted to look in the mirror in the morning and get my swagger back and look at something beautiful. I didn't want to look at the scars. To me, my artwork, which I designed, makes me look beautiful and that really gave me my confidence. But it's that every little bit of trying new things, getting that confidence of all new motorcycle riding friends. I went out online and found three or four groups showed up and said, yes, I wanted to be with this group. No, I don't know. Again, that goes back to how do you even find friends as an adult? And the one, the group that I did find these ladies, I just love riding with them. The acceptance because I showed up with my chest full of ink. I'm like, yeah, look at me, go now. And they're like bikers, they all have ink. They're like, okay, that's beautiful, but sit down. So it was acceptance. And also like acceptance to just treat me like everybody else. They just think I keep in touch with people but it's not the same. It's not the same and that's okay, and that's okay and that's okay. People grow. I don't know if people really change too much in life, because everybody has their core beliefs and values, but it's okay to grow and learn new things.

Laura Reutter : 11:18

I didn't know what dragon boating was. I had no idea what dragon boating was. So after I went through my treatment and I volunteered volunteering is important to me, it's a bit passed down from my mom to give back to the community. I've always volunteered and so I went to a Mama Jama, which is like a fundraiser for bicyclists locally here in Austin, and was recruited to go try it. Just go try it. Come in the boat, try it.

Laura Reutter : 11:42

With dragon boating. It's all breast cancer. There's a whole international community of dragon boat racers. So you can't get in our boat unless you've had breast cancer. That's the motto, basically. A giant canoe with a 40-foot canoe with 20 people in it. You know paddling. I'm like dragon boat, what is this? But I had to try Again. It's a confidence building. I'm going to try it. If it's not my gig, okay, but I've learned something new. I've met some new people. Even if it's not my cup of tea, that's okay. Trying those little things to build confidence and, as it turns out, I never left. I tried it and it's been five years later and I still love the team. We've traveled we went to Vancouver this last year for international and we're going to France next year. So it's been a wonderful bonding experience Because one of the things when you're going through treatment and maybe it's like this for other cancers, I'm just not familiar but all those emotions that you feel and all the different expectations that you're talking about physically with the physician, you can talk to your loved ones, your spouses, your friends, and they'll listen to you and they love you.

Laura Reutter : 12:46

But it's a different kind of discussion when you're talking with another survivor. I can talk with somebody about being flat. A big discussion was am I a woman? A year before I was diagnosed, they actually had a hysterectomy for different reasons, for other reasons, and I was like, okay, leave my hysterectomy for different reasons, for other reasons, and I was like, okay, leave my ovaries, that way I won't get breast cancer. And then a year later I get breast cancer and it's not. There's different types of breast cancer and it's not a hormone-based hormone, erpr what they call ERPR positive, which is like a hormone positive breast cancer. Mine had nothing to do. My breast cancer did not care at all about my hormones. So now I've already had my uterus removed, now I've got both my breasts gone and I'm like, okay, am I even?

Dr. Brooks : 13:33

I think that's a misconception that people have all the time is what truly makes a woman a woman.

Laura Reutter : 13:38

I hear I have that discussion, yeah, Often with women, because our society and I don't think it's anything that we've done, but it's our perception of ourselves from what society, what we see out in marketing Football season it's beer and hoops. I don't want it to be that way. But again, reality what is and working within that and finding your own path. So, yeah, I really had to figure out what defined me, how I define myself.

Dr. Brooks : 14:08

That takes a while it's a process, if someone is listening and they're in that same situation and they may be questioning, if they are still a woman, what would you tell them?

Laura Reutter : 14:18

Give yourself grace and love. First of all, there's so many unknowns, it's all many aspects are you've never even worked with or dealt with in your life and it's okay to fail. It's okay to try and to fail, learn and then try something else, just like with my clothes. I need to try all new things and fail, cry and then get back up and try again. It's oh. You just have to keep chipping away because it's not a. It's not. To me, it was not a destination. It's like I woke up one morning and went now I'm confident, yeah, I have arrived. No, it's just that slow process of accepting all those little wins and all those lessons and those failures. It's okay to fail, try again, it's okay, you're going to find it. You're going to find your groove. But just love yourself along the way and celebrate every little win along the way. Don't wait to the end to celebrate.

Laura Reutter : 15:24

You say at the end of chemo radiation you get to ring the bell. No, just ring it every Tuesday. If you want to ring the bell, you showed up. That's a win. You got here. That's a win. Don't wait till the end.

Dr. Brooks : 15:36

Yeah, that's good advice Because, as you was going on your journey 14 months, so looking back, would you have done anything different as far as it relates to your mindset or just how you approached?

Laura Reutter : 15:47

your journey. Big thing. Yes, I was not a navigator. I was just another person running around having fun in life, enjoying life.

Laura Reutter : 15:58

And so when I was, when I got my initial treatment plan as I had mentioned, bilateral mastectomy was involved and I was already what I call brain locked in I'm like doing this, I'm getting bigger breasts. I'm doing this, I'm just going to let's tear this up Whole new set of clothes with breasts. Now I got to change clothes for the other way. It's kind of like that feeling when somebody loses weight or something. Maybe there's a purpose to it. Okay, I'm going to lose three pounds a week. You have a purpose, mission. And I was like, okay, I'm going to get, I have to go through cancer treatment. This is it, this is my purpose. And what happens? 180 the other way and trying to stay.

Laura Reutter : 16:37

So my biggest piece of advice is just trying to stay agile or flexible in your mind, because things change, especially during a cancer diagnosis thing. Unknowns come in all the time, and so you've got to be flexible. Just that will. The more flexible you are, or the more agile you are, and just taking things as is instead of those expectations that you've built up in your mind, it's less crying. It's going to be a whole lot easier If you just go into it like, okay, things could change. This is kind of where I want to be, or what the doctors told me. I'm going to be in six, eight, 10 months, but if things change, I'm going to be okay with that. So just try to stay a little more flexible in your thought process and not bring in all those expectations like I have.

Dr. Brooks : 17:28

Yes, and you are a patient navigator. Can you explain what your role is to those recently diagnosed?

Laura Reutter : 17:36

Yeah, absolutely so navigate. And I am non-clinical in nature, so I'm not a doctor or a nurse. Ok, chw, community health worker, trained breast advocate, trained, certified, but non-medical. So what I do, my associates do, is that if somebody comes to our doorstep, we go ahead and we walk with them all the way through the process. So we set expectations. It could be as simple as oh, you're going to have a bilateral mastectomy, you're going to have T-Rex arms. Don't plan on using from here to here on your arm for a good week. So heads up with where you put the toilet paper. Heads up, it's just. Sometimes it's as simple as things. You're going to need a wedge pillow, you're going to need a drain shirt. Setting expectations Sometimes it's just listening and listening to people's pain and what they're going through.

Laura Reutter : 18:30

Sometimes it's very much more functional as far as hey, if you need your insurance changed or maybe job loss in the middle of your treatment plan, which means most likely your insurance will change your health insurance. So now, working with local nonprofits, try to help them line up new health insurance financial assistance. I'm with the Breast Cancer Resource Center here in Austin and we work with the local five counties. So it's a very small nonprofit. We work with those five counties here and so we have a little bit of support money that we can try to help out with just to kind of get people through, but again pointing them to other resources, whether they're national resources or local resources, if they have children. How do you talk to your kids? Well, there's a wonderful resource, wonders and Worries, here in Austin, and that's what they do. They talk with children. They work with children whose parents are going through treatment of any type of cancer. So again, just one-on-one with people, setting expectations and then lining them up with other organizations as much as possible to try to help them through the whole process.

Laura Reutter : 19:34

And if there's a little bit of education, early stage what the physicians call early stage is zero through three. Stage four is also known as a metastatic breast cancer. So zero through three is considered curable either through radiation, chemo surgery methods. Stage four then becomes a managed disease, because that means it's gone to maybe your bones, your liver, it's migrated to other parts of your body. So at that point it becomes a managed disease. And those are hard conversations to have, hard conversations. But I will tell you a funny story. And those are hard conversations to have, hard conversations. But I will tell you a funny story.

Laura Reutter : 20:09

When I first came on board, I started February of 2020. So what happened in 2020? Covid. So I come on board, we have an office and I still have to get my education and my certifications, but I was asked to sit in our metastatic support group. Just don't say anything. We know you don't know what you don't know yet. Just observe Great 10, 12 women come in the height or just the very beginning of COVID.

Laura Reutter : 20:33

So there's a lot of fear because your immune system is just rocked, especially if you're metastatic because of different lines of treatment. And the woman come in the room and she's just one of those personalities that's like larger than life, like she's tall and she just encompasses the whole room. She comes in and she's super happy and I don't know what to expect. I'm sitting with a whole group of women that will be on medications the rest of their life and somebody she sits down, somebody talks about. They start handing out the masks Okay, we have COVID now and here's your mask and she starts laughing and she says are they afraid? This is going to kill us? I'm like, I'm mortified because I don't know what to expect and they just fall out. They were laughing so hard they could not Because, again, finding that humor is just imperative.

Laura Reutter : 21:20

Oh, I'm sorry, are we going to die from COVID? Okay, we're sitting in a support group here, so the humor almost gives you permission for that grace along the way. That was an important moment for me of learning that it's okay these discussions have to be had and sensitivity is obviously imperative, but if somebody is going to laugh about their situation, I'm going to be right there with them. It's okay, we're going to have these talks.

Dr. Brooks : 22:44

So if someone is listening and they're on this journey but they don't know anything about a patient navigator, how would they find out if that's available to them in their local area?

Laura Reutter : 22:55

I would say, through their local hospital or their infusion center where they're going. That's the first stop is ask them. Many hospitals or infusion centers will have support groups and it's more common now at the hospital to have either a nurse navigator or a patient navigator. So that would be my first stop. There is also case managers and patient navigators with different insurance companies. Check with your insurance company they may have. Now, obviously that's not going to be face-to-face, but it's going to be somebody that can help you get through the process, because it's absolutely overwhelming in the beginning. It's a whole different language, so just learning all the acronyms.

Laura Reutter : 23:31

There are national groups. So there's Susan G. Coleman has their national group and I believe that they have patient navigators on staff. Now, again, if you're in the Austin area Central Texas area Breast Cancer Resource Center, so check out online. Metavivor group for somebody that's stage four or metastatic. There's a wonderful resource for women that are 45 and under See that way too many times these days, which is just heartbreaking. Young Survival Coalition you can find them online also and it's a wonderful. Many of the national organizations have more support groups than patient navigators. But patient navigation field, especially clinical nurse navigators, is really coming on strong in the last couple of years. Field, especially clinical nurse navigators, is really coming on strong in the last couple of years. So that would be my first stop is ask for patient navigation within that organization and then go from there.

Dr. Brooks : 24:24

Yeah. So if someone is listening and they are like, wow, you are on the other side of this. How do you hope sharing your story will impact them if they're just in the middle of their journey or in the beginning of their journey?

Laura Reutter : 24:40

I want to give them hope. I want to give them hope because it's there can be dark days and know that it's temporary, you're going to get through it. It's not going to be the same. You got to give yourself some grace and love that again. It may be different on the other side, but it doesn't mean it's bad. Different doesn't mean bad. It's going to be totally different. But my daughter and I bought a home together. I'm closer now to her than I ever was. So there are some silver linings out there. But just keep the hope going. If you start losing hope and having those dark days, just reach out. Find a support group, reach out. The community is here to support you.

Dr. Brooks : 25:28

Yeah, community is so important, because a lot of times when we go through situations, I think the instinct is to isolate just to try to get through it. But in isolation sometimes we let our thoughts become bigger than the situation. So I'm so glad that you are preaching community and that you are practicing community, because I feel that is so important, regardless of what you're going through in life. Yeah, community is so important. And so, when it comes to the actual paddles with a purpose, can you tell us how you just dove right in once you got introduced to that group?

Laura Reutter : 26:02

I was brought up in playing sports all the time and so anything I used to be back in the day. I used to be back in the day. I used to be considered like a gym rat. Probably not so much anymore, but yeah, once I went to the first practice I was hooked because just being on the water, I love being on the water. I just absolutely love, especially the early morning practices, 8.30 in the morning. You're out there, the fog still coming off the water, it's just a wonderful feeling. And all the women in the boat are all different ages, got some young ones and their kids come and cheer. And that's a double-edged sword for me as a navigator, because nobody should be 32 diagnosed with cancer. But they're strong, holy smokes, they're strong. So their kids are there to cheer and they've really and just the laughter with them Again, just the community and the dragon. I was just hooked. I love it because you've got 20 people in the boat.

Laura Reutter : 26:56

During a race, it's all about sync. You all have a paddle. If you get out of sync, you're smacking paddles and you're not winning. You're not winning. You are bringing on no medals if you're smacking into each other. So it's all about. It's not necessarily about strength. We're about about sync, and you need to work together, or you're just fighting each other in the boat. Even just a little shift in weight, you can feel it. You can feel it in the boat. What are you doing over there? You can feel it, yeah, and it's an awesome feeling to bring home a few medals along the way too. It's yeah, just that competition. Yeah, I'm not. I might be broken, my lymphatic system might be a mess, I may have breast or not, or one or new ones, but I'm still here and I'm getting this. All my arms, my upper body I'm still here. I'm still competing. So let's do this, yeah.

Dr. Brooks : 27:51

Yeah, I saw your story on the local Austin news where you won the championship. So what teams do you compete with? Is it like all local teams, or is it teams from across the country?

Laura Reutter : 28:01

There are. Initially, when we started the group and I was probably I was not one of the OGs, I was probably five months out started the group and I was probably.

Intro : 28:09

I was not one of the OGs.

Laura Reutter : 28:10

I was probably five months out but I'm going to throw myself in there as an OG. But we had just started and then COVID hit. So for two years we're just up and down the lake practicing and then, once COVID hit or lifted, the restrictions started lifting. Then we could start to race. So Houston has a team, dallas has a team, kansas, city, oklahoma. So we went to Miami last year and then this past year, say in June, we went to Vancouver for the International Dragon Boat Festival. So what's neat is that dragon boating itself has been around for 2,000 years. It's a very traditional Chinese sport, chinese sport.

Laura Reutter : 28:51

But in 1994, I believe it was, there was a physician up in Vancouver that did a study with a bunch of breast cancer survivors, because almost every one of us have had some form of surgery One way or the other, lymph nodes removed. There's something called lymphedema, that if you have lymph nodes removed, those are usually underneath your arm, around your neck area, on your groin area, but the ones underneath your arm are. If your breast cancer is going to move around your body, it typically will go through those lymph nodes. That's why they're so important. You could, when too many lymph nodes are removed, you could have secondary issues of what they call lymphedema, which means that fluid underneath your skin doesn't, it gets blocked. It's like having a dam underneath your arm. And so your arm, your hands swell up, your arms swell up, and different degrees of severity with that. Well before his study, physicians would tell women don't use that arm anymore. We took out 10 lymph nodes just for the rest of your life, just relax, don't do too much with it. And with his study found was that the paddling motion. That motion of paddling was like a pump, and it was 180. It was like, no, get out there and use that arm, Use it.

Laura Reutter : 29:54

And so that's where the breast cancer division started in Vancouver, canada, and then, over the last 30 years, had spread to an international sport. And so in France next year there's a tournament that happens once every four years. It's not technically the Olympics, but it's big time for the breast cancer world. Yeah, so this in August of 2026, there will be a tournament over in France which our team will be bring 24. There's a whole lot of women there with breast cancer, and so it's just going to be. I'm so excited about that event because it's not only have I not been to Europe before. So I'm excited about going to Europe, but also with my friends competing against women from all over the world, it's just really, really unique because we all can speak, even though we speak different languages. We all know.

Dr. Brooks : 30:51

Well, we're going to be rooting for you, ladies, to win. That would be so amazing. So, now that you are full circle with your journey, what does living with intention look like for you?

Laura Reutter : 31:03

I intentionally oddly enough, I intentionally make sure that I save time for fun and joy and just make it carving out that time, Because prior to that I was a corporate. Just go busy, Pause, Pause, Be thankful and be grateful and know that you're blessed. And again, the volunteering I've volunteered for. Every year at the Austin Rodeo my fourth year of volunteering there. Be thankful and be grateful and know that you're blessed. And again, the volunteering I've volunteered for. Every year at the Austin Rodeo my fourth year of volunteering there they're selling souvenirs to help the kids in our rural communities. Volunteered for Operation Turkey a couple of years in a row.

Laura Reutter : 31:42

So I don't know if cleaning turkeys on Thanksgiving morning that was 300 turkeys I'm like, okay, I need a shower, so I need to clean up. But anything that I can do intentionally to help others on a broader scale brings me joy. And then on a daily scale, just again intentionally, make it so that I'm just loving it. I just give myself that love and say you're okay, You're okay, You're okay. Why am I so awesome? Why Just give myself that permission to say you're okay, You're missing a few parts, but it's okay.

Dr. Brooks : 32:19

It's okay. Yeah, that's good advice. You shared so many things today that I didn't know about breast cancer and just about your journey in general. So, as you wrap up, what is one message or a piece of advice that you would like to leave with the listeners who may be navigating their own journey right now?

Laura Reutter : 32:39

Please be flexible in your mindset and again, that's not exclusive to breast cancer. It could be any type of cancer or any type of trauma. Just try to stay as flexible as you can. Try not to get brain locked in of tunnel vision of this is how it's going to be. Just have that flexibility because it's cancer. Typically the cancer doesn't change but with each step there could be new information that the doctors get and it could confirm your existing treatment plan or your treatment plan could go right or left and that's hard, that's very hard.

Laura Reutter : 33:18

And having those honest conversations with other people in the community Like it's a pretty raw community. There's no gaslighting Like this is cancer. We're working with cancer here to say what it is. And it's pretty raw community. There's no gaslighting Like this is cancer. We're working with cancer here to say what it is and it is what it is and that's okay. Accepting that can be difficult. Acceptance can be difficult. Give yourself grace and time because that's a process. It's not a destination. It's definitely a process and everybody goes at their own pace. You can't compare yourself to other people when they're going through treatment and everybody goes at their own pace.

Dr. Brooks : 33:49

You can't compare yourself to other people when they're going through treatment. Yeah, I can imagine that comparison is something that comes up, especially if you are watching someone else on their journey, so I'm so glad that you told us not to compare.

Laura Reutter : 33:59

That's really good, it's so easy to do because you're in the, you listen to other conversations in the infusion rooms, other friends or family that are telling their stories to you and you could have virtually the same diagnosis and have a much different treatment plan. Neither one are wrong, but it's very specific. Even though it's broad breast cancer, the treatment plans can be very specific to you. So in your body, what's going on with your body? What's going on with your insurance? Let's face it, you know insurance and finances, cancer is expensive. So sometimes those factors also affect your treatment plan, where they may not affect somebody sitting in two chairs down in an infusion room. So please try not to compare. Stay flexible in your mindset and just know what you have to go through and not compare with others.

Dr. Brooks : 34:56

That's really great advice. I appreciate you so much for joining today. Again, you brought so much wisdom and gems that I just did not know exist, much wisdom and gems that I just did not know exist, and so I am so glad and I'm sure that our listeners is going to get a lot of information just from listening to this episode. So if they would like to contact you, how could they reach out?

Laura Reutter : 35:18

Yeah, if you're going through breast cancer, you can reach out at bcrctxorg, which will get you to our breast cancer universities. There's some wonderful videos out there. Again, if you're in the central Texas area, you can reach out on that same website to on the same site, for a one-on-one navigation. I do also do public speaking, so you can find me on a broken couragecom If you'd like me to come and talk with your organization.

Dr. Brooks : 35:44

And I would make sure I have all of that information in the show notes. So again, Laura, thank you so much. You have been a pleasure.

Laura Reutter : 35:52

It's been wonderful. Thank you so much for having me here today. It's been a great experience.

Intro : 35:59

Thanks for listening. Please rate this episode and share it with your family and friends. To learn more about your host or to book a coaching session, visit wwwbrooksdemmingcom. Until next time, rise.