Fran Drescher, CANCER SCHMANCER
[0:01]Hi, this is Vivi Owens, and you're listening to the award-winning podcast Momstone have time to read books
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[0:37]Fran Dresher is the internationally famous actress of the Nanny the show that ran on CBS from 1993 to 1991
[0:47]and made Dresher an instant star. She has disappeared in many things on TV and film and Broadway
[0:55]Her personal life is what inspired the cancer
[1:00]Mancer movement, which we're talking about in this episode. She's currently doing a fundraiser for cancer
[1:06]Shmancer through modern Majon. So if you play Majon and you care about fighting cancer
[1:12]You should go to modern Majon.com and go check it out and you should sign up and each person is about
[1:19]I think $25 per slot and you can sign up up to four friends and
[1:23]and play Majon and donate all proceeds to cancer Shmancer. You will hear in our interview but Fran
[1:29]battled uterine cancer years ago and has made a her life's mission to help raise awareness
[1:36]and prevent it from occurring to other people which is just so awesome. So listen to our episode
[1:42]and also go to modern Majon.com and right now go sign up for this virtual fundraiser that's going on
[1:49]for about a week and go do some good in the world. Welcome Fran. Thank you so much for coming
[1:55]on mom just don't have time to read books. It's such a pleasure to chat with you. Thank you.
[1:59]Thank you. I'm delighted to be here and I appreciate the support.
[2:04]Oh of course. So I'm excited to talk about your book cancer Shmancer and how it inspired
[2:11]a whole movement and how your life inspired a movement and how we've ended up here with
[2:15]now you're collaborating with modern Majon for this charity event. I'm very excited to hear
[2:20]the whole thing. Well it took my two years and eight doctors to get a proper diagnosis with
[2:27]uterine cancer. So by the grace of God I was still in stage one and a radical hysterectomy
[2:34]was my cure but I began to feel like I didn't want what happened to me to happen to other people
[2:41]by means of misdiagnosis and mistreatment. And so I decided to write the book cancer Shmancer
[2:48]to share my story with the readers and that took me four drafts long and because I was
[2:58]that then I felt very bitter that it took so long and I felt betrayed by the medical community
[3:05]that they didn't give me the simple endometrial biopsy that most likely would have diagnosed me
[3:13]earlier. I kept slipping between the cracks because only one in four women with uterine cancer
[3:19]are young and thin as I was and so they just didn't think that they should rule that out
[3:27]rather they assumed I was perimenopausal and they put me up for a different hormone place
[3:34]therapies. The last one having estrogen in it which is literally like taking poison
[3:41]if you have uterine cancer. So I started breakthrough bleeding 24-7 and that's when I knew you know
[3:50]something was wrong and I called the doctor number eight and she said well let's do an endometrial
[3:57]biopsy but it's probably just the wrong pill that I gave you and while she's doing the biopsy
[4:04]she's acting like I have five minutes of fertility left and I should definitely freeze some embryos
[4:10]with my boyfriend if I ever want to have a biologic child and you know eight days later she called
[4:18]and said you have Adno carcinoma I'm very surprised and I said what's that and she said you
[4:25]are in cancer and that was kind of the beginning of BC and AC before cancer and after cancer
[4:34]in my life and so when I wrote the book to share my story in what ultimately by the fourth draft
[4:41]became a very inspiring motivating sometimes funny sometimes poignant empowering book I went on the
[4:50]book tour as celebrities who are cancer survivors and have a best-selling book new and it was
[4:59]then that I realized that my story was not unique that there were many people coming forth saying to
[5:05]me that the same thing happened to them and so that was when I realized that the book was just
[5:13]the beginning of what became a life mission and out of that came the movement the cancer
[5:21]cancer cancer movement and we started with the cornerstone being early detection catch it on a
[5:29]rival 95% survival and let's diagnose it while it's still in stage one but then the more I began
[5:39]to learn about health the more I realized that there are many systems working in the body cancer
[5:48]is actually the end stage of a long history of low-level inflammation and what causes inflammation
[5:56]mostly is our environment and it turns out the home is the most toxic place we spend the most
[6:02]time in so that was when the cancer transfer movement began to focus heavily on a very progressive
[6:12]program called detox your home and we empower educate motivate and activate our members to start
[6:20]reading labels to start recognizing that how you live equals how you feel and there's really no
[6:28]wiggle room in between and it behooves you to eat organic and to use products for personal care
[6:38]and cleaning and gardening products that are either organic or eco-friendly because if it's
[6:44]bad for the planet it's going to be bad for you we are one big interconnected living organism
[6:51]and we have to start looking at it that way and so we put the onus back on you to use your
[6:59]harder and dollars and purchasing powers to dictate more responsible manufacturing trends
[7:07]let's get the carcinogens and toxins out of our homes out of our lives let's get out of the
[7:14]chemical industry and go back to using products with ingredients that may have grown in your grandma's
[7:20]garden and when you do that you successfully reduce your risk of getting a whole host of of
[7:28]diseases in your body and it's absolutely ground zero where to begin wow okay I am motivated
[7:38]on your website you had all these little cheat sheets for how to know if you're at risk for
[7:42]one type of cancer or another and you can like go through and I started looking there and I was like
[7:47]I have to stop this is getting really depressing yeah it's like there are risk factors
[7:52]ever in everything I mean what you're talking about low-level inflammation it's so easy to
[7:58]eat the wrong things sometimes or right stress is a huge trigger in inflammation too for so many
[8:03]people you have to manage that too and you know you have to be your own thermostat of your body
[8:13]you have to know when your body's slightly going out of whack because of interferences
[8:18]from the outside whether it be aggravation that's causing you stress or being you know exposed to
[8:26]people who are set or the cold or flu or you know you have a vulnerability to it because of
[8:34]your genetics which should be you know encourage you to you know live more cleanly more
[8:43]pristinely because your genes have at least 27 28 different ways to express itself and if
[8:54]you're constantly exposing your body to carcinogens and toxins it's not going to express itself
[9:01]well no it's your obligation to honor your body to support your immune system and to not aggravate
[9:13]you know vulnerable genes that may you know go in the wrong express itself in a direction you
[9:21]wouldn't want it to because you're constantly exposing your body to things that are extremely
[9:30]unhealthy and you know we all have gotten quite used to taking things that suppress our symptoms
[9:39]well that is the body's way of learning you that something is wrong you're not supposed to muzzle
[9:46]your body's expression you're supposed to actually try and support your body help your body
[9:53]do the right thing and live cleanly and pristinely so did some of this come about
[10:00]because you wondered what had caused your own cancer?
[10:03]You know, I kind of knew that I was told when all this was happening
[10:12]that I had Ludio phase defect, which is something that they test women for if they
[10:21]get pregnant and miscarry. But, you know, they don't normally test women for it otherwise,
[10:29]but I did have other symptoms that indicated that I had very short menstrual cycles,
[10:37]which was an indication that my progesterone was not kicking in when it was posted.
[10:42]And, yeah, over the years, when I went to doctors and said,
[10:46]why do I have such a short cycle? It's like, I know students start to feel better than
[10:50]I start to get pregnant for them again. And they said, well, as it always been this one,
[10:56]as it is, and they said, well, normal is with normal for you, but that ain't necessarily so.
[11:03]And a lot of doctors are not good diagnosticians, and they don't dig deep enough,
[11:09]and they don't offer you the tests. The things you need may not even be on the menu
[11:15]at the doctor's office. Doctors are bludgeoned by big business health insurance
[11:20]to go to the least expensive route of diagnostic testing. And also, you know, they have never really
[11:28]learned how to listen to the patient, to honor what the patient is feeling, what they're saying,
[11:37]and give them the time that they need. Now, of course, there are exceptions to that. And I
[11:43]tried desperately to find those doctors. And we at Kansas, Mancet curate annually the most
[11:50]wonderful outside of the box thinking doctors from all different spheres of medicine and put them
[11:57]into our grand trash or master quest health summit, which I have been told from so many people
[12:05]is a life-changing experience. So, you know, I urge people to sign on to cantishmancet.org,
[12:15]it's free. And you'll get some emails from me, which are very informative. We're very positive
[12:23]and empowering. And then you'll learn what we're doing and when we're offering it, like our
[12:29]master-class health summit, which is a fundraiser for me if you come in person, but you can also
[12:35]watch it on this live stream. And that's offered free to the public because we're non-profit. And
[12:43]you know, it's wonderful. And then that program is offered for nominal fee as a downloadable video
[12:51]that you can watch over and over again and share with you friends and family. It is so dense with
[12:57]information that every time I look at it, I realized I missed something that I hadn't heard before.
[13:04]And so it's really worthwhile. We also put out at Kansas Schmancer right at the beginning of the
[13:11]pandemic, a COVID care for you program that also is offered free that you can access on our
[13:20]at our website. And we had doctors that were offering very practical tips for people.
[13:28]Back then, you know, there wasn't a vaccine. A lot of people didn't know what they were dealing with
[13:35]or who's going to get sick or who wasn't going to get sick. But the, you know, supplements
[13:42]that were suggested to take now mainstream doctors are offering to their COVID patients.
[13:50]But back then, it was our doctors, our outside of the box thinking functional medical doctors
[13:57]who have gone one step beyond medical school and decided to really look at how the body operates.
[14:07]And what is causation of disease? And how can we look at that? You know,
[14:14]an analogous of this is if you had a big apple tree and the apples that were grown on the tree
[14:23]were rotten, would you try and fix each apple or would you look at the roots and the trunk
[14:32]to see what was causing this problem? Well, most medical doctors just try and treat the apple.
[14:40]And they're not really looking at how the patient lives, how the patient eats, where the patient
[14:45]works, what the patient is exposing him or herself to in their home, what the history is,
[14:54]all of these things factor into your disease. And we really have to start pivoting
[15:02]towards that if we want to go from nation of sick care to a nation of real health care.
[15:09]I love that. I think it's also with the apple tree. I mean, at least the apples you can see that
[15:15]they're rotten right away. I think with women a lot of time, especially in this area,
[15:19]we accept whatever's going on is like, oh, this just must be how it is. And people don't talk
[15:24]about this area that much. And it was even harder to diagnose. Yeah, women are very conditioned
[15:31]their families needs above their own. And so when they recognize something is not right in what I call
[15:41]the whisper stage, the earliest and most curable stage, that's also the easiest time to dismiss
[15:50]their symptoms and say, you know, it's probably nothing. And I have too much on my plate already.
[15:57]So I'll wait. Maybe it'll go away by itself. But what we really have to say to ourselves is,
[16:02]something does feel right. It could be nothing, but God forbid it's something. I want to rule it out
[16:10]while it's still in the whisper stage because the best gift I can give my family is a long and
[16:17]healthy life. And I'm useless to my family if I'm six feet under. I guess you are like,
[16:23]this is so useful to me right at this moment. I feel like I've personally been under like
[16:28]so much stress. And I keep postponing making all my doctor's appointments and being like my doctor
[16:33]he's emailing. He's like, you haven't had a physical in like two years or blah, blah, blah,
[16:37]and I know it's so silly. Yeah, it's typical. But as a woman, you have to climb out of that rabbit hole.
[16:47]It doesn't behoove you. It doesn't help anybody if you get sick. And you know, I think
[16:54]I'm this journey. We're sold a bill of goods as women that it's time for us to reprogram. It's
[17:02]not serving us well to be like that. And so everybody just has to jump on board when you say,
[17:10]you know, when you set boundaries for yourself, everybody learns how to respect you differently
[17:16]because you respect yourself more. I like it. This is great. I think I'm just going to keep
[17:21]replaying this. You know, I'll just like keep it in the background. I'm like, you know,
[17:27]women's movements anymore. We've kind of opened it up to the whole family suffers when they don't
[17:36]go to the doctor or when they're exposed to, you know, toxic processed food, industrial-formed
[17:45]foods, or in the home, there's a tremendous amount of air pollution in the home. More pollutants
[17:53]than living across the street from an oil refinery. What do you think that's doing to you? How do
[17:58]you think that's impacting you? I don't even sleep with my wife, I don't because that is the time
[18:05]for my body to regenerate itself. And having microwaves buzzing around my head all night is not helping
[18:14]me do that. So I put an on-off switch next to my bed, which connects to my router and the garage,
[18:23]and at night I turn it off. I don't need it. I don't want it. My smart TV in my bedroom is plugged
[18:30]into the ethernet. And I made sure all of this was available to me, accessible to me. Not that
[18:38]you need ideas and maybe you've already done this, but you should do like a show where you go into
[18:42]people's houses and like clean it up, like clean up their lives. I didn't like get rid of all the
[18:47]toxins. Like take out their Wi-Fi, clean their fridge, escort them to the doctor.
[18:54]Yes, absolutely. Actually, we've pitched that before. We thought about doing something like that.
[19:01]I just wonder if it would get very redundant because I'm sure as I go into different people's
[19:06]homes, it's going to be the same crap over and over again. No, but I'll just throw that out.
[19:12]What is this toothpaste? If your toothpaste says, you know, do not swallow a cold,
[19:18]poison control. Isn't that counterintuitive for something that you're going to be putting in your mouth?
[19:25]Yay. Come on, people. But when you come that toothpaste, start reading labels every time you
[19:33]finish something and need your place at at the market, try as you may, as hard as you may,
[19:41]to replace it with something that's a much cleaner, organic, eco-friendly product. Because in the
[19:48]end, it's going to really serve you in the planet. Well, okay. All right, point taken. I hear you.
[19:54]I've adopted this. You've inspired me. Okay, modern Majang. Tell me about why you got involved with it.
[20:00]is how people can sign up.
[20:01]I know you're all the funds are going to cancer schmancer
[20:04]and you can sign up at modernmajang.com.
[20:06]But why did you partner with them?
[20:08]Like what is it you love?
[20:09]Are you a huge majang fan?
[20:11]I want a girlfriend who is very enthusiastic
[20:15]about playing majang.
[20:17]And she was the one that encouraged me to get all my besties
[20:21]together here at my house on the beach.
[20:24]And we'll all have a casual dinner.
[20:27]And she wanted to teach us all about playing.
[20:29]Well, one time, I was playing in Rosie
[20:32]was my partner and we won.
[20:35]And somebody who was also playing took a video of it.
[20:38]And I posted it and it went viral.
[20:42]And so the modernmajang organization,
[20:46]that's around the world, picked up on it
[20:49]and said, this is so great.
[20:51]We need more people like Fran and Rosie
[20:55]to engage people into playing this fabulous and ancient game.
[21:00]And so they said, we would love to host a fundraiser
[21:06]for cancer schmancer.
[21:08]Well, I always perk up with people say that
[21:10]because needless to say, we're always in need of raising money
[21:15]so we can keep doing the good work that we do.
[21:18]But also it's important because during the pandemic,
[21:23]most nonprofits had a particularly difficult time
[21:26]because we weren't able to do the fundraisers
[21:30]in person like we normally do.
[21:32]And as many times as we did something online virtually,
[21:37]it's not the same.
[21:39]And you can't raise the same amount of money.
[21:41]So we were very grateful that they made the suggestion.
[21:46]And you can go to kensushmans.org
[21:49]and find out all about Fran's majang tournament
[21:54]that's hosted by modernmajang.
[21:57]And it's gonna be a lot of fun.
[22:00]You can gather your besties at your house and play
[22:04]or you can just go online and do it with strangers.
[22:08]And it's all there on the kensushmans.org website
[22:13]explaining how to sign up.
[22:15]And it's a week of playing,
[22:17]I mean, you don't have to play for a week,
[22:19]but it's gonna go on for a whole week.
[22:22]And it's gonna be a blast.
[22:24]So for all you people, majang players out there,
[22:28]you know, please consider playing for a cause
[22:33]and this cause is my organization,
[22:36]the kensushmans movement.
[22:38]Amazing.
[22:39]Well, thank you so much.
[22:40]This has been so fun.
[22:42]And it's a good reminder.
[22:43]I know you say like, oh, isn't this gonna get repetitive?
[22:45]But it's somehow, even when you hear something,
[22:48]I feel like isn't there something
[22:49]you have to hear something 11 times
[22:50]before it makes a difference or something?
[22:52]But you can hear it over and over.
[22:54]But there's always that one extra time
[22:56]where you're like, okay, now I'm actually gonna do something
[22:58]about this.
[22:59]And as many times as I've said,
[23:01]I'm a kensushman by the way,
[23:02]there's still people that say, I didn't know that about you.
[23:06]And it's like, how could you not know for 21 years?
[23:10]I've been talking about it, but it's true.
[23:14]Messaging does evade people
[23:17]and you probably can't say an important message
[23:21]too many times.
[23:23]Very true.
[23:24]So I thank you for reminding me of that.
[23:26]And I do keep talking constantly about this.
[23:30]I feel like I got famous, I got cancer
[23:33]and I'd love to talk about it.
[23:35]So I'm talking.
[23:36]I love it.
[23:37]Well, thank you.
[23:38]Thanks for talking to me about it and to my listeners
[23:40]and all the people who can sign up now for modern modeling
[23:43]and now can go back and read your book, which is fantastic.
[23:46]Thank you.
[23:47]Thank you so much.
[23:48]And please call your doctor, make that appointment,
[23:52]take time for yourself in the end.
[23:55]You're not only doing your self-assurface,
[23:57]but all of your loved ones too.
[24:00]Okay.
[24:01]Okay.
[24:02]I will.
[24:03]I will.
[24:04]All right.
[24:05]We'll have a great day and it was really nice to meet you.
[24:07]Thank you.
[24:07]All right.
[24:08]Thank you so much.
[24:09]Thank you so much.
[24:11]Thanks for listening to this episode of Mom's.
[24:13]Don't have time to read books.
[24:14]Don't forget to follow me on Instagram,
[24:16]at zebiowans and at moms don't have time to read books.
[24:19]Also sign up for my newsletter at zebiowans.com
[24:22]and sign up for my virtual book club
[24:24]and meet lots of authors on Zoom every other week.
[24:26]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan in fact,
[24:28]Textures Sound for the Sound Editing.
[24:30]And thank you to Morning Moon Productions
[24:32]for providing this fantastic intro and now trim music.