Jack's Podcast.

Trevor launched Man Up to Cancer on Jan. 1, 2020, to help men connect and avoid isolation during their cancer journeys. A husband and father of two teenage daughters, Trevor has been living with stage IV colorectal cancer since March of 2018. He is a writer, speaker, and community builder with a background in newspaper journalism and public relations. Trevor is incredibly grateful for the support of the cancer wolfpack! Howl!!

While standing in the kitchen of his Fargo home around the age of 12, Bryan had a thought pop into his mind that caused him to question who he is at the core. Little did he know at the time, that it was an early sign of his struggle with anxiety and OCD. A little over a year ago after experiencing panic attacks on live television, Bryan decided to shift his role as a news anchor at KARE 11 in order to make his mental health a priority. Today he remains a producer at the NBC station and is also the co-founder of the Refresh Network where he holds open and honest conversations about mental health.  We discuss our suspicion that many caregivers “push through” very treatable mental health disorders but they become unable to when faced with the stress of caring for a loved one with cancer. We also discuss how he copes with uncertainty (a theme in every caregiver’s life) as a major challenge with his OCD is excessive ruminating.  He unpacks for us each tool in his mental health toolkit and shares his fundamental strategy of coping which is to allow his thoughts, emotions and sensations in the body to be part of the ride - rather than trying to push them away. ​

Kelly is an oncology psychotherapist with a fellowship in grief counseling, a keynote speaker, and an accomplished author who’s been in the clinical field of palliative care and hospice for 25 years.  She’s witnessed hundreds of deaths, including her own mother’s when she was 11 years old.  Her mom had collapsed from a massive heart attack as they shopped for groceries, she helplessly watched as CPR was administered.  They spent 3 months in the ICU before her mom ultimately died in the hospital as a result.  She was even teased at school because her mom died! These experiences built her resiliency muscles, informed her caregiver perspective, and taught her that end of life care must be done well.  Recently she’s shifted the focus of her work to sharing the lessons she’s learned from the real experts, her patients.  She believes the dying have the most to teach us about how to live. And she enjoys sharing those lessons through her book, “A Comforted Heart”, “Conversations with Kelly” events and podcasts, and training other therapists to specialize in oncology where many more experts are needed.  

This "circle" image is explained by Kelly during her episode, and helpful to understand how to keep the primary caregiver and caregetter from feeling suffocated.

Mr. Baumgart is a PhD,  a father, and an educational psychologist that loves his pick-up truck and his cowboy boots.  His mantra is if something needs to be done, do it.  Like adding onto his own house, where his first attempt at drywall was so shoddy he decided to cover it up with a bookshelf.  Hear about the different roles his caregiving team of Joe, Lee, Dave, Rich, and Kyle play to help him face his bride’s metastatic colon cancer.

Links referenced in this episode include;
1) To learn more about colorectal cancer screening go it ​https://coloncancercoalition.org/get-educated/get-screened/
2) To learn more about young onset colorectal cancer go to https://coloncancercoalition.org/get-educated/age-is-not-a-factor/
3) To join Glen and his family at a colon cancer awareness event go to ​https://coloncancercoalition.org/austin