The Power of Perseverance: Cancer Survivor From Struggles to Success

Join Emily as she reunites with Deb Krier, a resilient Cancer Survivor. Deb shares her journey through multiple diagnoses and the launch of tryingnottodie.live, supporting those facing cancer. Her story highlights living fully despite health challenges and improving patient support.

TIMESTAMPS:
00:34 Discovering New Freedom After Fifty
01:32 Meet Deb Krier: A Story of Resilience and Empowerment
02:39 Empowering Others Through Personal Challenges
08:30 The Importance of Community and Support in Overcoming Adversity
11:54 Navigating Life’s Challenges with a Positive Mindset
14:37 Fostering a Strong and Positive Outlook on Life
20:00 The Power of Honesty and Openness in Healing
22:40 The Future of Support for Cancer Patients
31:13 Staying Young at Heart: Deb’s Philosophy on Age and Vitality
33:47 Closing Thoughts

Emily: Hello. Hello, Deb. I really happy to see you again after several years of not seeing you online. And it’s special pleasure to have you in my own studio today. 

Deb: Oh my gosh, Emily, it is so good to see you again. I had so much fun when you were on my podcast and I am delighted and honored to be a guest on your podcast.

And I thank you so much for inviting me. 

Emily: Thank you very much because when I was thinking starting my topic and trying to inspire people who are after 50, who are going to the next chapter of their life sometimes struggling to find new purpose new mission being maybe empty nesters or like you.

Kind of going through the challenges of physical health issues and, some other issues that surrounding us these days. One of the images I see like in my mind, it’s you that clear. And I would like other people to know you and to know. Your story because I feel as if it might help many other people, even younger than 50 to find the direction in the life to get this Balances off our today’s life and opportunities we have in life and many more, which I will would not take from your story.

But just to tell a little bit how I feel when I see Like you speaking once in a while. I mean, on LinkedIn, on an other event. Like I feel that we are all about navigating life’s big moves in challenges with sense of understanding support. And often we are looking for community. Debbie, your story and the work you do epitomize the spirit and we are all ears for the wisdoms.

Inside you’re willing to share today because your past life experience and what you’re doing now, it’s, you know, sometimes what we all need you know, the support and encouragement in our day to day life. So I can tell that for anyone else out there, if you are navigating your own journey and looking for a friend to guide you through, I know that you are here, you and your initiative, your project your company.

I can tell. So, in the spirit of, going deep and understanding what you’re doing I would like to tell you what is spark behind your mission, why you started it and why you’re doing whatever you’re doing. 

Deb: Well, again, thank you for having me on your program.

I’m very honored to share my story because it is something that. As you said, if we are able to inspire people, then that’s the important thing. Right. So thanks for saying over 50, cause I’m past that a while ago, but we’ll just go, 

Emily: but it’s still over. It’s still over 70s. It’s over 50, 

Deb: how far over. Right. But my current situation was forced on me. it was one of those things where I was going merrily along and fate or whatever you want to call it said, we’re going to change things a bit. And so back in 2015 and I’ll give the short version cause it is a long story.

So in 2015, I had gone for my annual checkup and as part of that a mammogram and it came back with, there was an issue. I had another mammogram. They said, yes, there is a problem. Turns out I had breast cancer, but it was diagnosed as very easy to treat, what is known as stage zero. So, you know, not, not panicking, just kind of, putzing along, had a couple more biopsies.

Those didn’t show any cause for concern. And then we had the surgery that a lot of times someone will have where they took lymph nodes out. And to see what that was. And unfortunately, the lymph nodes were positive for cancer. So that meant the cancer had spread. And so then we got rather overexcited and concerned, right?

It was like, Oh, not so easy. And so through the course of things, it turned out that I had to be special. We know that, right? I’m just one of those special people. I had a very large dose of chemo eight different drugs in one day because we decided we had to get very aggressive with this. And I made the decision to go with the traditional approach, the Western medicine approach of doing chemotherapy.

And dang if that didn’t about kill me, it the complications that I got from it put me into septic shock, which is in most cases. terminal. Septic shock causes all your organs to shut down. The only reason I survived was first of all, because I was thinking, well, this is stupid.

I have more things to do. But my doctors were incredibly good. They jumped in, they knew what to do. I spent seven weeks in the hospital in and out of ICU and lots of other surgeries finally came out of that ended up having a double mastectomy. Again, I chose the traditional approach, got a complication from that, that my doctor had never seen because hello, special.

And, but then, you know, started on the upswing now because of the septic shock, my body has gone through all sorts of other. issues. And so but I kept working almost the entire time. You know, I tell people hospitals have really good wifi. And so I just kept, you know, going merrily along through the course of, you know, all of this time developed not one, but two more cancers.

It was like, really? And, but, you know, easy to treat on both of those. So, no big issues with those, but The last procedure I had was actually surgery number 33, so I have lots of scars. But I tell people, you know what? If I didn’t have those scars, I wouldn’t be here. So I like my scars. They might be ugly, they might be nasty, but they’re why I’m here.

So, I relish those scars and, and I love them, right? Because they are why I’m here. But in the course of this, a couple of years ago, I was working with my business coach the fabulous Kathleen Caldwell, who knows all of my story and my history. And she said that I did not go through everything I went through.

without using it to help others. And so as part of that, we formed this initiative and it’s called trying not to die dot live. That’s actually the website URL. And it’s, the name comes from the fact that when we get so ill, whether it’s cancer, whether it’s some other type of serious illness, chronic illness, things like that, We get so focused on trying to not die that we forget that we have to live and whether that’s, five hours, five days, 50 years, we need to focus on the living part and do what we need to do to make sure that we’re still living.

And so we launched the initiative a couple years ago. We do focus on cancer, helping anyone who is on that cancer journey, whether they’re a patient or a student. Someone who supports them, family, friends, loved ones. And we also work with, with medical people on how they can provide us with better support.

So that’s kind of it in a nutshell. 

Emily: It’s great to know kind of in more details. And I remember like how struck me one line on your website, that life is the only thing that can defeat cancer. So it’s actually what you are emphasized today. It’s what you are actually,

Deb: and we’re not saying it’ll cure it, but it will defeat it.

Emily: Okay. And how many people you and your organization happen to help over the period of time? 

Deb: We’re still small, and part of that is because I also have that day job and other things that I do. We do have a private Facebook group and, and that’s one of the places where I think we have the biggest benefit and people can find information about joining that on our website.

But that’s a safe place where people can share their stories, they can ask for support. We laugh, we giggle. I mean, anybody who knows me knows that I think of this as in many Very humorous. And so, that’s how we do that. There’s also obviously just all of the social places.

But I do work with individuals who contact me and say, Here’s what I’m going through. I need help. And sometimes it’s a simple question as, hey, I’ve got this port. What the heck do I do with it? To, I can’t decide if I should have surgery. Now I am, this is a total lay person. I have no training to give any type of support or guidance.

It’s more just kind of being a friend for them.

Emily: And you mentioned you connected with doctors, so it’s kind of, I believe, all complex of possible, I cannot say even services, but help types that people can find via you. And please tell a little bit more, which I didn’t mention, where you, like, from what state you are, like a little bit geographic point of your not only online but physical existence?

Deb: Yeah, I am in Atlanta. And of course the nice thing about the web and technologies, we can be anywhere, anytime. So, but I do tend to focus at least with my presentations and things here in the Atlanta and Georgia area. But yeah, it’s interesting working with medical people because They, did save my life. They’ve saved my life multiple times. I have the deepest respect for them, but they are under incredible pressure to provide care rapidly. Right. In many cases, they’re told by whoever they work with for by the insurance company, you will see X number of patients in an hour, and so you can’t give, very detailed assistance.

They also, you know, God bless them. If they developed empathy for every patient, they couldn’t survive. They can’t do that because of what they’re doing. I mean, they are truly dealing with life and death, so they do tend to get a little reserved. Here in the States, they call it patient centered care.

I’m a marketing person. I call it customer support. And many of them aren’t very good at it. when I work with them, part of what I tell them is I am a person. I’m not a patient, work with me like you want your mother, your sister, your wife, your loved one treated and a lot of it is just making sure that you like them.

I tell people. You’re going to have some of these care providers for years. You don’t always have to like them, but you have to trust them. And over the course of my journey, I fired three doctors. Now, they were good doctors. But we just didn’t hit it off. And, and I thought, no, this is not going to work.

And, and I switched to other doctors and I tell you, the care team that I have now is incredible, but they also know that I am the one in charge and that’s one of the messages that I want to tell your audience is that for Anyone Whether it’s just you’re going in for your annual checkup.

You’ve got a cold whatever you Are in charge, not your doctors, and not even the insurance companies, you are the one in charge and you need to make sure that everybody knows that. And if for some reason you’re not able to, then because there are certainly times where you’re not, then you need an advocate.

For you, who knows your wishes and is, is going to make sure that those wishes are carried out. You know, my husband now, we had all the legal paperwork and all that, but my husband knew exactly what I wanted as it pertained to my care. We are the people in charge of our personal care.

Nobody else. 

Emily: It’s very kind of specific approach and very correct as you proved by your life experience. But not so many people kind of immediately would jump to this conclusion when it comes to this. 

Deb: Those people, you know, our medical people are really, really well educated, right?

We’re going to them because they’re very smart about what it is, but, they’re just part of the process. 

Emily: So in this regard, I would like to ask you such a question. What do you think is source of your personal perseverance? And what do you think about roots of perseverance in general, genes character spouse support, please enlighten me.

Deb: Somebody just has to meet my mother to know why I am, how I am. Right. Now I am an only child. So I was raised to be very independent. Both my parents worked. Now, I grew up in a very small town in the mountains of Colorado. So being on my own, back in the seventies and sixties It was very different than it was now.

I could be outside till 10 o’clock at night. There was no concern, all sorts of things, but I was raised to be a strong woman and to be very independent and to take care of myself now, are there times where I need others? Yes, I could not have gotten through everything that I have without the support of everybody around me.

 That I think has been one of the things that I love the most is. The support from others. I mean, people that I thought didn’t even know I knew existed have been some of my biggest supporters. And that’s so important, especially when I go in for treatment, for procedures, for whatever it is, because I feel like I’m not alone.

they’re sending their prayers. They’re sending their healing thoughts, all of those things. And, and to be honest, there was actually several times where I thought, Oh, well, I can’t die. They’ll get mad. 

Emily: So what you mentioned, it’s really powerful. And I believe it’s what leading you in your journey lately.

It’s leading this life. Yes. It’s joining together and encouragement. And in this regard, what you would say about power of honesty, you know, from the doctor side, from your support side, because some People, it’s very hard to accept the diagnosis because many people think it’s a verdict.

Deb: You hear the word cancer and you think I’m dead, right? 

Emily: So it should be told to the patient immediately, or what is your approach in this regard? 

Deb: You know, I am one that wants all the information. Now. That said, one of the worst things that I tell people the worst thing to do is to go to, as I call it, Dr.

Google, because if you type in say cancer, you’re going to get overwhelmed with good and bad information. So you do need to, to really figure out what’s going on. I think people do need to know as much information as you know, at every single step, here are your chances here’s this and that, but we all need to remember that.

We are unique, just because I had that horrible reaction to chemo certainly doesn’t mean that others will, because what happened was less than 1 percent of the people have that reaction. It’s kind of, here in the States, we have all of these commercials from pharmaceutical companies that list everything that could go wrong.

Right. And it’s like, oh my gosh, but you need to know those, but you also need to know the positives. If we do this, then we expect this and It’s all about getting as much information as you can. And then as I said, making your own decisions. And it can be that you choose, as I said, I chose the fairly traditional Western medicine approach.

I have some friends that totally went, no, you know, that’s, that’s not what we’re going to do. We’re going to do a more, Eastern medicine type of approach and they’re still with us, so who’s to say that that wasn’t. And, but I think now what so many people are doing is a combination. So even if it’s just, okay, I’m going to do chemo and I’m going to do surgery and I’m going to do radiation, but I’m also going to do meditation.

I’m going to talk to a nutritionist yoga. Now I’m not so good at yoga, but but yeah, finding all of those things that work for you because. Just because you have that diagnosis, it’s not, it’s funny. One of my doctors said, it’s kind of like a cookbook. You have this, and then we do this and this and this and this, but you got to be open to other ingredients.

You know, and so it is, I think it’s very important to do that. Now, you mentioned honest, we have to be honest with, first of all, ourselves, Right. But honest with our doctors, one and everybody else, I tell people, one of the things that happens the most is people will say, Hey, Deb, how are you doing?

It doesn’t matter who it is. My immediate response, and this is very typical. We say, I’m fine. Right. And I mean, that’s just, that’s what we say, but most of the time we’re not. Now, sometimes we’re really, really good, but sometimes we’re not. And so it’s about being honest. It’s about telling the doctors, your medical team, I hurt.

I’m having trouble with this. Never assume, okay, I’m taking chemo, so my hair should fall out and I should be sick. Nah, they can change doses. They can do all sorts of things. So you have to be honest with them, honest with your loved ones and the people around you. You know, yesterday was not a good day.

I was in a lot of pain. It was one of those And I finally went, I’m done with the world. it’s like, because I knew I was going to give short snippy answers if somebody asked me a question, and all of those things. And so I will tell people it’s not a good day, ask me tomorrow or I just don’t even respond.

But we have to be honest with, with everybody around us and if it’s not a good day, it’s okay to say I’m not having a good day and if they don’t understand it, then maybe they shouldn’t be part of your life.

Emily: So with all what I was listening now, you proved again that mindset matters and believing that you will be fine in general, no matter the outcome, which sometimes out of your like hands actually requires strong and positive mindset.

How can individuals Foster this outlook to face challenges head on. 

Deb: I think the first thing is to acknowledge that sometimes they’re not good. Like I said. People tell me, Oh, you’re so happy. You’re so bubbly. Not that’s the image I put out there. There are times where I am, like I said, I am not a happy person.

I am cranky. I don’t feel good, whatever. More importantly, there’s anger. There’s, you know, I’m, I’m angry this happened, right? But, I tell people it’s okay to have those pity parties. Just don’t get stuck there. And so I’m a big believer, we kind of talked a little bit about this in humor.

I mean, there are physical and mental aspects of how laughing and things like that Actually change your body, you get endorphins and all of those various things. So, if, if it’s not a good day, maybe you don’t watch the slasher movie, you watch, I love Lucy reruns, or, something like that.

Get yourself out of that. Go for a walk. One of the absolute best things in the world is to get outside and get fresh air. If you’re not able to do that. sit on a porch. One of my things that I did when I was really physically couldn’t do a lot. I would just sit on my back patio, close my eyes.

Now I back up to a big wooded area and listen to see how many different types of birds I could hear. Now I know what none of them are. I’m not one of them, you know, but just sitting there and kind of letting mother nature heal me. and then the other thing is you know, surround yourself with those good, supportive people.

 I mentioned that one of the things that I really did was, I try to not be around toxic people. Sometimes we have to be right. But if they are the, Oh, this is horrible. This is awful. Which is, sometimes that’s what Facebook is. Right. But, but yeah, you know, just. Give yourself the best opportunity to be as positive as possible, but it is okay to not always be okay.

Emily: You’re absolutely correct. And, I understand that again, coming from your experience you actually created a new mission and, and vision for yourself and people around you and actually trying not to die. It’s the name of your at least company, it’s a slogan. Emphasize the fact that living fully, even with cancer actually can prolong your life and make different qualities the best quality of your life and the challenges you are going through.

So. Please tell me how you try and bring this ideas and with the company. What you do else like speaking, what are the initiatives you are involved in? 

Deb: So it’s just a thing that I do. I mean, it’s not a nonprofit, it’s not a company. It’s part of my overall business, but we, I did when, you know, as I mentioned, Kathleen kind of spoke sharply at me and said, you know, you need to do this.

One of the things I decided was I could do it a little bit or I could make it a mission. Right. And doing it a little bit was okay. My doctor has called me in to talk to patients before I’ve talked to medical students, and and things like that. And so I’ve done little bits of that, but I thought, you know what?

I need to be all in on this. And so. I made the decision to get a team around me who would provide good support. and we developed the, I worked with a fabulous marketing guru, branding guru. His name is Josh Zeppes, and that’s where all of the concepts came from. And then I, I hired a very good web designer.

I knew if I can do it myself, I manage a lot of websites, but I also knew if I did it myself. It either a would not get done or B, it would be just kind of, yeah, yeah, whatever. And so I made the commitment and it was a financial commitment to pay somebody to do this. And then it was okay. What are we going to offer?

So, there’s online we do blogs and I love to have guest bloggers. So people who have different insights that they can, can provide. And that’s like one of the most popular blogs that we have. It posts is, is one that was done by an employment attorney talking about what are your rights as you go through this, because there’s federal and state laws that apply.

I mean, it gets really tricky when you’re dealing with things like this. But then I also give presentations. I do a lot of podcasts and I love them because it’s such a fun way, first of all, just to have a great chat with somebody, but it allows us to really spread the message throughout the world.

 Because you can listen to a podcast anywhere, anytime. And like I said, I have my own podcast, as you know, because you were a fabulous guest on it. So I know that we’re able to reach so many more people by appearing on podcasts than, even if we’re just posting on Facebook and, and things like that, 

Emily: please repeat again, and I will put below our conversation recording where and how people can find you.

Deb: Sure. It’s really easy. The website is www.tryingnottodie.live. not. com. live. And there’s actually a funny story with all of that. When I was so sick, my mom came out, I mentioned I’m an only child. So of course she was going to come out a medical person came in my room, did something and left.

And then I got the disapproving mother face and I went, what? And she said, you did not say thank you. And I said, Oh, for God’s sakes, mom, I’m trying to not die here. And so, that was kind of how we started that. And then, being a marketing person, when I decided to do this for real and make it, like I said, not just some little thing that I was dibble dabbling with, I was all prepared to do trying not to die.

com. Somebody has that. And the funny thing is they’re not at that point, at least they weren’t doing anything with it. So I made an offer to buy it. They wanted a lot more money than I was going to offer than I was prepared to pay for something that was at that point, just in my head. And then when I discovered that dot live was available, of course, that was, was perfect.

And then of course we made live into an acronym. But it’s but yeah, it’s trying not to die dot live. 

Emily: So listening to your words I’m thinking about a future of support because as you mentioned earlier there is enough Google doctors as you name it. And I know that the medical system has challenges in United States, even bigger in Canada and other countries.

How do you see the future support specifically for people with cancer? 

Deb: So many years ago, over 30 years ago, I worked for an oncologist and before then I worked for the American Cancer Society. So I tell people, I know just enough to be dangerous, right? Right. Yeah. In the 35 years between those, the changes have been amazing.

They’ve not been fast enough, obviously, but, I think that we will see a lot of cancers eliminated. in hopefully my lifetime. If not much longer than that, there are obviously things that we can do. You know now I did have genetic testing after all this started more for my family than for me.

No other things popped up on the genetic testing, but that is something that people can consider, but take good care of yourself, eat well, exercise. Now. Are we going to have cheat days? Yes. When I see people that are like, Oh, I never, I’m like, no, that’s no fun. I want to have a piece of cake. I want to have a steak. Am I going to exercise every day? No. But do the things that are going to help. And then, the other thing is really make sure that, that you are doing those annual checkups.

And I don’t care what your age is. You need to do annual checkups because the earlier you catch whatever it is, the better it is to treat and so we want to catch things as, and that’s why it’s really funny because, cancer is one of those where I believe the statistics are now that one in four people will get cancer.

Now, some of that is something as simple as like the skin cancer that I had on my arm to something as more complicated as the other two cancers that I’ve had. But, it is something that, it’s out there. heart disease, things like that are obviously very prevalent also.

So what can we do ourselves to try to help things if that does happen and maybe we can stave it off. I mean, there are things like we said, eat well and exercise. Obesity is a huge problem with many different types of diseases. Now that said, curvy is okay. We don’t have to be these little skeleton people, but if you are overweight, think about, okay, what are some minor changes that you can do?

Because, I’m not saying get real carried away with this because again, we want to enjoy life, right? Think about the things that you can do to make things better. I do see things changing. It used to be that when you were told you had cancer, it truly was a death sentence.

And now, it’s not. Now, I talked with somebody yesterday who his wife was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. That is so obviously clearly something that is incredibly serious and most often leads to death. But again, there are things that you can, can be doing to, to kind of help with those, those things.

And I think it’s especially important for women because we are so busy taking care of everybody else. That we don’t take care of ourselves. And I love the analogy of the airplane oxygen masks, right? You’re told, when the mask falls, put yours on before you try to help someone else.

And it’s that way with everything. you as that caregiver, that caretaker, that mother, that wife, that whoever, you have to take care of yourself first before you can take care of anyone else. 

Emily: Thank you very much, Deb. And when I’m listening and looking at you, I really see young woman, full of energy, dedication, Mission purpose and it’s not just words.

Which kind of leading me to ask the question which I’m asking each of my guests at what age person became old in your opinion? And what is the definition of old for you? What helps people to be active and young for the longer years? 

Deb: I love it. It’s to me, it truly is a state of mind.

Now it’s really funny. I’m going to have to find this really fast. I posted this on Facebook and just several days ago, and it was just a little graphic image and people just thought it was the funniest thing in the world. And I thought, this is so true because I think it very much epitomizes.

What we kind of feel like in a lot of cases but like I said, it is a state of mind. See now I can’t find this little thing I’m looking, I’m looking cause it’s so funny and, but it is so true, but it’s along the lines of, I think I’m 19. I eat like I’m 12.

Oh, here it is. I’m at the age where my mind firmly believes I’m 29. My humor suggests I’m 12 and my body possibly died in the Civil War. So, you know, right? But it is very much a state of mind. I mean, I saw something in the news the other day about a 99 year old woman who was still competing in swimming.

Now, she’s not competing against 16 year olds, right? But, she didn’t let the fact that she’s 99 stop her from doing this. So it is very much a state of mind. Now, People do have physical limitations, but you know, okay. That’s where having humor that says you’re 12 years old comes in.

 I think the second we think we’re old, we become old. Now, I tell people I have the rice crispy body, right? I stand up and everything goes snap, crackle, pop. But if I get exercise. A lot of the snap crackle pops go away. again, eat well, do all of those things, get yourself out of toxic type of relationships.

and you know what, if it means we’re, we think we’re 29 or 12, that’s okay. 

Emily: To go again through the cycle, if you can, at least to touch this period with wisdom of, you know, life you’ve had so far. Final, we are old, when we feel we are old and we are still young for longer years, as far as we are active in capacities we have.

If there is physical limitation, I’m just kind of trying to summarize your words and Thank you very much. I’m really happy to hear you to be with you today And my best wishes for you to be for many years young Active, helping others and enjoying your life. 

Deb: Well, again, as I said, I am so honored to be your guest.

I know you’re just starting this out. And so that really delights me that I am one of your first guests. And, thank you for giving me a way to share my message. 

Emily: Thank you very much. And today I was speaking with Deb Krier. Please remember this name and please check her websites below.

Thank you.

Deb Krier

Cancer Warrior ⚔ Communicator ⚔ Podcast Host

A resilient entrepreneur and cancer advocate known for her visionary work at tryingnottodie.LIVE, build coalitions, share knowledge, and empower cancer survivors and entrepreneurs to take charge of the things they CAN control to improve their quality of life. With a background in communications and marketing, she founded her own agency and hosts The Business Power Hour™ podcast. Facing Stage 4 triple positive breast cancer in 2015 and thyroid cancer in 2023, Deb’s journey inspired her to create tryingnottodie.LIVE in 2022, fostering community and amplifying voices in the cancer community. Based in Atlanta, she’s actively involved in business associations and gives back to her alma mater, the University of Colorado.

Navigating Life and Cancer: The Inspirational Cancer Journey of Deb Krier

In an illuminating conversation with Deb Krier on Emily Bron’s podcast, we are taken on a poignant Cancer Journey that encapsulates the essence of resilience, hope, and the power of living fully amidst life’s most harrowing trials. A beacon of strength and inspiration, Deb spoke about her whirlwind battle against cancer and founding her life-affirming initiative, TryingNotToDie.live, and shared her vision for future support for those on the cancer journey.

The Spark Behind the Mission

Cancer Journey: Deb’s story is a testament to the human spirit’s ability to overcome adversity. Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, what has initially considered a manageable condition escalated into a life-threatening ordeal involving a series of complications, surgeries, and additional cancer diagnoses. Through all this, Deb’s indomitable will to live shone brightly. She continued to work and maintain a sense of normalcy, demonstrating remarkable resilience.

This journey, marked by significant struggles and triumphs, inspired Deb and her business coach, Kathleen Caldwell, to establish TryingNotToDie.live. The initiative aims to shift focus from merely surviving to thoroughly living despite battling severe illnesses. By supporting those on their cancer journey and working with medical professionals to enhance patient support, Deb’s mission transcends her personal story, offering a beacon of hope and a community for many in similar battles.

Living Fully, Laughing Often

One of the most poignant messages from the conversation was about the importance of choosing life and joy, even in the face of illness. Deb candidly discussed the ethos behind TryingNotToDie.live, emphasizing that living isn’t about forsaking laughter or joy. Even amidst chemo sessions and hospital stays, maintaining a positive outlook and finding reasons to smile can make an immense difference. This outlook not only aids in personal coping but also encourages and uplifts others who share similar experiences.

The Future of Support

When discussing the future of cancer support, Deb touched on the monumental strides made in cancer treatment and management. She remains hopeful about the advancements yet to come, underscoring the importance of personal responsibility in health and wellness and the critical role of regular check-ups in early detection and treatment.

Deb also highlighted the necessity of a supportive community—whether through online platforms, such as private Facebook groups or in-person connections. This network of support, laughter, and shared experiences is invaluable for cancer patients.

A State of Mind: Age and Attitude

Deb’s remarks about age and attitude offered a refreshing perspective on living fully. Age, she suggests, is essentially a state of mind. A vibrant life is not about the number of years lived but about the quality of those years—about choosing to find joy, nurturing relationships, and maintaining physical and mental well-being to the best of one’s ability.

Conclusion

Deb Krier’s conversation with Emily Bron is a profound reminder of the strength and resilience inherent in all of us. It’s a testament to how, even in the darkest times, choosing to live, laugh, and love can light the way for ourselves and those around us. Deb Krier’s journey is more than just her battle with cancer—it’s a clarion call to everyone not just to survive but to thrive in the face of life’s trials.

For more about Deb and her work, visit (http://www.tryingnottodie.live), a platform that serves not just as a testament to her journey but also as a resource and community for those facing their own battles. It reminds us all of the power of living fully.

As we navigate the complexities of life, health, and age, Deb Krier’s insights serve as a beacon of hope, encouraging us to live with purpose, resilience, and joy—no matter the obstacles we face.