I'm Still Here: Real Conversations About Living with Metastatic Breast Cancer15 Apr

Episode 270: The Appointment Is the Easy Part: The Real Cost of Navigating Healthcare with MBC

How are you? Busy? Overwhelmed? Maybe both?

In this solo episode, Heather gets honest about what the last month has really looked like — navigating a sleep study, insurance approvals, cardiology appointments, and the quiet exhaustion that comes from managing your health on top of managing your life.

This isn't a crisis episode. It's a real one. Because for those of us living with metastatic breast cancer, the invisible load doesn't take days off — and the healthcare system isn't making it any easier.

The appointment is the easy part. It's everything around it — the prep, the phone calls, the insurance approvals, the waiting, the processing — that nobody accounts for. And when you're doing that on repeat, it costs something.

Heather talks about what it actually costs to keep all the loops open, why energy triage matters more than time management, and why giving yourself grace isn't the same as giving up.

If you've ever hung up the phone with your insurance company and just sat there for a minute — this one's for you.

Heather was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer at 26 and has now been living with the disease for more than 25 years. Through this podcast she shares perspective, lived experience, and conversations that help people navigate life with metastatic cancer.

Sensational Survivor SeriesIf you have been living with metastatic breast cancer for 10 years or more and would like to share your story on the podcast, you can apply here:⁠https://forms.gle/6H9K7NXMAeN1QEv87⁠

Listener QuestionsHave a question you'd like answered in a future episode? Submit it through the contact form:⁠https://heatherjose.com⁠

Connect with HeatherInstagram: ⁠https://instagram.com/heatherbjose⁠Website: ⁠https://heatherjose.com⁠

MusicIntro and outro music for the podcast was created by Heather's son, Ty. You can find his music here:Instagram: ⁠https://instagram.com/tyjosee⁠

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Episoder(279)

Episode 276: Encore Episode: Gillian Burles — 20 Years Living with HER2+ Metastatic Breast Cancer

Gillian Burles was 39 years old when her breast cancer metastasized to her spine — so severely that her T10 vertebra had to be replaced with a titanium alloy cage. She was living in the Northwest Terr...

24 Jun 40min

Episode 275: This Is the Good Stuff

Heather and Larry are back together, and they're catching up on a full couple of weeks. First up: Larry's first time volunteering at a Little Pink Houses of Hope retreat on the Outer Banks — what he e...

3 Jun 26min

Episode 274: Just a Tuesday

What do we actually want when we go into a scan? When we make the hard choices about treatment and energy and how we spend ourselves? We want a Tuesday. An ordinary, unremarkable, nothing-special day ...

13 Mai 25min

Episode 273: You Asked, I Answered

You had questions. Heather answered them. In this episode, Heather pulls from questions submitted on Instagram to talk about where her mets were, the treatments she's been on since her 1998 diagnosis,...

6 Mai 33min

Episode 272: When the Scan Isn't Clear — and That's Okay

Scan results don't always come back clean. After 28 years living with metastatic breast cancer, Heather has learned that "okay" doesn't always mean "clear" — and that learning to trust the process whe...

29 Apr 26min

Episode 271: Your Nervous System Isn't Overreacting

If you've ever felt like your body is always bracing for the next thing — you're not imagining it.In this solo episode, Heather explores what happens to your nervous system when you've been living wit...

22 Apr 23min

Episode 269: Your Questions, Our Answers

You asked, and we're answering. In this Q&A episode, Heather and Larry tackle questions submitted by listeners on Instagram and Facebook — the real ones, the hard ones, the ones a lot of people are th...

8 Apr 43min