This is the picture used for the stupid article.
A Stupid Article RUINED my day…Well the first part of my day
So, I had a list of things I was going to do today, but the most important task I gave myself was to enjoy every aspect of my day. Just enjoy every little thing I did today. I even did a 20 minute meditation outside with a smile on my face and I felt great about what was in store for my day. I juiced some wheatgrass and made my green vegetable juice and I was ready to hit the ground running. I planned to go on a nice long bike ride, run some errands, clean the house, and write a nice long Hippocrates lesson #1 post for all of you.
You can thank the article for missing lesson #1 from Hippocrates. Now you get the “I hate this Detroit News article on me” post. My dad and step-mom called me to tell me they saw an article on me in the Detroit News today. They said I looked cute in the picture, but didn’t really say anything good about the article. I had to go see why so I looked it up online. I swear, I don’t think I am going to do any more interviews ever again. I go into them with such positive intentions. I guess I am so comfortable telling my whole story and making myself so vulnerable with all the info about my life but I am used to doing that with all of you. You all know me. You know what I am all about and you understand me. You are also completely supportive.
So, here is what happened with the article. Kim Taylor of the Detroit News interviewed me a couple days ago. It is supposed to be a story about a cancer survivor who is doing Race for the Cure. I guess where I went wrong was I talked to her for too long. Of course the majority of our conversation was about me living the right way, my trip to Hippocrates, wheatgrass juice, green veggie juice, exercise, positive attitude, my wonderful response to treatment so far and the mental change I made to look forward to a long and healthy life with an insightful, happy and loving perspective. I talked about being forced to take a step back from my busy life, discover what makes people happy and healthy and start doing just that. I told her how my life is better now with the big “C” than it was when I was just grinding through my days without any real purpose before diagnosis. Then, she asked me why I thought I got cancer and why so many young women get cancer now. I told her about being genetically positive, but that I by no means attribute it to just that. I said this world is less forgiving than it was 30 years ago when people didn’t get sick as much. I talked about how many things in our lives are toxic and harmful to us that we aren’t aware of because we assume the best – like hormones, antibiotics, preservatives…etc in meat and dairy. I mentioned all the products we use without understanding all the toxic ingredients. I also mentioned how I did some things most teenagers did like smoke and drink in high school and college. I however quit smoking many years before being diagnosed which I also told her. Anyway, that was one minute of the two hour conversation we had. I mostly talked about food we all ate growing up not knowing what was in it that is bad for us.
So from all of that she chopped and chopped down to what she wanted her article to be about. And the article starts like this….”Maybe Shannon Iezzi, 28, got cancer because she smoked cigarettes -- or drank alcohol.
Perhaps a lump developed in her breast because she had a genetic predisposition to cancer. Who knows if it was the birth control pills or shots? Could it have been her stressful job?
And this is my quote…. (but not really, because I didn’t say it exactly like that)
"Maybe I have cancer because I ate meat with hormones or ate toxic food products or played with mercury when I was a kid," Iezzi, of Rochester Hills, says. "Yeah, I'm predisposed to cancer, but I think it's a whole bunch of things. My body was less forgiving on the things I did, the same things my friends did. "They didn't get cancer. I did."
First off, thanks for starting the article off like that. Makes it sound like I was a smoker up to being diagnosed and then I finally learned my lesson and quit when I got cancer. Not the case at all. Another thing is that is not an exact quote from me. That is not how I said things. Also, I mentioned when I was learning about all the toxic things we are exposed to, I told her it made me think back to one time when I was about 6 years old, a thermometer broke and I rolled the mercury around with my finger because I thought it was cool how it bubbled together. It was an example of how we didn’t know what things are bad for us so you cannot sit and dwell on them or even discuss them. For one thing she makes it sound like playing with mercury was a hobby for me. For another, this article completely misses the point I was trying to make. MY POINT WAS we cannot dwell on things done in the past (which is completely what she does in this article when she points out every thing that MIGHT have caused my cancer.) To me it almost sound like I am bitter that my friends didn’t get cancer the way she worded it.
As a health reporter you are being invited into the life of someone who is dealing with a situation in that can cause some serious emotional trauma. I know I seem to have it all together, but dealing with this can be very hard on me and have some deep emotional feelings that I have to deal with once in a while. I am so proud of myself for how I have handled this diagnosis and how I stay focused on the right things. I love telling my story so people can see that cancer is not a death sentence and it is possible to live a better life after a diagnosis. I want people to be inspired by me. She COMPLETELY missed who I am and what I am doing with my life in this article. What a misrepresentation of me.
So anyway I cried all morning and talked to my dad and step mom about how much I hated the article. I almost don’t want to interview ever again. I’m trying to get past this and not dwell on it too much. I usually have a 1 day recovery on anything traumatic in my life. I’ve learned that about myself from so much experience. All these feelings I now have are all unhealthy feelings. Anger, sadness, embarrassment, regret, rage..and on and on. I did take out some aggression on the lawn, which is now perfectly mowed, and now I am doing it on my computer. Aggression can certainly give you some energy for getting things done.
Well, let’s assume that Kim didn’t have any bad intentions and wanted to focus a story on why young women get breast cancer. I think it would have been better if it was an inspirational story on survivors who are thriving and running the race because they are so healthy, but what do I know. What’s wrong with a little positive motivation? I think she should have maybe determined that we wanted different things out of the story and maybe I wasn’t the best person to interview. I am not a person who is at all interested in stupid scare tatics of reporters. Maybe I should have told her what my intention for interviewing is for. I don’t want fame or publicity, I want to inspire people and give them hope and a good example.
Anyway, read the article if you please on Detroitnews.com and you can type my name in the search and the article will come up. Just remember how I feel about the article. I do look cute in the picture though. I’m cutting out the picture for my scrapbook, but the big downer of a negative article is going in the trash with the rest of my negative feelings.
Thanks for being here with me as I learn some life lessons. Hopefully I can take the best from this experience and turn it into something positive for me. Venting helped me a lot. Thanks for being my emotional recycling machine. Tomorrow is the race and I plan to make tomorrow be the day I enjoy every little thing I do. Today was a bad day to try for that.
Okay, bye for now. Hope my negative mood doesn’t influence the outcome of the Pistons game because we need this win.
Go Pistons!!!!
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