THE POWER PANTALOONS With Tonya Baillargeon

Howard Brown: 00:00:04

Hello, welcome to the Shining Brightly Show. It's

Howard Brown: 00:00:07

Howard Brown. It's your maestro, it's your holiday Maestro. We're

Howard Brown: 00:00:11

here right before Thanksgiving. And you'll hear this episode a

Howard Brown: 00:00:15

little after as we head into the holiday season. But I've got an

Howard Brown: 00:00:19

unbelievable guests as I always do. But welcome, Tonya.

Howard Brown: 00:00:23

Baillargeon. hard to pronounce your name a little bit, but

Howard Brown: 00:00:27

you'll correct me. Welcome to the show. So happy you're here.

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:00:30

Thank you so much, Howard for having me. It's

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:00:32

Tonya Baillargeon, but

Howard Brown: 00:00:34

large and is that French? Or what is maybe in

Howard Brown: 00:00:36

French? Yeah, French Canadian. All right. So I was there a

Howard Brown: 00:00:39

little bit there. But thank you for that. So I'm just so happy

Howard Brown: 00:00:43

to have you on the show. Because you and I have a lot of

Howard Brown: 00:00:47

alignment there. And we're going to talk about that in a second.

Howard Brown: 00:00:51

But let me introduce you a little bit to the audience here.

Howard Brown: 00:00:55

And so, I want to tell you, Tonya is on a mission to help

Howard Brown: 00:00:59

millions of people revolutionise their cancer journey, moving

Howard Brown: 00:01:03

them from mere survival to full on thriving. Oh, I love that.

Howard Brown: 00:01:07

Because we're all trying to kind of evolve clay trying to put

Howard Brown: 00:01:10

Humpty Dumpty back together again. Sorry to interrupt. She

Howard Brown: 00:01:13

is your go to guide for helping cancer survivors adopt a winning

Howard Brown: 00:01:16

mindset. Build a powerhouse support team, explore effective

Howard Brown: 00:01:21

alternative wellness modalities, but that working hand in hand

Howard Brown: 00:01:25

with your oncologist treatment plan, and she is determined to

Howard Brown: 00:01:28

help vanquish the fear. reshape your mindset. Unleash your inner

Howard Brown: 00:01:32

warrior, your goal to help not just have you endure but

Howard Brown: 00:01:36

flourish. With her by your side. You are not thriving cancer, you

Howard Brown: 00:01:40

are conquering it. That's incredible. It's just

Howard Brown: 00:01:44

incredible. That's you know, people need that and from me

Howard Brown: 00:01:48

personally being I two times stage four cancer survivor.

Howard Brown: 00:01:53

We're just trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again, and

Howard Brown: 00:01:56

put together our lives. Some people, it's just getting one

Howard Brown: 00:01:59

step out of bed each day, other people are running marathons.

Howard Brown: 00:02:03

And everything in between. Right, Tonya?

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:02:05

Absolutely. So shows your own pace. Exactly.

Howard Brown: 00:02:09

So share something outside that bio that that we

Howard Brown: 00:02:13

might not know about you that you want the audience to hear.

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:02:17

I will be celebrating 17 years in March.

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:02:20

cancer free. Whoa,

Howard Brown: 00:02:23

that gets an Amen and hallelujah. Oh my God,

Howard Brown: 00:02:27

that's terrific. 17 year survivor in March. That's just

Howard Brown: 00:02:32

that's the goal is to keep on living. Oh, thank you for

Howard Brown: 00:02:36

sharing that. That's absolutely incredible. And a testament to

Howard Brown: 00:02:42

your mental toughness and your, your your well being and as well

Howard Brown: 00:02:46

as being able to just power through and build your life back

Howard Brown: 00:02:50

up again. It's just beautiful. And so let's let's dive right

Howard Brown: 00:02:54

in. So take take me back to about March of 2007.

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:02:58

And March 27 2007. Did date Yeah.

Howard Brown: 00:03:02

So let's start there. What's going on there? So

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:03:05

a friend of mine took me to my doctor

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:03:08

appointment. I you know, she just knew she knew I had no

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:03:12

idea, right? And my doctor said the dreaded words. Nobody wants

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:03:16

to hear you have cancer. Her lips moved, but I didn't hear

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:03:21

anything else. Because I was just overwhelmed by the news,

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:03:26

right? Like nobody expects that diagnosis. Even if you think you

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:03:29

have it, you just kind of stop in your tracks.

Howard Brown: 00:03:35

So tell everyone what your diagnosis was

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:03:38

a carso sarcoma of the uterus. So a lot

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:03:42

of people don't know, but a healthy uterus is only four

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:03:45

ounces. When they ended up taking mine out. It was over 10

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:03:49

pounds.

Howard Brown: 00:03:50

So that was filled with fluid and tumour. Yeah.

Howard Brown: 00:03:54

Wow. Now were you at a gynaecologist or yet a lady

Howard Brown: 00:03:57

doctor yet you're who you were. And they they, they take out a

Howard Brown: 00:04:04

sample it goes to pathology and right away they knew what your

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:04:08

Oh, it was? Absolutely not. So for me. There

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:04:11

were no markers in my blood. My pap smear came back, fine or

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:04:15

inconclusive. They did ultrasound, the trans vaginal

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:04:18

ultrasound, all of that came back fine or inconclusive. They

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:04:22

did what's called a Sano histogram, where they inflate

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:04:25

the uterus with saline and the image that came back

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:04:28

inconclusive. They actually had to do a DNC they had they had to

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:04:32

scrape the uterine lining to find the cancer. And there was

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:04:36

over 10 pounds of cancer in my body. And everybody assumes you

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:04:40

right everybody assumes the markers are in the blood, not

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:04:44

always, not always know that that is true. I can tell you

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:04:47

with colorectal cancer, you know the, the big towel is blood in

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:04:51

the stool, and I had none of that. None of that had it all.

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:04:55

So I had maybe a little irritable bowel, some cramping,

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:04:58

but nothing that bothered me, I just went on with my day. So

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:05:02

sometimes they don't know until they go in, right? I was not

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:05:06

told until my colonoscopy so you know, getting that waking up

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:05:10

from the colonoscopy going. Doc's everything okay, no, I

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:05:13

found something. And when they find something, it's really,

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:05:17

really bad news. So you're sitting in the doctor's office,

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:05:21

your girlfriend is stunned. You're you didn't, you didn't

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:05:24

hear the what they said, when you finally got the diagnosis.

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:05:28

After she said that I had cancer. I didn't hear anything

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:05:32

else that she said, But my friend happens to be an RN. So

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:05:38

she was able to catch all all of the information. And when we got

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:05:44

back to her house, she sat me down in her her room, and she

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:05:48

said, Okay, today's the day that you're allowed to be mad at God,

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:05:52

have all the hissy fits that you want, scream, be depressed, do

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:05:55

all all of that right now. But tomorrow morning, we're going to

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:05:59

wake up and we're going to kick cancers butt.

Howard Brown: 00:06:03

Wow, that's a good friend. What's her name?

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:06:05

Her name is Madeline.

Howard Brown: 00:06:06

Let's shout out to Madeline because that's a

Howard Brown: 00:06:08

beautiful friend and a beautiful care partner to at least sit you

Howard Brown: 00:06:12

down in fact that she was an RN and of training and all that.

Howard Brown: 00:06:17

Because cancer diagnosis is confusing. It's complex. It's

Howard Brown: 00:06:23

life changing. And my friend I will share that Lee Silverstein

Howard Brown: 00:06:28

is a fellow stage four colon cancer. And he ran a podcast

Howard Brown: 00:06:32

over 200 episodes called we have cancer because it's not just

Howard Brown: 00:06:35

you. It's your family and it's your friends and we we as a

Howard Brown: 00:06:38

community have cancer. So you know that very, very well. Now,

Howard Brown: 00:06:42

you did the schedule you write for surgery, or did you do other

Howard Brown: 00:06:45

treatments first or do you have to do chemo or radiation?

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:06:48

Yeah, the first thing was the

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:06:50

hysterectomy. Six weeks after the diagnosis, I had a total

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:06:54

hysterectomy. The surgery ran long. Because I'm overweight.

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:06:58

The gynaecologist had had a problem but no complications. I

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:07:04

did make it through. Okay. And then I had an appointment with

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:07:10

an oncologist. And he talked about a chemotherapy radiation

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:07:16

sandwich. And I literally looked at him and I said I'd I'd rather

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:07:19

have the tuna. That sounds disgusting. But obviously, we

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:07:24

went ahead and did that. Most chemotherapy, everybody

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:07:28

understands that you go into like a little room and you have

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:07:30

an IV. And it's you go and you leave, right? For me. The

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:07:38

cisplatin, the the treatment was I was actually going to have to

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:07:42

have what's called rescue drugs. before, during and after the

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:07:46

chemotherapy. And because because of how long that took, I

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:07:49

actually had to be inpatient for four days a month for my

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:07:53

treatments. So I did three of those. And then I took a little

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:07:57

break. And then I had five and a half weeks of radiation, took a

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:08:01

little break, and then had another three rounds of chemo.

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:08:05

Wow.

Howard Brown: 00:08:09

Susan, for a second. Sure. I guess. The fact

Howard Brown: 00:08:15

is, is that wow, first of all, this is platinum very toxic. I

Howard Brown: 00:08:22

know that for sure. Because I've had it, it's very toxic. And

Howard Brown: 00:08:26

also then radiation which I've had full body radiation as well,

Howard Brown: 00:08:30

no fun. And you're doing this as an inpatient, because they're

Howard Brown: 00:08:33

doing it as slow drip, and they're actually preparing your

Howard Brown: 00:08:36

body to take it and then also to prepare to actually deal with it

Howard Brown: 00:08:40

while it's inside of you. And your job is actually to get the

Howard Brown: 00:08:43

chemo out by sweating and peeing and, and breathing. That's the

Howard Brown: 00:08:49

way that it actually, you know, goes through your blood system

Howard Brown: 00:08:51

and does its thing. And then the radiation was obviously to

Howard Brown: 00:08:54

shrink the tumour and then you did another set of of chemo. But

Howard Brown: 00:09:00

then you had the surgery where they actually did the removal of

Howard Brown: 00:09:04

the first surgery was first Oh, they did that first and then

Howard Brown: 00:09:06

you're doing this after post Okay, I did make

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:09:09

sure even though so when they did the

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:09:12

hysterectomies, they removed five lymph nodes, and all my

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:09:15

lymph nodes came back fine. But they wanted to take the

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:09:18

precaution to go ahead and do this radical treatment because

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:09:21

of the amount of cancer that I had in my body.

Howard Brown: 00:09:26

Right? They don't know when they removed from

Howard Brown: 00:09:28

surgery if they've gotten it all all, even the baby micro cells

Howard Brown: 00:09:31

and all that. So I've been there when they took out, you know,

Howard Brown: 00:09:34

and all the cancer out of my abdomen and pelvis and then

Howard Brown: 00:09:37

poured hot chemotherapy in there which was radical, you know, in

Howard Brown: 00:09:40

March of 18, and still kind of a crazy surgery. So Alright, so

Howard Brown: 00:09:45

now you're you're healing and you're repairing after that,

Howard Brown: 00:09:48

because this is all happening in a six month period. And so it

Howard Brown: 00:09:52

was a 10 month period. Okay, so what happens next?

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:09:56

Then they sent me back into the world,

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:09:58

right like just like yours On, all your treatment is done, you

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:10:02

go back into the world. But while I was going through all of

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:10:06

that, I incorporated a whole bunch of alternative wellness

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:10:09

modalities. And I had a frank conversation with my oncologist.

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:10:13

I'm like, Listen, I want to do I want to do aromatherapy I want

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:10:17

to do herbalism I want to do flower essences I want to do.

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:10:21

He's like, you can stop right there. As long as you don't put

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:10:23

it in your mouth. I don't care what you do. So I said, okay, so

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:10:27

no, no, no teas, no herbal teas. He said, No. And I said, why?

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:10:31

And he said, because it may counteract the chemotherapy. And

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:10:37

I was like, okay, but that to me was enough alignment with what I

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:10:43

wanted, like, because I feel you have to have your whole entire

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:10:46

medical team has to be in alignment with you, right? You

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:10:49

don't want anybody mourning you. While you're standing there. You

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:10:52

don't want people giving you expiration dates. Obviously, you

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:10:56

want them to be honest with you, but your mindset is such a huge

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:11:01

part of your recovery of you have you're transitioning

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:11:06

through this trauma time.

Howard Brown: 00:11:09

Right. So I agree, I will tell you that when I went

Howard Brown: 00:11:13

through my first cancer in 1989 1990, the talk of holistic

Howard Brown: 00:11:18

medicine and mindset wasn't there, you know, before the

Howard Brown: 00:11:21

internet before we had cell phones, and before we really had

Howard Brown: 00:11:24

computer use, wasn't there this time around, you know, you know,

Howard Brown: 00:11:28

26 years later, much more much more open. Not all doctors but

Howard Brown: 00:11:33

but doctors to that. And we the patients living on the front

Howard Brown: 00:11:37

lines, I will tell you that, you know, we were using THC gummies

Howard Brown: 00:11:41

to combat nausea, you know, appetite and sleep way before

Howard Brown: 00:11:47

the doctors actually then set Oh, that's an okay idea. You

Howard Brown: 00:11:50

know, we're doing things that we got to solve first, sometimes.

Howard Brown: 00:11:53

So sometimes they don't come along too soon. But I'm glad you

Howard Brown: 00:11:55

got alignment with your doctor that it helps when you're on the

Howard Brown: 00:11:58

same team, and you're pulling the same way. So I'm glad that

Howard Brown: 00:12:01

helped. Now, tell me about this statement here. And I know it's

Howard Brown: 00:12:04

the name of your podcast as well. The power pantaloons and

Howard Brown: 00:12:08

tell me how Wonder Woman plays a role in this.

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:12:12

Every day, I had just one item on my to do

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:12:14

list. And that was I visualised putting on a pair of Wonder

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:12:18

Woman's underwear because Wonder Woman doesn't die. So that was

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:12:22

me, the act of physical representation of me deciding to

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:12:26

live every day, right? Yeah, so like, it's powerful, right. And

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:12:34

there were days that definitely didn't happen. But I would say

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:12:37

like 98 99% of the reason. The days I did actually manage to do

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:12:45

that, and because my survival rate was about 5%, I credit this

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:12:51

one activity, with 95% of the reason I made it through.

Howard Brown: 00:12:56

Wow. So that was your mindset. That was your

Howard Brown: 00:12:58

visualisation. And you are basically saying, Oh, I'm

Howard Brown: 00:13:02

putting on Wonder Woman's underwear. Okay. And that's

Howard Brown: 00:13:06

going to basically that's amazing. Really, you know, I

Howard Brown: 00:13:10

think about it, you know, of me putting on my Men's depends my

Howard Brown: 00:13:14

big boy pants, you know, before I go, you know, on a big trip or

Howard Brown: 00:13:18

something like that, but you were putting on Wonder Woman's

Howard Brown: 00:13:20

pants, your big girl pants there and that carried you through

Howard Brown: 00:13:23

that's that's that's mindset. That's it really is. It's mental

Howard Brown: 00:13:26

toughness, but that's visualisation that you

Howard Brown: 00:13:30

transformed into your own version of Wonder Woman. I

Howard Brown: 00:13:33

applaud that.

Howard Brown: 00:13:33

Yeah, absolutely. We all do, right. Everybody who gets this

Howard Brown: 00:13:39

diagnosis makes a decision, whether they make it overtly or

Howard Brown: 00:13:43

or subconsciously, and how they handle everything in their

Howard Brown: 00:13:49

treatment. And depends on that one decision, right? Like, you

Howard Brown: 00:13:56

know that some people choose not to be an active participant in

Howard Brown: 00:13:59

their treatment. I've seen it happen. Yeah, that's it's sad,

Howard Brown: 00:14:04

but you can't control that decision for somebody else. You

Howard Brown: 00:14:08

can only work on your own.

Howard Brown: 00:14:11

Absolutely. So now carry me forward. So some of the big

Howard Brown: 00:14:16

lessons that that you took away and carried forward.

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:14:21

Nothing puts you in a state of gratitude for

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:14:25

all of the time you have left faster than having an expiration

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:14:32

date put in your face. Not nothing gets you clear with who

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:14:37

you are, what you want in life, and what kind of person you want

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:14:43

to be faster than a death sentence.

Howard Brown: 00:14:46

Yeah, absolutely. I'll take a quick timeout and

Howard Brown: 00:14:50

say, you know, we got cancer screening week coming up in

Howard Brown: 00:14:53

December 4 through the night, go get screened, go get you know,

Howard Brown: 00:14:57

go get check. You're not your optimal you if you If you don't

Howard Brown: 00:15:00

so and we put it off during COVID, so the ability to get

Howard Brown: 00:15:03

your, your mammogram, go get your prostate checked, if you're

Howard Brown: 00:15:10

a guy, go get your colonoscopy, right, go go to your lady

Howard Brown: 00:15:13

doctor, you know, go to the dentist, right? Please, please

Howard Brown: 00:15:17

go check, get your checks, take care of seriously self care and

Howard Brown: 00:15:20

self love. So I would agree with that. And so you walk alongside

Howard Brown: 00:15:25

of cancer patients, caregivers and their families tell me about

Howard Brown: 00:15:28

how that evolved.

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:15:31

So last year, I ended up with another cancer

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:15:34

scare. Why walking through that, it sort of was like a lightbulb

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:15:41

moment for me. Like, I felt like divinity was like, Excuse me,

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:15:45

ma'am. We gave you all of this intimate knowledge on how to

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:15:50

help somebody transition through this devastating diagnosis, and

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:15:54

you're not doing anything with it. And I was like, Ah, yes. All

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:15:58

right about that. So we're going to do something about that. And

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:16:01

I started my podcast, and I started working with survivors

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:16:05

and caregivers, building mindset, building their support

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:16:10

networks, building boundaries, like because some people just

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:16:13

have to be politely excused from your life, because they're not

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:16:16

in alignment with where you are as a person, whether they can't

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:16:20

handle your diagnosis, or whatever the reason is, it's

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:16:24

time for them to be away for a little while, or forever, right?

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:16:27

Like you make those decisions, and then to how to listen to

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:16:31

your body to intuitively choose what kind of alternative

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:16:35

wellness modalities that you want to use, while you in

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:16:39

addition to what your oncologist is telling you to do. Because I

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:16:42

think Mind, Body Spirit, they have to be together, because it

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:16:46

is a disease that ravages your mind, body, and spirit. So you

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:16:52

have to use all the tools in your toolbox to, to work through

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:16:56

and

Howard Brown: 00:16:57

use all the tools in your toolbox, I would say

Howard Brown: 00:17:00

that, it's really important to have someone be able to walk

Howard Brown: 00:17:04

alongside of you. And being that I'm in the colon cancer space I

Howard Brown: 00:17:09

call in town. That's what we do with patients, caregivers and

Howard Brown: 00:17:12

families. And we get make sure that you're you're educated as a

Howard Brown: 00:17:16

patient, and you actually have the support that you need. And

Howard Brown: 00:17:22

that's important, because that's what you do as well. And that's

Howard Brown: 00:17:25

a form of mentorship. And it's a really, it's a very important

Howard Brown: 00:17:28

skill. But I have to tell you that when I came into colon

Howard Brown: 00:17:32

cancer, I didn't know anything. But I was already a cancer

Howard Brown: 00:17:35

veteran, when I would did lymphoma in 1989 99. It was a

Howard Brown: 00:17:38

deer in the headlights, I really didn't know what was going on.

Howard Brown: 00:17:41

This time around, I was still a deer in the headlights, but my

Howard Brown: 00:17:44

learning curve was much faster. And you know, I reached out to

Howard Brown: 00:17:48

his people that were 510 15 steps ahead of me. All right,

Howard Brown: 00:17:53

that had already walked that path. Now I wasn't going to walk

Howard Brown: 00:17:56

the same path necessarily, but similar path. And they were

Howard Brown: 00:18:00

telling me kind of what to expect and how to deal with

Howard Brown: 00:18:03

things and how to get educated. And that was invaluable. Because

Howard Brown: 00:18:09

instead of it being a big mystery, or something that's

Howard Brown: 00:18:12

just a big black hole or fear, I was able to then use their

Howard Brown: 00:18:16

knowledge to make better decisions. And there were just

Howard Brown: 00:18:20

days that they call me and I just didn't get out of bed and

Howard Brown: 00:18:23

they were like, Yeah, you're getting out of bed, and you're

Howard Brown: 00:18:26

walking the dog. And then you're having a bite of egg and cheese,

Howard Brown: 00:18:28

and then you can go back to bed. And so they were many

Howard Brown: 00:18:32

cheerleaders as well. And that's important. And I do that as well

Howard Brown: 00:18:38

like you, I do that still I still I mostly with a lot of men

Howard Brown: 00:18:43

in the colorectal cancer space. But they all want to get to

Howard Brown: 00:18:46

where we are, right we want to get to no evidence of disease or

Howard Brown: 00:18:50

remission. And that's that's the end game is to get your life

Howard Brown: 00:18:54

back. Now, that's a survivorship so a whole nother thing, right?

Howard Brown: 00:18:58

To get your to be able to then put the pieces of your life

Howard Brown: 00:19:01

back, you know, your career, your finances, your family, your

Howard Brown: 00:19:04

relationships. That's also a whole nother game as well. So

Howard Brown: 00:19:07

it's really important. So tell me about some of the workshops

Howard Brown: 00:19:09

that you that you offer.

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:19:14

Well, right now what I'm promoting is

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:19:20

medical binder, right? So somebody asked me what what what

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:19:25

did you do with with chemo brain and I was like, you know, that's

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:19:28

a really good point. So I built myself a medical binder so that

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:19:33

every time I went to a new doctor for whatever right blood

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:19:37

we're all of it was put in there. So when they asked me

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:19:40

well, what medication are you on? I didn't have to remember

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:19:42

it. My portable brain dead. It's all there. So that's one of the

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:19:46

things that I offer. I do one on one, coaching, I do group coach

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:19:52

coaching, and I am building a course that will be done based

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:19:57

on the seasons. I know that sounds a little a little odd but

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:20:01

based on the seasons where you're talking about breathwork

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:20:03

and meditation Asian connecting with nature, aromatherapy. You

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:20:12

know, stuff, nutrition, nutrition, let's talk about

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:20:16

nutrition for a second. Because for me, like mindsets right here

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:20:19

and getting your food right is right here, because making your

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:20:24

body into a more alkaline place is super important because

Howard Brown: 00:20:29

I think that, you know, what they throw so much

Howard Brown: 00:20:29

cancer can't survive in an alkaline place. So, yeah,

Howard Brown: 00:20:31

information at you. And to keep track of it is is a task. So

Howard Brown: 00:20:35

having that binder is really important. My caregiver, you

Howard Brown: 00:20:40

know, mom did it the first time and my wife, Lisa did it the

Howard Brown: 00:20:44

second time, but you got to keep track of it, because they asked

Howard Brown: 00:20:47

you the same questions like 500 times, right, and you got to

Howard Brown: 00:20:51

know your answers and, and then getting yourself to a place of

Howard Brown: 00:20:55

good physical activity, good sleep, good nutrition is all

Howard Brown: 00:21:00

part of the equation. And also, I have a thing that I call my

Howard Brown: 00:21:03

happy place, my happy place happens to be the stress free

Howard Brown: 00:21:06

zone on the basketball court, lots of people, you got to find

Howard Brown: 00:21:09

that place where you're, you don't feel like a cancer

Howard Brown: 00:21:11

patient. So it could be cooking, it could be travel, it could be

Howard Brown: 00:21:14

music, it could be art, it could be meditation, I don't place

Howard Brown: 00:21:17

judgement on that find one. So find a happy place, and you

Howard Brown: 00:21:20

should definitely go there. Now very, very important to do that.

Howard Brown: 00:21:25

And listen, you know, when you're in treatment, right of

Howard Brown: 00:21:30

chemotherapy, and you're in radiation, or you've just had

Howard Brown: 00:21:34

surgery, you've got to allow your cells chances to heal. That

Howard Brown: 00:21:38

healing is really, really, really, really important. The

Howard Brown: 00:21:42

other thing is, is that we live in the cancer world, at least I

Howard Brown: 00:21:45

know you and I do is that the stage four cancer world is not

Howard Brown: 00:21:48

kind. So people die all the time. And it's not that they

Howard Brown: 00:21:52

didn't have a will to live, it's just that their cancer burden

Howard Brown: 00:21:54

became too great. And God called them to heaven. And so that is a

Howard Brown: 00:21:58

part of unfortunately, the world that we both work in each day.

Howard Brown: 00:22:02

It's hard. It

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:22:03

is hard. It is

Howard Brown: 00:22:07

what? So it's really a great service that you

Howard Brown: 00:22:14

offer. How do how are people responding, and when you see

Howard Brown: 00:22:20

them, because you have to keep it private, but you're seeing

Howard Brown: 00:22:23

people grow. And one baby step to big, big, big steps. When,

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:22:28

you know helping somebody at the

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:22:30

beginning, which is mindset, right? Finding their own version

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:22:35

of Wonder Woman, whether it's that man or their grandmother,

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:22:39

because she you know, was the most stubborn person on the

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:22:43

planet, right? Like so once you find the person or the essence

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:22:47

of the happiness or the strength or whatever it is that you think

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:22:52

that you need to get through this, helping them discover

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:22:55

which role model has that and then how to just draw on that.

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:23:00

So grandma's apron, like, go get an apron, like you can

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:23:03

physically go get an apron that represents that or you can just

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:23:08

visualise it. And it's remarkable to see how the how

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:23:11

easy it becomes for people to do that. Yeah, no, no really,

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:23:15

really, really important.

Howard Brown: 00:23:17

. Well, here we go. This is the part of the show

Howard Brown: 00:23:20

that I want to actually shine the spotlight on you. This is

Howard Brown: 00:23:23

the shining bright the spotlight. For those of you

Howard Brown: 00:23:26

listening, I have my white magnetic glasses on and I'm

Howard Brown: 00:23:29

shining it on Tonya. And I would love to tell people how they

Howard Brown: 00:23:32

should best get a hold of you. And I know you have a freebie

Howard Brown: 00:23:36

for the audience to take advantage of. And then wrap up

Howard Brown: 00:23:39

the show with some inspiration for us. And then throw it back

Howard Brown: 00:23:42

to me.

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:23:43

Sure, so you can reach me at link tree slash

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:23:47

Tonya Baillargeon it's right behind me. So li n k t

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:23:54

r.ie/TONYA Baillargeon. That's how you get a hold of me. What

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:24:02

was the next question I've already forgot. That's okay.

Howard Brown: 00:24:04

You you have a giveaway? Oh,

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:24:08

yes, I do. So I have a giveaway that is the

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:24:13

two essential oils that I used while I was going through chemo

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:24:16

every day and that you absolutely should use not only

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:24:20

for stress reduction and anxiety relief, but actually to help

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:24:25

keep you in a calmer state. So that's the thing that I will be

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:24:27

giving you today.

Howard Brown: 00:24:30

That's awesome. So we'll make sure those links are

Howard Brown: 00:24:32

in there and they can get to your website and now be able to

Howard Brown: 00:24:36

to get a hold of you. Share some inspiration with me inspire us.

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:24:41

So whether whether you think that Confucius

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:24:44

said it or Henry Ford said it because they both said it.

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:24:48

Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right.

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:24:54

That's, you know that like that is my favourite quote and that

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:24:58

really like the mindset piece Is that That's where it comes from

Tonya Baillargeon: 00:25:01

for me. Yeah, just aside.

Howard Brown: 00:25:06

well, first of all 17 years, I'm at four. So I'm

Howard Brown: 00:25:11

behind you a little bit, but we're with you together.

Howard Brown: 00:25:14

Congratulations on that. Congratulations. Also that

Howard Brown: 00:25:17

you're helping so many cancer patients, caregivers and

Howard Brown: 00:25:20

families take the next step. I think that's the most important

Howard Brown: 00:25:23

thing. So this has been the shining brightly podcast show.

Howard Brown: 00:25:27

I'm Howard Brown, you can get a hold of me at shining

Howard Brown: 00:25:36

brightly.com Learn about my podcast here, my speaking and

Howard Brown: 00:25:37

also my advocacy and my book, as well. And just you know, the

Howard Brown: 00:25:42

lesson that I share with everyone is that if we try to

Howard Brown: 00:25:45

shine brightly, just a little bit each day, for ourselves, for

Howard Brown: 00:25:49

others in our communities, the world will be a better place.

Howard Brown: 00:25:52

Thanks for watching and listening. Till next time. Thank

Howard Brown: 00:25:55

you