CLEVELAND — There's just something about spending quality time with your best friend. In fact, that's what 36-year-old Brianna LaRose does every day with her beloved dog, Olive.
"You wanna go for a walk? Oh, yes. You're the best girl," she said to Olive on Thursday.
"So I got her two weeks after my double mastectomy when I still had my drains in. My brother said, 'I think you need a dog,'" Brianna said.
And, she did. Because at age 31, nine years before the recommended age for mammograms, Brianna was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer.
"I actually had an itch on my left breast and scratched it and felt a lump. Didn't really think anything of it, honestly, because again, no family history," Brianna said. "[My doctor] called me a week later and said, 'Yeah, it's cancer. We need to start determining your course of treatment.'"
Brianna was living in Chicago at the time but moved back to Northeast Ohio for family support and to get treatment at the Cleveland Clinic. The cancer, by that time, had spread to her lymph nodes.
"So after my mastectomy, I did 16 rounds of chemotherapy and then 25 rounds of radiation after that," Brianna said.
Her breast surgeon, Dr. Stephanie Valente, says her mindset helped her through recovery.
"She was always focused on the things that she could control, which was number one, her attitude. I mean, she had a great attitude like, 'Hey, this is something that's happening to me. It's not going to define me and it's not going to stop me,'" Dr. Valente said.
Nothing has stopped her. In fact, she's only kept going, launching a podcast for breast cancer awareness
"I started it with a friend of mine that I went to high school with and we were diagnosed four months apart," Brianna said of her friend, Sarah Bokovitz.
The two had different stories: Sarah was the mother of an infant when she was diagnosed, while Brianna was living on her own.
"I think that our experiences, although different, kind of showcase, 'Hey, we're experiencing the same thing even though we're at different phases of life,'" she said. "I think just hearing people say, you helped me, or I feel more comfortable asking questions, we say all the time if we record every week and nobody listens to this, it's healing us."
Helping other survivors and warriors feel less alone has been beyond rewarding for Brianna. That's something Dr. Valente feels each year Brianna stays healthy.
"I love the opportunities to see patients on the other side where I say, 'Hey, you have cancer. This year is going to be rough.' But next year and the year after and all those things, when you're telling me about your vacation and your relationships and all those things, that's what makes it worth it," Dr. Valente said.
You can listen to Brianna and Sarah's podcast, "Second Base," on multiple platforms, including Apple, Spotify, YouTube and Amazon.