Dina's Story

Dina Legland: 00:00:00

What are three words no one ever wants to hear? Learn more as I share about getting the call

Maggie Judge: 00:00:18

Hi, I'm Maggie.

Dina Legland: 00:00:20

And I'm Dina. And this is the show where we get real and raw about breast Cancer. The fear, the love, the changes, the surpiring gifts and the celebrations in it all.

Maggie Judge: 00:00:35

At the end of the episode, we will be asking you to share your real and raw insight from this conversation.

Dina Legland: 00:00:42

Are you ready to dive into today's episode?

Maggie Judge: 00:00:49

Welcome to our first episode of heal, inside and out, we're super excited to be here. And I hope our hope is that these conversations bring some value to you as it relates to your healing journey. So today, we are going to learn a bit more about the dear, Dina Legland, and get to know a few things about her her story, her journey. And stay tuned for episode two where we'll do the same and cover a little more about my story and my journey. So before we get too far, I just want to insert a little trigger warning here because we felt it being it would be important that if you're not up for getting real and raw and are hearing some real and raw things about another person's breast cancer journey, no worries. If you're not in that place today, my friend just tune out for now. Take care of you and come back anytime you are ready. So that said, let's dive in. So Dina saying it has been a pleasure getting to know you is an understatement. So this past year since we met in the context of breast cancer and other breast cancer webinar a year ago today, it's been great getting to know you and I would like our listeners to get to know you a little bit as well.

Dina Legland: 00:02:24

Sure. So happy to share.

Maggie Judge: 00:02:27

All right. So let's have you share some of your story beyond the cancer first, and then we'll dive into some of your specific breast cancer experience. So tell our listeners where you grew up.

Dina Legland: 00:02:44

I grew up in a town called Deer Park, which is on Long Island, New York. I have lived there my entire life until about a year and a half ago when I moved to the Sunshine State of Florida. So I'm in southern Florida in a town called Boca Raton.

Maggie Judge: 00:03:04

Love it. Yeah, no for snow. Yes, that. And I absolutely love that. You're just so close to the ocean. And yes, the sun sun and water favorite lover?

Dina Legland: 00:03:19

Yes, mine, too.

Maggie Judge: 00:03:21

So what are some of the roles you've played in life? And are you playing now in life?

Dina Legland: 00:03:28

Oh, there are many roles for sure. First of all, a wife, a mom, a sister, a daughter, a friend, a co worker. I am a nurse by education, which right now I am not practicing nursing at the moment. I actually retired from nursing right before COVID hit to be honest with you. And as of now, I am a transformational life and wellness coach.

Maggie Judge: 00:04:02

And good timing on leaving nursing. I had a COVID Depending on how you look at it, of course right but

Dina Legland: 00:04:09

yeah, just wow. Yeah, I had actually a lot of nursing friends that when COVID hit they ended up working through some of it but ended up retiring. It was just very devastating for especially nurses and seeing all the tragedy and trauma and what it did. Yeah,

Maggie Judge: 00:04:33

I can't imagine. While you're I can't wait also to dive a little bit more into the life coaching role and what you're doing for others in that space. So here's a quick and easy question. What matters most to you and like what are your personal values?

Dina Legland: 00:04:53

My personal values. Actually I have three core values. One is intact. Pretty. The second one is trust. And the third one is responsibility. And integrity to me is, you know, being honest and true to yourself, not only to others, but mostly to yourself. I love that. And it's something that was instilled in me, from my dad. We have a very special bond, my father and I, and integrity. And trust. Trust is another big one for me. I go full force into friendships, relationships, work, and I trust. And sometimes people say, Well, you're too trusting. And then there's times I have to trust the process. All right, and the last one, as far as responsibility is something I've learned as I've been going through life and responsibility is that you have to be responsible for yourself, and nobody else. And that's a big one for certs, some people, it's not always easy to do. So those are my three core values.

Maggie Judge: 00:06:17

I love them. And I love how you called out the difference between like, trust in relationships, and then trusting the process, because those are two very different.

Dina Legland: 00:06:29

Oh, yes. And we can go into many episodes with that.

Maggie Judge: 00:06:33

And that could be a whole theme, right?

Dina Legland: 00:06:35

Absolutely.

Maggie Judge: 00:06:37

Okay, so now, what do you do for fun?

Dina Legland: 00:06:42

What I do for fun, is I love being out in nature. When I was living in New York, we used to go hiking in the mountains, the Hudson Valley area. Anytime I can go out to the vineyards and just walk around. I love walking on the beach. I love watching the sunrise, the sunset. I just love all kinds of sports outside. You know, I just love the air, the warmth, the sun. But the biggest thing that I love to do is listen to live bands, and go dancing. And the funny part about it is I don't need a dance partner. As soon as the drums start playing, I am out there a guitar a singer I am happy. I don't need anybody anything but just the beat of the music. I'm the first one out on the dance floor.

Maggie Judge: 00:07:45

Okay, but you just inherited a dance partner because right with your sister. I love dancing. Yep, those are good ones. And you You are also what I have been learning about you is you are a person that likes to have fun. So good for you.

Dina Legland: 00:08:00

Yes, yes, I have a little bit of a not a weird sense of humor. But I like to find humor in things. So they're not so serious. And it's another thing that I've learned from my dad, my dad will crack a joke at the most inopportune times.

Maggie Judge: 00:08:21

I love it. It sounds like you and your dad have a very special relationship. Yes. And more about that, too. Yes. Well, okay, thank you. Now I let's shift to give our listeners a little context about your personal breast cancer experience with a couple of questions. Just to get started there. Where were you when you got the call? When was it and what was your diagnosis specifically?

Dina Legland: 00:08:50

Wow. It's funny how you remember those days like it was yesterday. I was actually it was October 10 2016. I was driving home from work. I worked as a nursing lab instructor at the college that I went to nursing school. So here I am, many years later, back in college, but teaching and I'm driving home, it's like 430 in the afternoon. I'm driving home I just got on the highway, and it's an hour drive and the phone rings. And of course I click the button and I answered the phone. And the voice on the other end says to me, Dina, where are you? And I said, I'm driving home from work. And that voice said, pull over to the side of the road. Now mind you, I'm a New York driver. I'm in the left lane of the highway and I gotta go all the way over to the side of the road. And I put the car in park and I just I was just waiting for the for the sky Fall, actually. And I've heard three words that nobody ever wants to hear, you have cancer. And she actually said, she was the radiologist. And she goes, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you not even your own doctor. She was, I'm the one that wanted to call you and tell you. Because Thursday, I saw her Friday, I saw her because I went from a sonogram to a 3d mammogram, to a needle biopsy, and she was the radiologists that saw this through and she was the one that wanted to call me. And she said you your diagnosis is her to triple positive. And you need to see an oncologist and a breast surgeon. And the words were immediately. So now, I had that hour drive to go home. And, of course, everything hits you. You're mad, you're cursing, you're screaming, you're sad, you're crying, you're like everything's going on through your mind. And it's like, how am I going to tell my husband? How am I going to tell my two daughters who were going off to vet school and law school? How am I going to tell my dad, you know, and everybody else I could handle but those four people were the hardest to tell. And I realized, as the journey went on, that I wasn't afraid of the cancer diagnosis, I wasn't afraid of what I was going to endure. What I was most afraid of, was not being loved, and be judged, because I have to take care of myself now. And your listeners are probably saying what is she talking about? And there are this story can go on and on. So because this is something that we can continue, we will continue this in other episodes.

Maggie Judge: 00:12:07

Yes, you have some absolutely fascinating insights about fear and based on your like really rounded in your experience that you expand on and help others with. So I'm looking forward to hearing more about that. But it's just it's it's something isn't it, what we truly are what we remember, yes that day, and then what we quickly realize is either important or big to us in that time. So thank you for sharing

Dina Legland: 00:12:38

that. You're welcome. And Maggie. The other thing is, there are times where it's just a blur. Like, just for an example very quickly for the audience's that my daughters would say my you said this, my you did that. My Don't you remember, and I'll be like, there's certain things that I guess we block. And we don't remember. And because either it's too traumatic, or it was too overwhelming. But it does come back. And we can get like we said we can get into more of that in in the upcoming episodes.

Maggie Judge: 00:13:17

All right, good. So let's ask just two more questions. One is what? What is one of the biggest challenges in your healing journey that you experienced as you move through things?

Dina Legland: 00:13:35

Oh, my biggest challenge and see how quickly I got to that one was accepting help.

Maggie Judge: 00:13:42

Make sense? Instead, what you've said,

Dina Legland: 00:13:45

it's very difficult for someone who is the primary caregiver, whether it was my profession as a nurse, I was an EMT, for the local fire department for my community. There's a big joke in the family about being the middle child and I took care of everybody. I was taking care of people since I was five years old. And that's how far back I can while there. I'd help the kids in the neighborhood when they skin their knees. Like it's things like that, you know? So here I am. In my fifth decade of living, and I get diagnosed, and I'm like, I need help. And that was the hardest thing to do. Wow. Very challenging.

Maggie Judge: 00:14:38

I can relate. That's another another thing we can go on about. So yes, thank you for sharing that. And like some super valuable insights in just that. Right? Because it's it's work it's practice. It's something that you have to truly focus on and be intentional about because it's a hard one.

Dina Legland: 00:14:56

Yes, it is.

Maggie Judge: 00:14:59

So Well, I know we can go on and on for some time. But we decided we wanted to keep these episodes short. So they're super easy and convenient for our audience to tune into. So we have a lot to cover in those episodes ahead. But let's wrap up today with you sharing something you've celebrated as an early win, while you were going through this

Dina Legland: 00:15:28

ah, and early when when I was going through the process,

Maggie Judge: 00:15:33

yeah, like something you thought was truly something worth celebrating? Because it was something you saw that was an achievement and accomplishment. Celebratory,

Dina Legland: 00:15:44

right? I would say that I celebrated, that I kept my life in a way I would say, it was it's really all about keeping normalcy. And what I mean by that is, I went to work, I worked out, I ate clean. So I wanted my life to be like, the cancer wasn't there, so to speak. You know, I wasn't one to say, oh, no, I'm just gonna sit here and do nothing. I needed my life to be have a have a have a format, actually, you know, nothing. I tried not to change anything. And I celebrated being alive, as well. I love that. I love both of those. Was it easy? No, it wasn't easy every day. I'm gonna tell the audience right now. It is not easy. It's being able to be or have a positive mindset as you're going through this.

Maggie Judge: 00:17:02

I love how you said that. Because how often do we not celebrate something? Because it's hard and we're not doing it on a percent or we're not doing it perfectly, or we're not doing it always. You know what I mean? It's so that's that's a brilliant point.

Dina Legland: 00:17:18

And our celebrations could be the tiniest things. They don't have to be these major milestones. I got up and ate breakfast this morning. And got out of bed. Exactly. You know, people think that they have to have this big, huge win. No, it's the simple things yes. It's really are the simple things.

Maggie Judge: 00:17:41

I love that. Well together we're celebrating our first episode and I thank you so much for being the one to go first and share your story and and journey with obviously very much more to come. And I'm excited to keep on keepin on with these conversations. Yes, they're

Dina Legland: 00:18:01

going to be amazing conference conversations. Absolutely.