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Each month, Texas State University President Dr. Kelly Damphousse sits down with faculty members, staff, students, alumni, and community members for a conversation about all things TXST — the past, the present, and the bright future of the university.
Part of the TXST Podcast Network: https://www.txst.edu/podcast-network.html
- And honestly, that's what helped me at the beginning. I was following people I didn't know.
- Yeah, you and I were like watching other people's stories.
- And I was watching other people and there's some women that I followed that are one step ahead of me. One just finished radiation. So I've been able to watch her story and see, "Okay, what does radiation look like?" I didn't know I had to get tattoos.
- What's the tattoos, right?
- I had to get tattoos for radiation.
- Your first tattoo.
- Yeah, I got my first tattoo.
- This is a very special edition of "The Current," because it gives me an opportunity to share with you a little bit of my private life because I'm bringing to you my daughter, Kristen. Thank you, Kristen, for joining us and-
- Thanks for having me.
- We're having her here because this is, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and Kristen is actually a breast cancer patient right now and soon-to-be survivor because we're moving quite along in your treatment. But she's been very open in her breast cancer treatment and diagnosis and I thought, and she actually has a connection with Texas State as well in that regard. And so I thought it'd be kind of interesting to hear from her perspective of this, because we do want to get the word out about early diagnosis and treatment options and how do you manage being a cancer patient. So thank you Kristen, for joining us.
- Thanks for having me.
- Yeah. So let's talk first a little bit about your background, because we always like to know about the person who's here. So I know all about it, but not everyone else does. You're born in College Station and you've got awesome parents, right?
- The best parents.
- Yeah, best parents ever. So tell us about where you went to school and how you ended up doing what you're doing.
- Yeah. So I've made kind of a full circle moment. I was born in College Station whenever you were finishing your degree. And then as you were finding your career path, we landed in Oklahoma. And so that's where I went for my bachelor's degree. And so I originally thought, you know, I knew I wanted to be in the health field. I wanted to help people and I wanted to be, in my mind, the medical field was, you go to medical school.
- Doctors and nurses, right?
- Doctors, nurses and PAs. Those were the three options I thought I had. And I thought, if I'm gonna go to school, might as well be the top dog.
- Yeah.
- And so that was my thought. I thought, you know, medical school was my best option. And so I remember I had gotten my MCAT books and I was too nervous to even open them. And so I left them on my desk and, but I knew I'd wanted to do something in the field of cancer. That's always been something that has kind of been a passion of mine or something that's driven, I mean, from back from high school, we were fundraising for the Stevenson Cancer Center in Oklahoma City. My volleyball team did that. And then through my undergrad program, I was a Tri Del in our philanthropy at St. Jude. And so cancer research was always a big passion of mine. And so that was something I knew I wanted to do. So I had applied to a internship at the Stevenson Cancer Center in Oklahoma City, and I knew kind of right off the bat that it wasn't gonna be the best fit. I could tell that they weren't really feeling me, and I wasn't feeling that, the idea of the program was that you would go and kind of do basic lab science research and binge science, which is not necessarily my cup of tea. And I think that the panel could tell that. And so they pretty much shut me out like right away from like, question one, "What are you gonna do when you don't get into medical school" was how they phrased it. And I was like, "Okay, I didn't think that was an option. I thought for sure I was gonna get into medical school." I hadn't opened my MCAT books yet, but I thought for sure that was gonna happen. And so after I left that interview, I remember calling you, I think I was crying. I was like, oh no, that did not go well. That was like my first big step. And it didn't go well. But one of the ladies was, she was kind of directing the interview. She wasn't on the panel, but just walked me into the room and she was an epidemiologist. And so she called me after, and I think she could feel that it also wasn't going well, but she said, "I see something in you and I want to offer you kind of a different position where you're still in this internship program, but you're gonna work with an epidemiologist instead." And I said, "Great, whatever gets me in the door. That sounds awesome." Hang up the phone, Google, "What is epidemiology?" I didn't know.
- After COVID, everyone knows, right?
- Yeah, it wasn't a household term at the time. And so I didn't, again, I thought my option was medical school or bust. That was it. And so I had no idea that this other path existed. So I ended up doing an internship for an epidemiologist, Dr. Laura Beebe in Oklahoma City, or at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. And loved it. She was so kind of me. And now on that side of things, now being a faculty member, I see, man, she was so patient with me. I was a sophomore. I had no idea what anything was as far as epidemiology goes. And she was so patient and kind and just helped me, you know, I wrote my first two papers with her, and so she just took me under her wings, let me go to her classes over the summer that she was teaching and let me sit with her doctoral students. And so that was kind of my first experience with it, and I just fell in love with it. I thought this is the neatest way, where, you know, typically with the medical field, you're helping the individual, and with epidemiology, you're helping the population. You're finding trends and patterns of diseases and other health-related issues. And so I thought, this is really neat. So anyways, I ended up going to Emory University for my masters in public health, and-
- And that's like one of the top public health schools.
- Yeah, I think at the time it was like number two or three and it's still up there.
- Yeah, it's right next door to the CDC.
- Yeah. Right next door to the CDC, right next door to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. They're all on that same path. We're all on the same road. And so it was an incredible place to get my master's. So I worked at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta for my practicum and got to work in that childhood cancer survivorship field. And I really enjoyed that. And then as I was deciding what to do next, I kind of have always had this mentality of, I was too afraid to enter the workforce and too afraid to go to career fairs. So instead I said, I'm just gonna keep going school.
- Keep gonna school so you don't have time-
- And I don't have to go to career fairs.
- Play out the clock.
- Exactly. So I kind of played around the idea, should I, you know, stop with my master's or should I keep going? And I remember we had the conversation of, you know, if you stop now and you enter the career, it's really hard to get back into school. And so I've kind of juggled those ideas around and decided, you know, instead, I'm gonna keep gonna school. And so I was looking around at different doctoral programs, and again, St. Jude was always on my mind. They have a mission that I'm so passionate about, find cure, save children. And I have always been really excited about St. Jude. And so I applied to the University of Memphis and got a full ride there. And that was kind of my foot into working at St. Jude. So I finished my Ph.D. there and worked at St. Jude all throughout that program. And then I did a postdoc there, worked there for a year as a full-time staff member. Then as my husband, met him along the way, as we were kind of deciding where we wanted to be with our life, you guys had relocated back to Texas and we were-
- And he's from Texas.
- He's from Texas. Well, he lived here.
- Well, Oklahoma, Texas.
- Yeah, he's from Oklahoma, but he lived here for a year. But yeah, we were just trying to decide where we wanted to be and thinking of, you know, our life path. And of course we were dealing with other hard things at that time and it was, the thought was, okay, if we can get closer to family, that would be the ideal dream. And so I was looking for jobs and I found a position at Texas A&M, which of course, academia kind of runs in our blood.
- Yeah.
- So I knew a little bit of what the lifestyle looks like as far as working in academia. And I mean, as a child of a parent who worked in academia, I thought that was the dream job. You were so present at everything. You came to every volleyball game, you were the announcer at all of our volleyball games. You took me to my volleyball tournaments. You were there all the time. And so that, I was like, well that is definitely a career I can see myself in. But the best of both worlds was that I could, you know, if I'm on this tenure track, I can do my research, and my research can be in virtually whatever I'm interested in.
- Yeah.
- So I can still work with St. Jude and I still do. So I kind of get that best of both worlds where I'm able to be close to my family, work for an awesome institution, teach kids or students, which I enjoy doing, and get to still do the research that I'm passionate about. So that's kind of the full circle of how I ended back up in College Station.
- There's a couple full circles. First, you know, being born in College Station then going back there, and then kind of a fun one, is that when you were, I think a freshman or a sophomore in college, I think we were at a football game out of town. And you guys were driving back, you and your mom were driving back through Memphis.
- We drove through Memphis.
- And you stopped at St. Jude and took a picture in front of, yeah.
- I begged the security guard to let us in there so I could go in and just see the campus, 'cause I thought it was the most amazing place.
- And then you got a picture in front of the St. Jude's-
- [Kristen] And I got a picture in front of St. Jude's statue.
- And then went back as an employee and had like a before and how it started and how it's going, yeah.
- And how it's going.
- And so kind of full circle there as well. And I love what St. Jude does because if you don't know, you know, they are honest to goodness, when they say nobody pays anything to go there. So they have, they raise a lot of money from private giving and then when people whose children have cancer, they go there and they don't pay a penny to go there and world-class healthcare for cancer.
- They're incredible. They have the most amazing resources and yeah. No child pays for anything. No parent pays for anything. And all they have to focus on is their child getting better and spending time with their kid. And I think that's amazing. And everyone really lives for that mission from the top to the bottom. Everyone lives for that mission. And so everyone you come across, we're just incredible people. And so one of the best places to work.
- Yeah, and then your connection to cancer is so interesting because you were raising money as a young volleyball player at high school, then through your association with the Tri Del sorority, and then here you are, you're a cancer researcher in College Station, teaching.
- Yep. I teach cancer epidemiology.
- Yeah. You teach cancer epidemiology and then something happens in, boy, March of 2025.
- Five.
- I'll lose track of time.
- I know.
- That is literally life changing for you and for the entire family. But mostly for you and Aaron. So talk us through that and then let's talk about, you know, broader issues, but through that diagnosis and so on.
- Sure. Yeah. So I guess backstory, we were going through infertility at the time and going through IVF and so I had a doctor's appointment, it felt like every week, I was constantly at the doctor. And so whenever I started to feel something off, one thing that's great about that is I had access to someone immediately. And so I immediately told him, I actually probably sat on it for a week. But I mean, my biggest concern at that point was that our treatment would get pushed back. And I was like, oh, I don't wanna mess anything up.
- Because you're so concerned about having a baby and just one little thing where-
- We've already taken so much to get to this point where I'm like, oh, any, any step in the road that's gonna mess this up, I'm gonna get completely veered off-path. And so I sat on it for a little bit and then once I really talked to Aaron about it and he was like, "No, like our kids deserve a healthy mom. Whatever it is, you need to get checked out."
- Because you felt a lump, right?
- I felt something. Yeah. And so he said that deserves, you know, we need to check this out and if that pushes us back a month, it's not the end of the world, you know?
- It can push us back a month.
- A month. Oh, funny. Anyways, so yeah. So I was able to get quick access to care. And since I am young, the typical recommendations are that once you hit the age of 40, then you're starting to get regular mammograms. But at this point, since I haven't hit that age yet, you're kind of 100% responsible for finding it.
- Because you were 30 at the time.
- I was 30 at the time. And so if you feel something, then you say something and you go get it checked out. But until then you, you don't know. And so you really are responsible for knowing your body and knowing what to feel for. And that's a lot of responsibility for someone. And knowing, you know, when to say something and, you know, but now being on the side of it, I'm like, oh, I'm so glad I did. I'm so glad I didn't wait any longer. And, you know, how much farther it would've spread had I waited.
- And that speed is something I know you talk a lot about, first off, the responsibility you have as a under-40 person. As an under-40 woman to self-examine and to be attentive. But then if you, as you said something, as you see something, say something.
- Say something, yeah.
- Because you can't just like hope it goes away. 'Cause hope isn't a strategy, right? So you have to act on it. And the fact that you were seeing a doctor kind of on a regular basis kind of helped. But not everyone has that, right?
- Right, right.
- Some people will go two years without seeing a doctor and then that's a burden they have to overcome as well.
- It's hard. Yeah. Once, I mean, it's challenging and going through-
- And there's fear, right?
- And oh, it's the same thing. Yeah. If you're afraid of what you're gonna find, you're afraid of this stigma. Or maybe the doctor's gonna say something about me or think something about me or it's challenging on all sides of it. And so, you have to feel confident in yourself and feel confident in the providers that, you know, they're only doing what's best for you. And you have to trust that.
- And as you know, being at St. Jude, those doctors are, and nurses and assistants, all the people were, they're dealing with this all the time.
- All the time. Yeah.
- And so the mystery that, and it's less mysterious to you because of your experience, but you can imagine as challenging-
- But I still had fear, yeah.
- It was for you-
- Yeah.
- How much of would be for someone else who's like, afraid of going in and guys have the same issue. You know, with certain kinds of cancers, it's kind of embarrassing to get tested for 'em and you don't like people, you know-
- Oh, I've had to get very comfortable with people.
- Doing the examinations, yeah. Exactly, and so first there's the anxiety about the exam, but then there's like, I don't want to, like, find out.
- I don't wanna know.
- I don't wanna know. I'd rather just bury my head in the sand. And that's something you've been very open about, trying to make sure people understand to get over the stigma part about, because early detection is so important.
- It's so important.
- Yeah. So talk us through going to the doctor and kind of-
- Sure.
- Once you get over the, you sat on it for a while.
- Yeah, well, I sat on it for a week. And then once I got over that, I had a mammogram scheduled within three days. So we got on it very quick.
- The wonder of modern medicine that-
- Incredible, yeah.
- And healthcare in America, how quickly you can get that.
- Yes.
- Because other countries, you might have to wait a month or so to get-
- Sure, yeah, yeah.
- That kind of examination.
- And I mean, even here, if you're in a rural area, having to access care, it can be challenging too.
- Yeah.
- So yeah, I was very fortunate to have that quick access to care and very quickly on, they got me the biopsy the very next day. And so I was able to find out very quickly. Like I had a mammogram on Wednesday, biopsy Thursday, and had my diagnosis by Monday. So it was very quick, quick, quick.
- Yeah, so then you start like almost right away, you gotta decide, I'm gonna get treated, where am I gonna get treated? So you find a doctor you like, you start getting the treatments and then you start having the consequences of the treatments, so talk a little bit about that.
- Yeah, so I mean, I feel like everyone is pretty familiar with chemo being very challenging.
- Well, I wasn't, I knew it was, but I didn't know all the details.
- It's challenging and it is, I don't know, it is and it isn't at the same time, I feel like I kind of had, I was so afraid of chemo that I was afraid it was gonna be so much worse than it actually was. But everyone faces it differently. I mean, I was relatively young and healthy going into it, so I was able to maintain stamina for the most part. For the first, I had to go for 16 treatments and for the first, probably eight to 10 weeks, I did pretty well with it. It really didn't change much besides losing my hair. But I mean, I was tired and I had brain fog and as an academic, that's really challenging to face in itself. And so I remember-
- Hard to concentrate.
- Yeah, so hard to concentrate, hard to read, hard to write. I was making mistakes. My students were so gracious with me. I would flip an equation on accident. I'm like, I know how to do this math, but I'm flipping it. Like, it's just silly how your brain can't make those connections anymore. And so everyone was very gracious with me. And yeah, we talked about, you know, you think, oh, I go in for chemo on Wednesday, why can't I show up to work on Thursday? And you just can't, it just wipes you out.
- Yeah, and that's actually given me a lot of empathy for people because I just thought, you know, people go get treatment and I didn't realize how debilitating it was. And I'll never think of anyone going through treatment again the same way as I have, because I've seen you go through that kinda personal level. It really helped me understand it better.
- Right.
- Yeah.
- And it's not even just the physical issues that you have. It's also mental that you're, I mean like we talked about with the brain fog and that, but also showing up to work, not feeling like myself, not looking like myself. I felt like I couldn't go, I couldn't leave my house. So it felt very, I dunno, very isolating at the same time, even though I had such a great support system.
- And you did, friends and family.
- And I had incredible an support system. And that's really something that kind of how my work has played a role in this is, I mean, a lot of my studies have been about survivorship and what life looks like after treatment. And a lot of what I've seen is, you know, having that support role and also seeing how hard it is on the caregiver And how challenging that is, I mean, for my husband, for my mom, for my dad, you know, how hard it is on them. So how can my other circle help relieve that role for them? And so it was really powerful to see how so many people stood up and came in and helped play that role for me.
- Yeah. So let's fast forward a little bit. You're going through the treatment, then you have the surgery. Surgery's successful.
- Yes.
- They removed the tumor.
- Yes.
- They remove the surrounding tissue. There's no cancer in any of that. So, you know, for all intents and purposes, you are cancer-free, but it's not done yet, yeah.
- Yeah. So I mean, you can't be 100% sure. That's the hard part. And so I had triple negative breast cancer. So it doesn't have any hormonal receptors. And so we had to do a very harsh chemo, which we had a pretty great response to it. It shrunk over half. And then we did the surgery and I'm so confident in my surgeon, but you can never be 100% sure that you got everything. And so we do see in the biopsies that they took that the margins were clear, but radiation is the next step just to make sure that everything's gone. Because if there's one or two cells lingering around, it could just come right back. And so that is my next step.
- There's a great book that you and I have read called "The Emperor of All Maladies." The cancer is like, it's like a beast.
- It is a beast.
- And you can't give it any quarter, right?
- It's constantly changing, too. And that's something that we talk about in my classes. It has such a genetic underlying where one thing goes wrong in the DNA sequence and then that cell keeps multiplying and multiplying and nothing's telling it to stop. and so sure, the idea is hopefully we can find a cure for cancer, but then it's gonna change. It's always mutating. And so it's like what can we do to find a cure for that if it's always changing?
- So treatment-
- It's so challenging.
- Treatment is where we go.
- Treatment is where you have to do-
- Is the focus.
- [Kristen] Early detection and treatment.
- Yeah. Which is your message. Let's talk about the Texas state connection now because you're very close to the end and then you get to go back to the IVF and kind of get that going again. But talk about your experience at Texas State, 'cause I think as much support as you had, I had a lot of support here and bet that here locally, and people really embraced you and I'm so grateful for that.
- It is. It was so encouraging.
- But you had a couple really good experiences.
- It was so encouraging, we've had so many people reach out who I didn't even know, of course, through the connection with you, but through social media, there's just been so many encouraging thoughts and prayers and just people reaching out and wanting to do anything they can do to help. And it's been so kind. So Coach Woodard reached out and I got to go throw the first pitch at the softball game.
- [Kelly] You threw a strike, it was awesome, so.
- It was not my best, but I didn't play softball, I played volleyball. But it was just so exciting to get to go out and do something different and be encouraged. And that was, it just felt so good. And going back to St. Jude, they donated the profits from that game to St. Jude, which is so meaningful for me.
- And they wore pink uniforms.
- [Kristen] We wore pink.
- I was really encouraged by the other team, the visiting team. They were-
- So good.
- They were all up there. They were applauding you. And it was neat to see the women from both teams encouraging you, and you encouraging them at the same time.
- Yeah. Women support women. I mean it was really, really encouraging to see that. And same thing with the sorority that came out.
- Zetas.
- Zetas came out and I got to chat with them beforehand and several of them continued to reach out to me over social media after. And so it was just really sweet to see all that support and know that we're all in this together and you know, the more encouragement, it just means the world.
- One of the things I love about your story, first off, it's just you, but second, your willingness to share that you realize that you're in a unique position here as a cancer researcher and you have an opportunity to share your story. And so you've got a very active social media on Instagram.
- Not as active as yours, but.
- Yeah, not as active. But you do use Instagram to share your story and we'll put the link up there so people can see your Instagram and follow along with you. And it, actually from the very beginning, to the current where you're kind of sharing what's going on and your story is always about, you know, what can you do as a young person or even as an older person, you had several people reach out to you and say, "You know, I hadn't gotten a mammogram in forever, so I went and got one," a couple people said, "I went and got a mammogram and found out I have cancer." So your story is resonating and you want to share your story so that other people benefit from your tough situation.
- Yeah, and honestly that's what helped me at the beginning. I was following people I didn't know.
- Yeah, you and I were like watching other people's stories.
- And I was watching other people and there's some women that I followed that are one step ahead of me. One just finished radiation. So I've been able to watch her story and see, okay, what does radiation look like? I didn't know I had to get tattoos.
- What's the tattoos? Right.
- I had to get tattoos for radiation, and so-
- Your first tattoo.
- And I got my first tattoo. So it was, it's encouraging to see that, you know, that they've made it to the next step and to see the hard times.
- Yeah.
- But also the good times.
- The hope.
- The hope that we made it. The ringing the bell and-
- Yeah, that we made it. And so I hope that I've been encouraging for other people, but, and yeah. And encourage them to go get mammograms and I've had several friends get them and find that it was a cyst and or that it was fibroadenoma, so benign. And so that's so encouraging to hear that you felt something, you went, and it was benign and that's fantastic, but now you have a baseline and you know what to feel for, and so that's also important.
- So Kristen, one of the fun things we do is we ask listeners and viewers to submit a question for me. And so you get to be the podcast host. By the way, you've got something there. What is that you have there?
- Yes, I do. So the Texas State Alumni Swim Team, right?
- Yes.
- So they sent this to me and said, they just sent me a really encouraging note. It is just, they also had a team member that was affected with cancer. And so they know a bit of what that journey looks like. So yeah, this swim cap says, "Swim a Mile for Women with Cancer." So it's just probably the easiest time it'll ever be for me to wear this.
- Yeah, that's right, you get it on really easily now.
- I probably already get pretty good-
- Hey, your hair is coming in good though.
- It is getting pretty fuzzy.
- Yeah.
- All right. So what advice would you give to families who are sending kids to college for the first time?
- Holy cow. That's a great question. So this is actually really hard, but I've sent two daughters to college and the thing that was different for me than for other parents is that I was at the college that they went to.
- I was about to say, you had it kind of easy.
- Yeah, so it was easier for me, but I give the same advice that I tried to give myself then, it was just to let you be an adult. And so when you and Kaylee went, it was harder when Kaylee went, 'cause she was the first one, right? But at some point, you have to sink or swim. And so I think the best thing we did was to kind of like let you guys struggle a little bit without weighing in. And I think that's something you guys kinda struggled with as well, where if anything good happened, you worried like, was dad, you know, turning a key for me or something like that?
- Yep.
- And I really didn't.
- I really kinda laid back and I didn't try to be too helicoptery. We have helicopter parents or bulldozer parents and I think you guys both benefited from just kinda learning, you learn by making mistakes.
- Sure.
- Right. And if someone's always fixing the problems for you, at some point you're gonna have to be on your own and fix your own problems. So you may as well do it in college.
- Sure. Yeah.
- Yeah, what about you?
- Like that's the best time to make a mistake.
- Yeah. So you're a professor, what do you think? What's good advice?
- I mean, I don't have children of my own. But to send kids off to college, I mean yeah, I agree. From my perspective, I feel like you guys did a great job of that and encouraging them to get out and be active in the community. And be active in the school. There's so many things to get involved in. And I met some of my best friends, I met my husband at the University of Oklahoma, I met one of my best friends there. And so there's just so many things to get active in. So just encouraging the kids to go out and do their own thing. Find something that they're interested in and encourage them to find those things. And you know, not, yeah, I agree, not holding them back, but-
- Let me ask you this, do you have office hours?
- I do.
- Yeah. Do you have a lot of people come visit you at office hours?
- I don't.
- Yeah, you don't. I was called-
- It is the most lonely hour of the week.
- It's the loneliest hour of the week.
- So maybe encourage them to go to office hours.
- Encouraging them to go to office hours. And asking questions. And I think it's the time where everyone feels like you should have everything together, but you don't. And so yeah, encouraging those kids to go out and find something they're interested in.
- It's not just about going to class, there's a lot of the learning outside of classrooms.
- No, there's so many other things going on, yeah.
- Thank you so much for coming today and sharing your story. And I hope you all enjoyed listening a little bit to her story. I hope it's inspiring to you. If you wanna find out more about her story, follow her on Instagram. Thank you Kristen, for being here. I love you.
- I love you too.
- And I'm so proud of you. So thank you so much. And thank you for joining us. States up, everyone.