Susan:  And what year was that?

Dina:  This was in July 2005.  Then they told me that there were some people that could live until one year, but normally it was around six months to a year.  And that because I was older. There were some younger, like 20’s to 30’s who could make it more than a year, but because I was older, I was 45 or 44, they told me that they thought that I may not do much more than a year. Yes, I was 45 and then I started doing the chemotherapy and the radiation after the surgery, after they took the tumor out.

Susan :  So you had chemo and surgery?

Dina:  Yes, surgery. What happened was I was at work. I did not know I had anything. I was at work, and I started feeling a headache.  I went to a doctor a week before, and I told the doctor “It is very strange, I never had so many headaches and I have been having headaches and I am kind of dizzy”.  It was a tumor and then I said, “Can you please give me a referral for me to do some MRI or CAT scan?  Something is wrong within my brain”.  Then he thought it is strange that I was saying that but I told him, and he even wrote in my files that I … sound crazy.  I had a dream, and I woke up today and thought that I have a brain tumor.  Then, of course, he did not believe me, and it is written in my files.

Susan:  He has written in your files that he thought you were crazy?

Dina:  No.  He only smiled… this was a week before.  Then after a week, I went to work and at work, I started feeling a lot of pain in my head, my right side was kind of numb and I told my assistant, “Call 911.  I think I’m going to fall”.  And I fell to the floor, and they called 911.  I went into a coma, and I do not remember anymore.  Then when I woke up, …… they said they had done surgery already.

And they made the surgery in a very small hospital.  I used to work on Gardena and the hospital was called GardenaMemorialHospital.  It is a very small hospital, nobody knows it.  It’s a little building, and they do not have the computerized machine’s and all the things to help with the surgery either.  My family tried to move me to HuntingtonHospital, but Huntington did not have room.  The doctor in the MemorialHospital in Gardena told them, “If you move her, she will die.  She needs to be operated on now.  I need to take the tumor now.”

And I do not know who was the one, but it was just someone who decided to let him do it.  They said he was very sure of himself, and he said that I was dying.  Then he took the tumor, and then when I woke up like maybe 11 or midnight on the second day, I was in a coma one day.  Then they wait for me to come out to do the surgery, and then they put me to sleep. I slept another day and then when I woke up, it was about the third day when I woke up, like midnight, and the Doctor was close to me and said, “I operated on you yesterday.”  I said, “Why?  What’s going on?  Where am I?  What is this?  Where is this place?”  Then he said, “What you have, is a very bad brain tumor or cancer and I don’t think you have more than six months to live”.  And I thought that he was the most horrible man in my whole life because I started crying and screaming.  The nurses, they needed to tie me on the bed, and then I started telling the nurse and everybody that, “He is crazy.  How can he say something like that to me?  I just bought a house.  I just moved to this new house with my fiancé.  How can he say that I’ll die in six months?”  Then they gave me a lot of shots.  I slept again, and when I woke up my family was around me and my fiancé was with me.  Then I told them what this doctor had said and everybody hated him, and we all hated him for a long time.

And then, we went to different doctors to do the biopsy and different hospitals.  They all came up with the same thing and then I went to the City Of Hope, Cedars-Sinai, UCLA and USC/Norris and the doctor in Long Beach They all checked the tumor and the slides and they all came out with the same story and the same thing that I do not have too much time.  I need to do the radiation and chemotherapy right away, and that is what I did.  Then I moved to UCLA because I do not like the doctor that I had at that City of Hope.

City of Hope, I think it is a good place but I think it is good for breast cancer.  Brain tumor is something else. It is not so often you will hear about people with brain tumors.  It is something that you need to go to some very specialized place, and UCLA, Dr. Cloughsey is very well known.  He is the best. When I was with him, and he was the only one that looked at me.  I talked to a very famous, Dr. Black from Cedars-Sinai, and he told me the same thing, six months to a year, but Dr. Cloughsey told me, “It’s that we don’t have a cure yet.”

He said, “We don’t have a cure yet but I can treat you and I can treat you for a long time.  We have so many trials.  We have so many things going on.  There are so many hospitals around the whole world that are trying to find the cure for this kind of tumor.  We can work together and we can try several different things.”  Then I hugged him and that is what I was trying to… find someone to tell me that.  That is what I wanted to hear.  I wanted to hear someone trying to give me hope.  I think the doctors should learn with you to give some kind of hope because if you do not have any hope, you cannot go on, people can commit suicide.

Susan:  Yes.  So, Dina, what was it in you that made you keep going to find someone that gave you hope?  Is this your personality?

Dina:  I think it is my personality.

Susan:  Yes, it has to be, the way you did not give up.

Dina:  No because, not only my fiancé, but my fiancé and my best friend, they sat down with me and they told me, “Do you want to travel around the world?  Do you want to let everything behind and not do the chemotherapy and spend the six months of your life traveling and doing things that you want to do?”  And I said, “No, I wanted to try and I wanted to find a way to survive.  I don’t want to give up. 

I wanted to do all the treatments.”  Because when I talked to Dr. Cloughsey, he told me that, there were various trials.  There are things that you can try.  Then I said, “You know what, I want to try.  I don’t want to give up.”  They said, “Oh my, you are so strong.  If that was me, I will commit suicide.”  I said, “Oh no, not me.  I’m not.”

And then I keep going because I want to try, and I wanted to succeed but that is my, I think, my personality.  My whole life I was always that way.

Susan:  That way of wanting to try, no matter what.

Dina:  Yes, I will try and I am that kind of person.  I do not want to have regrets.  I don’t want to look back and say, “Oh my God, I didn’t try.”  If I think…if I have my, I need you to think it is real and it is true but if I feel it strongly that I need to try, I try.  When I came to United States, I was by myself.

Susan:  How old were you when you came to the United States?

Dina:  I was 34, I think, yes because it is 14 years.

Susan:  Okay.  Do you have any sense of why you had the brain tumor?

Dina:  I think I was working in a very stressful environment.  I was working, I am a Production Manager in a Chinese company.  I was responsible for the United States and Central America production of textile and dying and print.  It was very stressful.  They are always pushing everybody and there were some in management that were not too nice with me.  Because I worked there for 10 years and I am very close to the owner.  We travel together, we do things, and we decide things together.  I was not under the management, and this Chinese woman was very mad that I was deciding and doing things, and not going under her.  Then everything that I did was very stressful.  I needed to fight, I fight all the time.

Susan:  That would have been very stressful.

Dina:  Very, and she was always saying things behind my back to the boss, to the owner of the company, for him not to trust me so much.  Then I decided that I needed to be always very aware of everything around me, I needed to have everything written, I needed to have everything with backup.  Everything that I did because she wants to create problems.  She will find a way to put me out.  But we never had a problem, I never had a problem with him, my boss.  He was always on my side but I always needed to prove things.  I was always very alert and very stressful and…

Susan:  And that is what you think did it?

Dina:  And I think I was not sleeping well because I moved.  I bought the house with my fiancé and we were trying to do some painting and changing.  We took all the carpet out and wanted to put in the wood floor.  The house was a mess, and then we have only one room that we could sleep in.  There was dust everywhere and everything covered.  It was very stressful to come home, and I could not sleep.  I did not sleep well, either.

Then I think because my body was weak and I was not sleeping well.  And I used the cell phone too often.  I was with the cell phone in my ear all the time.  Then if you see my, the tumor is exactly in the same place where I have the cell phone.  I read in a paper, I can tell you that 90% was the cell phone.  That I know, because my body was weak and could not find the magnetic field.

Susan:  Yes.  So, because it was weak, that is why the cell phone affected you?

Dina:  Yes.

Susan 1:  Because you were so stressed and tired and ….

Dina:  And tired but I know the cell phone can affect anybody.  The whole structure, if the person is a little weak, I know the cell phone can cause something.

Susan 1:  Yes and that is exactly right.  If people are strong and healthy then their field can regenerate.

Dina:  Exactly because I think the body, the cells, fight back.

Susan 1:  Yes

Dina:  But if you do not sleep, and I think the sleep deprivation is the worst thing you can do with your body.

Susan 1:  Yes and you were worrying.  You were not sleeping.  You were remodeling.  So, you knew all these things, is that right?

Dina:  Yes and when I came back to my house, I was totally paralyzed.  One side of my body did not work.

Susan 1: After the surgery?

Dina:  Yes and then, I needed to be going to physical therapy.  I was in physical therapy for a month.  I needed to learn how to walk, how to talk, how to everything.  To eat by myself and change clothes, everything.  I needed someone always helping me, but when I got home, I had that impression.  I said, “You know, I know what happened.  I was tired, and the cell phone did that to me.”  And everybody was saying, “You’re crazy, the cell phone does not do anything.”  I said, “It does.”

Susan 1:  Yes, I just got some research recently on that.

Dina:  I said, “It does,” and I tell everybody, “Don’t give your kids a cell phone.”

Susan 1:  No, please do not.

Dina:  Do not, and I think kids like eight years old or seven, they are not having their brain formed totally and they are with cell phones, I said.  And I ask, when I see parents with kids with a cell phone, I ask them.  I said, “Did you ever notice when you talk on the cell phone for too long, you feel that it’s so hot, … you’re hot and the cell phone is very hot,”

Susan 1:  Yes, exactly.  So then you came home, and you knew you were going to do everything you could.  You did not want to give up.  You wanted to survive.

Dina:  Yes and I started doing the physical therapy, and going for radiation and chemotherapy.  Everything was like a horror movie.  It did not seem real to me.  I was frightened, and it is really frightening the way they tie you in a bed to put you inside the machine to do the radiation.  Because you cannot move and you are there in this little … you cannot move at all, and then they make a mask that they tied with bolts and with locks and your head is in something in a mat or in a bed.  It is horrible.

Susan 1:  But you chose to do it.

Dina:  I did.

Susan 1:  You did, yes.

Dina:  I remember the first time, I went inside and I was trying to do relaxation and imaging, but it is impossible.  It is impossible, it is so frightening, that it’s impossible.  Then I started trying to think about what I am going to be doing that day, and trying to take my mind out of that and think, “Okay, tomorrow I need to do this.  When I get home, I need to do this and that, and I didn’t do this exercise.  I didn’t try to walk, I need to do the,” and trying to do like a schedule because I was going in the morning to City of Hope, and I was doing like a schedule in my mind. Everything that I need to do.  Then I started doing also what clothes to wear and what shoes.  I was dressing myself, and thinking that I need to do this and that, to keep my mind from that horrible situation.  And then later, they let me have music, and I found some CD’s that they have there.  I love Andrea Bocelli.  I like Opera too.

Susan 1:  Opera.  So, you used music and Opera?

Dina:  Yes but more of the soft ones. I had three CDs of Andrea Bocelli that I was listening to.  Even though I was inside the tube, they put the music on, and I was able to listen.

Susan 1:  So, was it you that suggested the music or was it them that just..?

Dina:  I saw a CD when I was walking there and I asked them.  I said, “Can I… is there any way that I can listen to music?”

Susan 1:  They should do that for everybody.

Dina:  They should, and they have the way, but they do not offer.  I do not know why, but for some reason they do not offer.

Susan 1:  But  that helped you?

Dina:  Yes.

Susan 1:  Okay, what else helped you?

Dina:  And then, I think it is trying to take my mind off that.  It is crazy, but I would think about shoes and clothes.

Susan 1:  Yes, that is very important especially for a woman.  So, that schedule helped you, your plan.

Dina:  Yes, I was planning the schedule with everything.  What I need to do that day and the next day.  When I went out of the radiation, they gave the most powerful radiation they can give to anybody, and whatever I could handle, you know?

Susan 1:  Whatever you could handle.

Dina:  Yes and that burned  my skin, and burned  my head.  I was bald on one side, but it was burned too, and then burned my skin.  I have spots on my skin, and burned my eyebrow.  I did not have eyebrow, and I started losing my hearing.  They said there are a lot of people that do not come back.

Susan 1:  Yes.

Dina:  And Jim, my fiancé, he was always afraid.  And sometimes he’d say, “Can you, do you live, can you hear me?”  And he was always afraid but that did not affect me.  I got it back.

Susan 1:  You got your hearing back.

Dina:  I got my hearing back.

Susan 1:  Yes, you did.

Dina:  I got my hearing back.  I got all movement in my body back — in my arms, my hands, I got everything back.

Susan 1:  Yes and what makes you different?

Dina:  You know, so many people ask me that.  I think it is the way I was brought up.  I think because in Brazil and especially because of my family.  We had a farm and we had fruits and vegetables that came from our farm, and in that time, my whole life was like that.  We always eat fruits, and we had a lot of fruits and vegetables.

Susan 1:  So, you had good, healthy food and good, strong constitution.

Dina:  Yes, I think so and I never drink like juice.  I start drinking juices here.  In Brazil, it is still fresh fruits.

Susan 1:  Yes, not juices.

Dina:  You do the orange juice with the fruit, strawberry with the fruit, lemon, everything is the fruit.  You will stop in a bar, stop in a coffee shop.  You stop in any restaurant, any coffee place, and ask for orange juice or strawberry juice, any juice, they put the fruits…

Susan 1:  This is in America?

Dina:  In Brazil.

Susan 1:  In Brazil, okay.  That is all fresh fruits in Brazil.

Dina:  It is everything fresh.  The fresh fruit has an enzyme that helps your whole immune system.

Susan 1:  Absolutely, yes.

Dina:  And I believe, here in the United States, Americans, they lack raw fruits and raw vegetables.  I think they eat very little because I see my fiancé, and I was married before and I remember my husband, American too, always drink juice in bottles and in cartons.  The juice is pure sugar.

Susan 1:  Pure sugar and it is dead.

Dina:  Yes.

Susan 1:  There is no life force or enzymes.

Dina:  And it is dead and what is so funny, my fiancé, I brought… because everybody is giving me a lot of fruits in the first year — I had fruits all the time.  Oranges and I started making the orange juice and then he told me, “Oh, leave it there in the refrigerator and I’ll drink it tomorrow.”  I said, “Uh-Uh.  This is real oranges, you need to drink it now.  In two hours, it’s going to spoil.”  He said, “No, I’m used to leaving oranges for a month in the refrigerator.”

Susan 1:  Oh my goodness.  So, he has learned a lot from you, your fiancé.

Dina:  Yes.  Now, he asked me, “Oh can I have the real one?”  Now, he loves the oranges, the real one and everything now.  Even the vegetables, I always eat a lot of salad.

Susan 1:  So, part of your healing, you believe, is because you had lots of good fresh fruit and fresh salads.

Dina:  Yes.

Susan 1:  And what else did you do?  I know you talked about the movies.

Dina: Yes, I try not to think, nothing sad.  Nothing that will put me down.  I do not like to see murder, or all these crazy new movies they have nowadays.  I watch a lot of old movies.

Susan 1:  And your favorite, you said was, Lucille Ball.

Dina:  Yes, “I Love Lucy”.  It was always my favorite.

Susan 1:  That is your favorite.

Dina:  Yes, when I think about it, because in the beginning with the chemotherapy, I could not concentrate on a movie.  I could not watch a movie, understand everything.  I could not concentrate, and I was weak, and I was tired.  The only thing I could watch and understand was “I Love Lucy”.  I have all the videos and all the tapes about “I Love Lucy”.  I had some with Tom and Jerry, the little rat, the mouse and the…

Susan 1:  The cartoon?

Dina:  The cartoon.

Susan 1:  And that made you laugh?

Dina:  Yes and I have the Tweety Bird.

Susan 1:  Tweety Bird, yes.  So, that made you laugh?

Dina:  Yes, because they are so cute, and that is light.  You do not need to pay attention too much.

Susan 1:  Yes.  It just makes you smile and that cat.

Dina:  Yes and then I…

Susan 1:  So, you watch some children’s movies that…

Dina:  Yes, all the time.

Dina:   I went back to and then my fiancé started giving to me, and my mother-in-law, and my sister-in-law started giving to me all the Disney movies.  Then I watched old movies, and some that they made new ones again.

Susan:  The rewrites.

Dina: They rewrite that.  I watched Disney cartoons for a long time, and they are beautiful.

Susan:  Yes, they are.

Dina:  They are beautiful, and the music. I love the music, and it is everything that makes you feel good.

Susan:  Yes.  So, you basically watched everything that makes you feel good, yes.

 

Dina:   Yes.  And I try not to, and I think another thing that I did is … I was always very worried about everybody.

Susan:  Oh, everybody, meaning your family…

Dina:   Everybody, friends and I am always worried to be like … have a social grace.  Like do what you’re supposed to do.  I need to write a “thank you card”.  I needed to call back, I needed to…I was always trying to do everything that people expected me to do, and I start letting go now.

Susan:  Oh, excellent!

Dina:   I am not so uptight anymore.  Then, if I cannot call you back today, I will call you maybe tomorrow or maybe after tomorrow, but when I have time. I am not going to rush everything, and try to do everything because I told you I will call you.

Susan:  So, what you are saying then is you are going more slowly, not rushing so much anymore.

Dina:   Yes.

Susan:  Good.

Dina:   I am taking care of me, myself first.

Susan:  That is excellent! That is so important, isn’t it?

Dina:   Yes.  But it is very hard learning.

Susan:  Yes, it is.

Dina:   Very hard.

Susan:  It is what we teach in our workshops all the time. You have to take care of yourself before you can even think of supporting anyone else.

Dina:   Yes.  But we say and we think it is easy, but it is not easy because it is inside of you for years and years.

Susan:  It is society conditioning.

Dina:   Yes.

Susan:  Yes.

Dina:   And your mother told you, you should not do that.  You need to do it this way and that way.  You are brought up to have all that consideration with everybody, and respect everything and everybody.

Susan:  But Dina, some other people will die before they change that, and you —  something made you decide to change that.

Dina:   Yes.

Susan:  Yes.  That is amazing.

Dina:   But it was very hard in the beginning.  I had a friend and he is retired, and then he told me that he will answer the phone because I told him, I cannot be talking on the phone all the time.  People keep calling me, some are pleasant and some, they wanted to hear about my problem.  They want me to keep repeating the story again and again.

Susan:  That is why I was a little worried at the beginning because you are repeating the story, and I was a little concerned that it might be too much for you.

Dina:   Yes.  But it is not anymore, but it was in the first year, and then in the first year I have him.  I tell this to everybody that have the chance and talk to me I tell them, “Ask your sister, your brother, or someone in your family or husband — make them answer the phone.”

Susan:  Yes.

Dina:   Make them talk to this person. 

Susan:  Great.

Dina:   If it is someone that you really want to know, then they will pass the phone to you.  They know who you want and who you do not want.

Susan:  Exactly.  So, you only talk to people who support you, who you feel good to talk to.

Dina:   Exactly.

Susan:  Good.

Dina:   But that took me a while to. This friend of mine, he saw me kind of suffering, talking on the phone and then he said, “You know it is too much”, and I told him, “You know, it is too much for me, I do not want to be talking to people.”  And then he started talking and he started telling everybody the story and what I was doing, what I did today, yesterday and took me… it was so good and it was like he took all the pressure for me.

Susan:  Excellent.  So what are you saying is that other people, family members or friends should take all the calls so that it is not so stressful for you?

Dina:   Yes.

Susan:  Yes.  That is important.  It is like a team.

Dina:   Exactly, and they needed to do like, how to say, try, no, how to say.  Someone you need to filter.

Susan:  Yes, that’s filter.

Dina:   Filter before they gave it to you, because, it is crazy but you have always some friends they ask the most stupid questions and they say inappropriate things all the time.

Susan:  And sometimes they do not have a clue what they are saying and it is too hard for you.  Yes.  Good.  So that was another lesson.

Dina:   That was another lesson today.  Then I remember I said, “I learn, I’m learning to be selfish.”

Susan:  Excellent!

Dina:  I am learning.

Susan 1:  I am happy that you are learning to be selfish.  Yes.  So what we got then is you shifted the way that you are always worrying about people, and you let family and friends answer the phone and have them be the filter and you had your funny shows and movies and music that kept you going and you will not watch anything else.

Dina:   Nothing depressing.

Susan:  Nothing depressing, and you also love your fresh fruits than vegetables and salads.

Dina:   Exactly.

Susan:  Okay.  Anything else that helped you heal?

Dina:   I think that the support of the family and friends are very important too.

Susan:  Yes, absolutely.

Dina:   And I had…my family came, my sister was with me, one sister for six months, the other sister…or almost not six months.  One sister, three months, the other sister, three months and then six months with the other sister and then another two months with my mother. 

Susan:  So there was always a family member with you?

Dina:   yes.  It was eight months straight with…or my sister or my mother taking care of me and then they were cooking things that I could eat because I did not want to eat anything.  Everything tastes horrible and then in the beginning I was… I lost 20 pounds and then now I gained everything back. I gained thirty but I have them…

Susan:  Great.  So you had your family supporting you.

Dina:   Yes, but the only sad thing was that my mother went back to Brazil and she died after two months that she was in Brazil. She had a heart attack there, and I felt terrible, horrible because I thought it was too much for her to be with me and suffering with me.

Susan 1:  Do you think it could be that she knew you were getting well so she could then let go?

Dina:   I think so.

Susan 1:  Though, she probably, maybe she even stayed longer in order to make sure you were okay.

Dina:   Yes.  It is funny that you are saying that.  You are the only person that said that to me because that is the way I felt.

Susan 1:  That is how I feel.  I am getting chills as we are talking.

Dina:   And it is so hard for me to tell anybody that because it sounds crazy.

Susan 1:  But that is what my mother did.

Dina:   Your mother did?

Susan 1:  I know my mother stayed until she knew I was okay.

Dina:   It is.

Susan 1:  And then she let go, and then she moved on, but she was ready to move on but she just stayed and we had a little cat that did the same to my husband.  He had a hernia surgery and she stayed and made sure he was okay and then two weeks after he had the surgery and he was getting better, then she left.  She died and we knew she waited until she knew he that he was okay.

Dina:   And I said that to myself.  It was like I felt inside of me that, that was what happened and then I stopped being feeling so…from the first, my first reaction was to feel guilty and then I felt like it was very strange because my mother always tell me to, told me to walk because I was trying to learn how to walk and follow some marks on the pavement to go straight because my balance was very bad and then she said, “Come”, and she told me how to get straight up the hill and go to the church. 

There is a church a few blocks from here and it is a good walk and then she always told me, “if you feel sad, sit down in this church, it is very quiet and nobody’s ever here and stay, sit down and do not think about anything, only sit down and feel the quietness of the church”, and I was so mad because she had died then.  I felt so guilty and I run to the church and I sit down.  I was crying when I got there, then I sit down and then I felt like someone had told me, it is like someone came to my side and told me she left because she knew you are okay now.  She could leave and she wants to go before you and then I left the church and I felt better.

Susan 1:  That is amazing story, Dina.

Dina:  And I felt that is the truth and I still…when I am nervous or there is something I want then I talk to her and I know she is around me.

Susan 1:  Yes, and I am sure she is helping you continue to strive and flourish.

Dina:  Exactly, and when I was last talking to you, you said that the man that you interviewed, the one who is Max Factor’s son [ph41:43]. 

Susan 1:  Oh, yes, Don Factor.

Dina:  But he did not know why he was here and then I told you it is hard for me to know why I am still here and then I was thinking, you cannot imagine how many people call me and how many mails I get, asking me what I did and what I do to be well?  And people, it is all kind of different cancers.  I have been talking to so many people and I go to a support group every Wednesday.  I have my sports group and they have all kinds of different cancer.  I know they like to hear that even though all the doctors said, “Six months to a year”, I am here and then I am kind of giving hope to them.

Susan 1:  Just like Don, he was given six months…

Dina:  Yes.  It is only because we are here and we can talk to people, people feel hope.

Susan 1:  Exactly.  So, talking of what you have just said, what is your purpose now?  Now that you are here and given what you have been through, is your purpose to give hope?  Is that your main purpose, or do you have any other purposes as well?

Dina:  What I am doing, they call me in my group, and they call me a “Patient Activist”, because I do not stop.  I have been sending letters to different congressmen and senators and president and everybody.  I sent letters to everybody already, and to news, I had some answer from NBC, I think, and from ABC, all of the others say, they do not care.  All the senators from California, those two women I send a letter they did not answer because I know, and I did some fund raise too.  I know there is a lot of more people with breast cancer and lung cancer and all of the other stuff but I am really trying to have the hospitals together to help each other. 

I am trying to see if I can make like a network of hospitals to exchange information for them to get more different information about this Glioblastoma to find a cure and they need much more research.  They thought before there was one type, now they already found that they have five types.

Susan 1:  Now, I am curious here because of the two different tracks you are on, track is finding a cure for the Glioblastoma, but from your story that you are telling me, it is not necessarily the diagnosis, it is who you are and what you did, that makes the difference, you are different from others.  That is the second track.

Dina:  Yes.  But there are so many people dying, and all of my friends around me, they are dying.

Susan 1:  Is that part of your…I remember when I talked with you a couple of weeks ago, one of your friends…..

Dina:  Yes. It was exactly the same.

Susan 1:  It is exactly the same, but she went through the same process, yes?

Dina:  Yes, and she was trying to raise money for the research too.

Susan 1:  And was she eating all the fresh fruits and vegetables?

Dina:  She is American.

Susan 1:  Does she have the attitude …

Dina:  She has a good attitude.  She does.

Susan 1:  Was she watching all the funny movies?

Dina:  She used to sing and write music.  That is what she likes to do, but I do not know about her.  I really do not know about her background.

Susan 1:  Yes.  I mean, did she make a decision like you not to be so uptight and to let go? 

Susan 1:  This is why I am so interested in interviewing you because a lot of people may have the same diagnosis as you, like with Don Factor, and yet there is something you have, that to me is much more than the chemo and the radiation.  And Don, too, there were things that he did that made him stand out and the things you are telling me. For example you said that you stopped worrying about everybody so much.  You brought your family to filter for you.  You had amazing family support; it sounds like you have a very close family, is that right?

Dina:  Yes.

Susan 1:  Yes.  A lot of people do not have those things.

Dina:  Yes.  I think so and this friend of mine has…she was gay and her girlfriend left her, and I think that is what made everything go down.

Susan 1:  Yes.  So she did not have the same level of support, and the love, and the family.  So there are things that you are doing that are really standing out, in addition to the chemo and the radiation and the surgery. 

Dina:  Right.  I think, yes.

Susan 1:  And then you are not using your cell phone so much.

Dina:  No.  And there is another thing, I never did drugs and I never drink.  The only thing I can do is one glass of wine and I am already done.  Jim, my fiancé, always said that I am the cheapest date that he ever had.

Susan 1:  This is amazing.  You also made that commitment to not do or watch anything depressing.  You do not listen to the news do you?

Dina:  I listen to music a lot.

Susan 1:  Music and opera?

Dina:  Yes, and I like… not the tragic operas, only the light ones.

Dina:  Yes.  I like some music.  I do not watch, but I would like some music.  Then I listen to some of the opera music like “The Three Tenors”.  They have some beautiful music, and I love classic music.  I like orchestra.  I like piano, and then I can put piano playing in an orchestra for hours.

Susan 1:  Yes.  And so that makes you feel good.

Dina:  Yes, and I like to see old movies and the musicals.

Susan 1:  Musicals …

Dina:  Yes.  I love Leslie Caron and Gene Kelly, all of them.  I have Fred Astaire.  Several Fred Astaire’s, Ginger Rogers — all these, all to do with the music and dance.

Susan 1:  So when you think about, say one of your favorite movies, what happens in your body?  Can I ask you?  Because that is what I am researching — what happens when people think of a funny movie or an inspiring movie? I know  you told me  that “Enchanted” was your favorite one of the moment.

Dina:  Yes.

Susan 1:  Yes.  When you think of “Enchanted”, what happens in your body?

Dina:  I think I feel, it is something light, I feel light, light and happy.

Susan 1:  And happy, yes and that is what helps the healing?

Dina:  Yes.

Susan 1:  Great.   Well, we are collecting funny movies for anyone that has been in the hospital, or at home, or going through what you went through and we are writing them down.  Because I know when my mom was sick, we got her funny movies and then some of them would end up being a bit sour… or a little bit sick or depressing as you said. So we are writing them down as you know. We ask how much do you laugh, how much do you feel inspired, how much do you feel in your mind and stretch so that you are looking for a whole bigger life.  How good do you feel in your body? Do you feel expanded and relaxed and peaceful  and calm?…So we get the all the criteria?

Dina:  Exactly.

Susan 1:  And so that people will go and say, “Okay” this movie is high on the list, and you know the things that opened you up, and so they are going to choose that one.  There are a lot of people who get sick, who have never watched funny movies, and they do not know about laughing.

Dina:  And there are people that do not know how to laugh.

Susan 1:  Yes.  So then what we want to do is teach them, so that no matter what therapy, no matter what the cures are that they find, if they have these extras that you have, that increases their chances of success and for you, the sticking to it is the way you were brought up.

Dina:  I think so.

Susan:  The way you feel about life, and the world, and you are a winner.

Dina:  Yes.  I am a survivor.

Susan:  I think you are more than a survivor.  You are a winner.  I  want to thank you so much.

Dina:  You are welcome.

Susan:  I think people will be very inspired by your story , and I will put it in the E-book. Can I put your website in, is that okay?

Dina:  Yes, and  I do not remember now but there are a lot of old movies that are funny too, but I cannot remember now the names.  But if I remember I will tell you.

Dina:  Now I  talk.  Now I know how to stop them if they start telling me horrible stories.

Susan:  Oh, yes.  No,  only wonderful stories we want.

Dina:  Now, I learned now.

Susan:  Yes.  You have learned well.

Dina:  I learned that if I have a friend that she is always depressed, and then when she calls me and starts saying, “My cat did that,  my mother did that, my father” … complaining about everything.  I say, “You know what, I am cooking, I am very busy, I will call you later”.  And I hang up.

Susan:  That is important.

Dina:  I mean, that is another thing, not to hear, and not to be involved with negative people.

Susan:  We are going to write that one down here because that is a really important one.

Dina:  And what I said, that I learned how to be selfish because of that.  I learned not to be around negative people.  If they are negative, I start going out.  I do not get along, and I do not call back.  I do not talk too often.  I say, “Hello” and “How is the sky?”.  I change the subject and go further away, and I sit in another side of the room.

Susan:  Excellent!  So what I am going to do is, I am going to email you.  I am going to do this with Lauren too.  It is a voting list of funny movies, so if there is anybody who wants to share their favorite ones…

Dina:  Yes.  That is a good idea, because I know there are some that I do not remember now, but I remember like a week ago.  Jim and I, we are laughing.

Susan:  Yes.  Well I’m going to go now, we are just starting, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”.  Somebody  gave it to us.

Dina:  Oh, yes.  That is a funny one.  We laughed so hard in that one.

Susan:  Okay.  Well, the good stuff is just about to start.  We are going to go and watch it.

Dina:  Yes.  That is a very funny one.

Susan:  And I am going to email you the movie list if you feel like thinking about any of them.  Whenever we talk about them it’s like a party, and everybody just laughs and laughs.  So it is a good conversation piece. Alright Dina, thank you so much, and look I made a  CD of Don Factor’s interview and we call it “A Healing Miracle: Don Factor’s Triumph over Cancer”.  I have been giving them to people who want inspiration because he wants to share his story.  Would you like me to do one for you? A Healing Miracle: Dina Ubaldina?

Dina:  Yes. I want.

Susan 1:  And send you?

Dina:  Yes.  That will be good.

Susan 1:    That way if you want, people want to hear your story, you just give them a copy of the CD?

Dina:  You know the other thing that I try to do is when I am getting tired or sad, is to sing.  Because I know I still know how to sing the Brazilian songs, the old ones and then I put Bossa Nova, and they are very cute.

Susan:  Oh, wonderful.

Dina:  And I sing …and I tell people when you start feeling depressed, try to sing.

Susan:  It is a brilliant idea, and you sing your old Brazilian songs.

Dina:  Yes, and Frank Sinatra.  I know almost all of Frank Sinatra’s songs.

Susan:  That is fantastic.  So you truly are an inspiration, Dina.

Dina:  Thank you.

Dina’s website is:    www.ugbf.org      Go online and check it out. You will find it very interesting.  She is very involved in fundraising  for UCLA and research into brain  tumors

Join us on our special Inspirational Comedy blog for fun tips, jokes and suggestions to support your immune system and to add a smile to your day:    http://www.101ComediesThatHeal.com