Cancer Episodes

What happens when the surgical clips, staples, or biopsy markers left inside your body are making you sick? And what if you've been told they can't be removed? In this groundbreaking episode of Heavily Metalled, we welcome Dr. Frederick Tiesenga of Tiesenga Surgical Associates in Elmwood Park, Illinois. With a background in general and bariatric surgery and training in robotic surgical techniques, Dr. Tiesenga is one of only a handful of surgeons in the country pioneering the removal of surgi...

After surviving breast cancer, Val Johnson believed she was finally moving into healing and recovery. Instead, what followed was years of escalating neurological symptoms, muscle spasms, severe pain, heart rhythm abnormalities, inflammation, weight loss, nervous system dysfunction, and repeated medical dismissal — all while breast and abdominal surgical clips and biopsy markers remained inside her body. In this deeply emotional and eye-opening episode of Heavily Metalled, Val shares her lifel...

Maria Lappin, our guest from Michigan, is our incredible Season 2 opener. Her episode discusses a prominent lesion on the tip of her nose, diagnosed by multiple specialists, as aggressive metastatic melanoma. The lesion was, in fact, caused by a systemic reaction to surgical clips placed inside her body without her knowledge, her permission or being pre-screened for metal hypersensitivity, during surgery to remove her lymph nodes in conjunction with the Melanoma diagnoses. Her brave saga will...