Diagnosed but Not Defeated: The Power of Women Who Rise
What if your greatest challenge became your greatest calling?
In this unforgettable 100th episode of Secrets in Medical Device Sales, Cindy and Lisa sit down with two powerhouse women who turned fear into purpose—Tina Valbh and Jessica Krauser. These warriors didn’t just survive a life-altering diagnosis; they chose to rise, speak out, and change lives. From breast cancer to early-onset Parkinson’s, their stories are proof that grit, resilience, and purpose can ignite movements. This is an episode about redefining strength, finding your voice, and building something bigger than yourself—even in the face of uncertainty.
Whether you're in sales, in a storm, or just in need of hope—this one will stay with you long after the episode ends. Cheers to 100 and beyond!
Episode Chapter Markers
00:00 Welcome to Secrets and Medical Device Sales
00:39 Introducing Our Special Guests
02:06 Jessica Krauser's Journey with Parkinson's
04:43 Tina Valbh's Battle with Cancer
13:07 Facing Dark Moments and Finding Strength
13:30 The Power of Family Support
16:56 Turning Challenges into Advocacy
19:35 Messages of Hope and Resilience
21:50 Closing Thoughts and Gratitude
Must-Hear Insights and Key Moments
From Diagnosis to Drive – Tina and Jessica open up about how two devastating diagnoses led them to create platforms for change—Tina in oncology advocacy, Jessica in Parkinson’s awareness.
Hitting Rock Bottom – Both women share raw, emotional moments when they nearly gave up—and the people who helped them find the strength to keep going.
Parenting Through Pain – Jessica shares a powerful story of vulnerability in front of her teenage daughter—and how that moment shifted her outlook and led to a life-changing decision.
Turning Pain into Purpose – Tina reflects on the trauma of watching her daughters grow up while she was in treatment—and how it fueled her mission to become a patient advocate.
The Power of Community – The group discusses how impact grows when women use their voices, build movements, and support one another through dark seasons.
Lessons in Perspective – Cindy and Lisa reflect on how Tina and Jessica’s stories are reminders that health and humanity matter more than any deal or sales win.
Final Words of Wisdom – Both guests offer a message of hope and resilience for any listener facing adversity, reminding us all that grit is something you grow.
Words of Wisdom: Standout Quotes from This Episode
“We didn't start this for downloads. We started it to serve women in the trenches.” – Cynthia Ficara
“Grit is the consistency when nobody’s watching.” – Anneliese Rhodes
“You get to choose how you show up—even in your hardest seasons.” – Jessica Krauser
“This podcast reminded me I wasn’t alone. That changed everything.” – Tina Valbh
“We weren’t trying to be perfect. We were trying to be real.” – Cynthia Ficara
“I realized: I’m allowed to want more, even if I already have a great job.” – Jessica Krauser
“Hearing your stories gave me permission to believe in my own.” – Tina Valbh
“Episode one was messy—but it was necessary.” – Anneliese Rhodes
About Tina
Tina Valbh is a pharmacist, entrepreneur, and cancer survivor dedicated to empowering others through resilience and purpose. After years in retail pharmacy, she built her own business to improve healthcare and patient advocacy. Her breast cancer journey inspired Tina’s Warriors, a nonprofit providing hope kits and support to women undergoing treatment. Tina’s story is one of courage, purpose, and heart — leading by example and inspiring change.
Connect with Tina Valbh:
About Jessica
Jessica Krauser is a passionate advocate for the Parkinson’s community and the co-founder of the nonprofit 5KforJK. After her own diagnosis, Jessica channeled her energy into creating impactful spaces for education, empowerment, and support. She is also the host of a podcast designed to reduce the fear surrounding a Parkinson’s diagnosis by fostering open conversations among those living with the condition. In 2023, Jessica was honored with the Hero of Research Award by The Michael J. Fox Foundation for raising $190K in just two years to support Parkinson’s research.
Connect with Jessica Krauser:
Follow The Girls of Grit:
We'd Love to Hear Your Stories!
Even in life’s darkest moments, we have the power to create change. We’d love to hear from YOU — whether you’ve taken a leap of faith, overcome adversity, or found purpose through a challenge. Share your stories with us in the comments or send us a DM. Let’s keep the conversation going and continue lifting each other up.
A Team Dklutr production
Blog Transcript:
Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies
Anneliese Rhodes: Welcome everyone to another episode of Secrets and Medical Device Sales. We are in Vegas, baby. Woohoo. Something different. And I'm seeing you. Where are we, Lisa? We are at the Sirius XM Studios at the Win Las Vegas. And this is a amazing, you guys, you heard it like, oh my God, here we're, can you feel my excitement?
So.
Cynthia Ficara: But what's even more exciting is we have two amazing guests with us to hear this week at the series
Anneliese Rhodes: XM
Cynthia Ficara: Studios.
Anneliese Rhodes: Yes. And you guys are gonna hear all about their stories today get ready to be inspired. You are gonna be like jumping outta your seats, wanting to meet these two amazing rockstar women.
So today we have back on the show again, Tina Valbh, and we have an extra special guest with her, Jessica Krauser, and they are the two co-hosts. Of the Patient Rx podcast. So here we are, podcast to podcast, and we are just so excited to have you both here.
Jessica Krauser: Thank you. We are so excited. And your energy is just amazing.
Cynthia Ficara: Yes, yes. Super excited. it's so amazing to put four women in a room together I already feel elevated just. Getting an opportunity to speak with both of you. And what we wanted to do for our listeners today is let them hear your stories and how, every day we are faced with some challenge, whether it's just at work, whether it's at home, and then we balance our lives with.
So many different things, yet here we are sitting across from two beautiful, amazing, smart women that have extra challenges, so we wanted to just take some time today to speak with you and get to understand what motivates you, what drives you, how you have become so successful and amazing in all that you've done.
Anneliese Rhodes: Yes. So if you both would love to introduce yourselves as well as tell us. Your stories, we want our listeners to hear all about it.
Tina Valbh: you go
Jessica Krauser: first, Jess. Okay. All right. All right. so again, my name is Jessica Krauser. but I have been living with young onset Parkinson's Disease since I was 37.
and I'm fine with saying my age all the time. So I'm 43. so I've had, Parkinson's for probably over six years. but I've been in, the marketing, world in pharmaceutical industry for the most of my career. so those two paths started crossing, which, is how we then came up with Patient Rx podcast.
Breaking the Parkinson’s Stigma
I also have another podcast called The Secret Life of Parkinson's. I've had that for three years, and that's talking directly to the patient. but the reason why I started in all of that is purely because I saw a need for, patient education and patient awareness and just to get rid of the stigma.
You know, like I, Parkinson's, everybody thinks like, shaky old man hunched over shuffling. I was like, I'm 37 years old. I'm quite bubbly and I'm. Still working, and I have two kids and a husband and beautiful. And beautiful. Oh, thank you. Absolutely. I'm very outspoken.
so then I started finding out. People didn't wanna talk about it, they didn't want to be noticed or recognized as somebody with Parkinson's because they were afraid of how they might be looked at. Or, they're gonna hear somebody say, oh, my dad had Parkinson's, or My uncle had Parkinson's and it was awful.
It's like, oh, thanks. You know, I appreciate it. Thanks. I need to get older. I what I'm getting into. You don't have to really drive home on it. But, so I have a great community in Columbus, Ohio. so we have a gym called PD Next Steps, and it is only for Parkinson's patients because wow. We get, people with Parkinson's tend to isolate because as Tina has recognized, this week, like my everyday is different.
So right now I might get very movie, Dyskinesia or dystonia? No dyskinesia. See, this is the medical terms I hate to describe. and then, you know, I do, I do tremor and then I, I, if I'm overstressed or overwhelmed, I have an issue with bringing like clarity and clear thinking to like. Actually projecting out, like, I know what I wanna say.
I know what I need to say, but it's not coming out. so I started a nonprofit with my friends. It's called, we we're updating the name, it's called Changing Parkinson's. It started as 5K for JK as a walk. But we're trying to change the way people live, think, and, learn about Parkinson's. And so we have the podcast, we have a kit that I shared with you.
Love this kit. a patient kit. And, because the education's just not there. And then we have the exercise program that we're gonna start to be pushing out. So I feel like I just talked a lot, so I think Tina No, I
Tina Valbh: know. I mean, you didn't. It's perfect. so Tina Valbh, I, a pharmacist by training and, and my background is, I am a, I'm a co-founder of an organization or of a company called Pharma Connect.
And, what I have done for the past 20 plus years in my career is work within the pharmaceutical industry and worked across, a lot of different stakeholders, specifically around drug. Products and, my background has been to help manufacturers bring products to the market to help plan out what their channel strategy is.
A lot of data analytics, but the heart of it is around clinical programs and building programs. And services for patients as they are put on these medications for chronic diseases. So that's what I have done my entire career. I also worked, or I was a, a. Special government employee with the FDA and was part of their drug safety and risk management advisory board.
So I did work very closely with some folks within the FDA to ensure that certain products, as they come out, that there were safety mechanisms in place. Ensure safe use and. So I've, I've taken all of that knowledge throughout my career and have applied it into my day-to-day work. However, two years ago, almost two years ago actually, I was diagnosed with cancer.
I was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 48 and, just through a routine mammogram. No symptoms, no signs, just a routine mammogram. And, by the time. They got to it. it had spread and so it was metastatic and it was pretty aggressive. So I was thrusted into the world of now being a patient and my outlook on the entire healthcare system change.
From Diagnosis to Movement
Overnight it changed because what I thought was working within the healthcare system to access the medications and the treatments that I needed was easily accessible, and I found that it was not. I found that there were tremendous amount of gaps. I found that, I felt like I was the profit center for organizations. I was, just the, the line item on an Excel spreadsheet and, and I, I felt I was losing my dignity. I was, there was no humanity and there was just no empathy in, in, in all the different phases throughout my treatment. And that, you know, I came to a crossroads. I came to a crossroads to say, okay, what am I going to do about it?
This is my industry and if I do not speak up, who will? So I did and a group of. Fantastic people within the industry came together. We have built a nonprofit, we officially filed for a nonprofit, it's called Tina's Warriors, and we are advocating for change. We're advocating for patient-centered solutions to bring the patient back into the equation, to bring empathy and compassion, to, bring.
Access, easier access to these treatments, these therapies. back to the patient so that they are not stressed with wondering, am I going to get my medication? Will the insurance company prior auth the scan that I need? and you know, at the heart of that is my drive. To turn my diagnosis, my fear into resilience and into a movement where everybody will bring the patient to the table.
Cynthia Ficara: Wow. That is so, I know. I just take
Anneliese Rhodes: a breath. For a minute. I mean, both of you are just astonishing and astounding women, and you know, as you guys sit here, you're so beautiful on the outside and on the inside and the things that you guys are doing. You just said, Tina, you took your fear and you just basically threw it away and said, no, I am going to use my voice, I'm gonna use my connections.
I'm going to use my. Heartfelt feelings. And the same thing with you, Jessica. You said, you know what? This is a tough diagnosis to have had at such a young age, and I commend you for dealing with it at such a young age and doing it with a smile on your face. You both are just amazing women. And you know, as I sit here and I think about our listeners.
You know, they're probably driving in their car, they're thinking about their day. This really puts in perspective, you know, life and the things that life is going to hand you. Mm-hmm. And none of us are gonna get outta this life free. And I think that all that both of you have just shown to all of us that.
Not only can you conquer that fear, but you can make a massive impact. Mm-hmm. And I just, I, I commend you. I mean, I, I have, I have another question for you guys, but I know you wanted to say
Cynthia Ficara: something,
Anneliese Rhodes: Cindy, and, oh gosh,
Cynthia Ficara: there's so many, so many great things that, that both of you said and, you know, one of.
One of the things that I drive home from both of you and anything that our listeners can do is when you see a challenge, you rose to the occasion and you're finding a way to overcome it. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and I think, like you said, our listeners are in the car, they're thinking. Oh my gosh, my job is so stressful today.
I have to go do this one thing. But maybe if they stopped and thought that maybe it's not as big as they made it. Mm-hmm. Maybe they're making themselves afraid of something that really shouldn't be afraid of. Mm-hmm. That if we let little things in life make us stressed and make us worried about an outcome of something that if we stepped back and realized maybe that doesn't matter.
Jessica Krauser: I was gonna say that, that having this, I think it's having this disease changed that in me of, I just don't sweat the small stuff. Yeah. And that is a hard thing to say from a type A individual, who has, you know, growing up like my mother and love her to death, but it was always like, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go.
Like, what? Why are you sitting down? You shouldn't be sitting down. We need to be doing this. And, and, and just taking, taking a break. Mm-hmm. And knowing, even like with my kids, I have teenagers and things happen, but I'm like. It's not that big of a deal. You know what, what we're dealing with as a family is much bigger.
Yeah.
Tina Valbh: Yeah. So there was a point during my treatment, I was. in a very, very low place in my treatment. And, I went to my doctor, my oncologist, and I said, you know, I, and that day I asked none of my family members to join me and I, I even my husband, I said, I need to go and talk with. The oncologist by myself and, we weren't sure exactly what we were dealing with.
The Fork in the Road—Choosing Resilience
We knew that my cancer had spread and I honestly wanted to know how long I had to live and if I was going to see my daughters graduate. And he said to me, he said, your personality will change. You will change through this experience, and you have to decide if you're going to take that energy and turn it into a positive, or if you are going to sit back and shrivel away.
And he's like, you have to make a decision. He said, no matter, he's like, I'm going to treat you. And he's like, and I am not going to lose you. And he said, so you're gonna have to make a decision. And accept that you will change and how are you going to change? And I sat back and I thought about that and I said, wow, okay.
I have a choice here that the fork in the road hitting myself. Or do something else and I decided to do something else.
Jessica Krauser: That is amazing because so many people with Parkinson's, we actually talked about the same thing on, on my podcast, the Secret Life because so many people want to fight against Parkinson's.
Yeah. And that we keep talking about is you are gonna change everybody changes. Right. And you, so if you change and adjust with it, you will live a much. Better, stronger life today. And so that's what I feel like you know we're doing is it's a part of, it's a part of who I am and I'm not gonna fight it or else it, you just make your day to day
Anneliese Rhodes: course.
Well, what you guys are talking about is what our podcast is named after, what we're named after, which is The Girls of Grit. And you both exemplify grit. Grit to the deepest, most core part of what it is, which is. When you are faced with such a challenging Yeah. Scary.
Jessica Krauser: Mm-hmm.
Anneliese Rhodes: Gosh, I, I, I'm, I'm just, I'm so impressed with you both and I, I wanna ask you this and, and I don't know if, I don't know how you wanna answer this or if you wanna answer it, but I.
There has to be a time when you weren't strong. Mm-hmm.
Jessica Krauser: Mm-hmm.
Anneliese Rhodes: And maybe you woke up one morning and you thought, I don't know if I wanna do this anymore. I don't know if I wanna keep fighting this.
Jessica Krauser: Mm-hmm.
Anneliese Rhodes: Mm-hmm. What? I'm crying. What, what got you through that? Because there has to be. Something inside of you or someone else
Tina Valbh: mm-hmm.
That
Anneliese Rhodes: looked at you and said, Nope, you're gonna fight this. Yeah. You don't get to give up. This isn't your calling.
Jessica Krauser: Mm-hmm.
Anneliese Rhodes: Yeah.
Jessica Krauser: For me it's my, I mean, it's definitely my family, my immediate family. my husband has been amazing through all this, you know, I would have, I would get through some of those moments and days. By just letting it happen. So I would have days where I just, I would just cry and I didn't know why and he would just come and comfort me and not even have to say anything. And I would let the day just go and not try and fight it.
Anneliese Rhodes: Yeah.
Jessica Krauser: but then I had, most recently, 'cause now my kids are 15 and my daughter's like, you know, my little buddy and we were on vacation and I was so dyskinetic, which means I have.
Not, I don't wanna say too much medication, but that's just that the more medication you take, the more it happens. So that's like what Michael J. Fox does is, you know, moving your shoulders. Or like mine, I, my arm twists out a lot. Tina got to experience this at dinner two nights ago and and I can't control it.
Like I can try and stop and like take a breath for a moment and like just let it relax. But the second your brain thinks about, oh, I need to pick up my fork and eat, there it goes again. So we were out at dinner on vacation, and I was just. I couldn't stop myself. And the family was, they were just talking.
The Moment You Break Down
Everyone's just ignoring it 'cause they're used to it. And I told my daughter, I'm like, let's go outside and, and take a picture. And I just, I broke down and I never broke down. I don't know if I've ever cried in front of her. And I was just like, I can't do this anymore. I. And, and I was like, you know, I, I don't know, like if this is my, my push to then get the DBS surgery, like the deep brain stimulation surgery or not, but I was just, I know I told her, I'm like, I'm just so sorry.
Like I'm, I'm sitting in this restaurant and just feel like I'm making a spectacle. And, she's like, mom, she's like, don't ever apologize. She's like, it's, we don't care. She's like, you're fine. She's like, and you know, talk to me anytime that you want to. She's like, don't feel like you have to hold it in.
And it just like. I'm like, oh my God, you're so grown up. Like, when did that happen? Yeah. And and it was shortly after that that I finally, you know, that I made the decision to do DBS, but I mean, I'm gonna have those moments a lot. You know, I, I, I, I think about the future 'cause it's like, you can't not think of it.
And it's like, you know, one of the biggest things that always gets me is like, am I gonna be able to hold their babies, you know, when they have them? And, 'cause I just know what, you know, the shaking and tremors can do to me now and. Feeling safe with stuff like that, and that, that just always gets me
Cynthia Ficara: 15 years old.
I mean, that is so grown up. Such's a sweets support. Yeah. To be able to see that and, you know, but she's right. Mm-hmm. You know, saying, mom, who cares? Mm-hmm. Nobody's watching. Nobody cares. Mm-hmm. I mean, how many times do we judge ourselves at work? Like, oh, we're not wearing the right thing. We didn't say the right thing.
Thing. Mm-hmm. And, you know, I think that, we let our worlds get too clouded with things that shouldn't matter. Mm-hmm. And when we peel back the layers and focus on what matters, that's where real change happens. Yeah. And you know, honestly, Jessica, just, just to speak to Parkinson's, you know, I will say that Michael J.
Fox comes to mind when I hear Parkinson's. Yeah. I had a, one of my really close friends in college, father had Parkinson's and it was the stereotypical image mm-hmm. That you mentioned. So at 37 years old, I see that you, you know, to me, I feel like you're a female in this. Male dominated disease world.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But yet you are the one that stepped up and did something. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You are the one that said, I'm gonna make these 5K to JK kits. Yeah. I'm gonna do this. And that has to feel rewarding in some way. It
Jessica Krauser: does, especially like the, the comments that I get from the kits and the podcast, I mean, I.
It just some, if not, if that doesn't make me feel good every single day, and, and it's something that we wanna share out because everyone's saying now, I don't feel alone. You said exactly what I was been trying to say. Now my family understands what I'm going through. Like this. Just, I got one the other day that said thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
I needed to watch this specific episode today because it was exactly what I was going through and it just, you just made me feel normal.
Tina Valbh: Hmm. The power of community mm-hmm. Can have such an
Cynthia Ficara: effect.
Tina Valbh: Yeah. Yeah. So I had a lot of dark days, a lot. I felt like the treatments would never end. what was the most painful for me was watching my girls grow up.
Too quickly. My, my daughter 14 at the time, my youngest and my oldest was first year in college, and they had to watch me go through. The treatments, the loss of my hair, my identity, my body. and I wish that I could bring those years and those moments take those moments away from them. So they watched me, and those were my dark moments is I, I put them through that.
But it also built resilience. And, I think people forget that as patients, there's so much other things happening and, and they, they forget to ask us. Right. We're, we're so concerned about. Building services and, and all these things in our industry, but they forget to the human part of going through a chronic disease.
And I live with the fear every day. And, you know, one of my dark, another dark moment was, it was right before one of my surgeries. And I've had multiple surgeries by the way. And they had thought that the cancer had, you know, spread. And this was after chemo, after radiation. And I thought, okay, I'm starting to see the finish line and then, oh no, hold up.
And they're like, yeah, we're, we're gonna have to go in. And, and so I, I just, I couldn't do it anymore. And my, my. I, I didn't want to, I, I wasn't even sure if I could get up and go to the hospital the next day for the surgery. And at that critical junction, my, my two nieces who are older, they stepped in and they had lost their mom a year before to cancer.
When Darkness Meets Determination
At a young age and they said to me, and they held up a mirror and they said, there are so many more memories for you and life is not done yet for you, and we have a lot more memories to make. And you're gonna get up and you're gonna go into that hospital and you're going to get that surgery and you're going to finish your cancer treatment and you will become a survivor.
And it just was enough to say, I have to live. For them, for my daughters, for my family, and I have to become a survivor for them.
Anneliese Rhodes: Wow. Tina. Oh my god, boy, I asked the question. I know. There we go. Answer, but you know, I mean, holy crap. wow. Thank
Cynthia Ficara: you. You know, for sharing, I would like to, to take this moment before we do wrap this up, that you know, you, you have the ear of an audience, and I know everybody listening.
I, I hope you will be able to feel the love and support of the women that are hearing this, because I already feel it and I think both of you are making tremendous strides in, in, in your areas. But I would like to take this moment for each of you to just say one thing to our listeners. Who every day will have a challenge and they will have something come their way.
But just what piece of advice do you have for them when it be a small, medium, or large obstacle? They are facing as everybody in this room is a girl of grit and we believe everybody listening is, what message can you leave for them to instill grit to go forward?
Tina Valbh: I am actually, you know. I'll take a couple more seconds.
Sorry. So we just had a keynote speaker, Gary Sinise and he talked about famous
Cynthia Ficara: actor for all of you listening. Yes. Famous Hollywood actor.
Tina Valbh: 'cause we are at the Mbia conference and he was a keynote and something that's always been near and dear to me is hope. And he talked a lot about hope and for me.
The walk away is hope can light up a room and hope can solve all problems and hope can light. The way, and, and I, I, I say hope that there everything, everything can be solved with hope.
Cynthia Ficara: I love that. I love that.
Tina Valbh: I love it too. I don't think mine's gonna
The Gleaming Power of Hope
Jessica Krauser: be as good. something that I always tell, my kids or I started telling them is, you know, 'cause they'll be, they might be complaining about like, oh, I don't wanna run track today.
And I'm like, think about this. You're using your able body when there's other people that cannot. And I have a friend who has a LS and that's one of her big mottos. And, and even that, but in my mind, I'm thinking of it for myself too, because there's things that I, I can't do. So as you're struggling with, you know, a meeting or talking to, you know, a client or an issue, whatever that you may have going on at work, just, just remember that you can do it.
Anytime. If I can do it with having brain fog and a body that doesn't wanna work with me, you can do great things.
Cynthia Ficara: That's a fabulous reminder that every day we have a privilege to work, that it's not, we have to go to work. We are very fortunate that we get to go to work. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So I can't thank.
No, both of you enough. Thank you both for being in our presence. Yes. At this amazing, amazing studio at the Wind Studio. I feel so just blessed to be here with both of you. Yes. And I just want to continue to watch you both. Thrive in your endeavors and support you in any way. And it's just very exciting and impactful for everybody to have an opportunity to hear your stories.
And I hope it makes a difference in somebody today.
Tina Valbh: Well, thank you for, thank you for having us. Thank you so much for having us.
Cynthia Ficara: Thank you.
