One year ago today, I woke early, and on an empty stomach (as is required pre-surgery) we drove to the hospital in South Jordan so that cancer would be removed from my body. I mark this occasion in the most positive of ways. It was the beginning of the end of cancer.
At the time, we didn't know much - what type, how it would be fought, if surgery would be enough. Her2, estrogen positive, progesterone negative, stage two, grade three - had little meaning. The fact is : knowledge is power, both for me and doctors. We are able to fight a Her2 positive cancer with a miracle drug called Herceptin, a drug that at now almost $16,000 per infusion, I have just one more of. We were able to kill random cancer cells from duplicating anywhere in my body with Taxol. We killed the tumor bed with radiation.
But, as cancer survivors and fighters know, we will always be fighting. We can never ignore this "elephant in the room", as the elephant is cancer and the room is our bodies. We must stave of the reappearance of the elephant, by starving him of what is needed to be.
I choose to fight with barbells and plates of iron. I choose to fight with healthy nutrition choices. I choose to fight with a positive mental outlook. I choose to fight with photography.
My weapons have supported me through the worst of this hell ride, have become a way of life for me, and will forever be in my arsenal.
Those plates of iron have given me physical strength and fortitude; the nutrition : fuel - and the best kind; positivity - there is no other choice here; and photography, allows me to capture the beauty of the world and its people.
View my photo website from my birthday trip to Scotland...do you see what I do?
Do my photographs tell a story? Do you have a story to tell?
http://www.parkcityphotographers.com
Go to places. Then countries.
Then Scotland.
D
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