I have the best friends!

Really. I don’t think I will even be able to talk about them and all they do in one post. So this post is going to be dedicated to 3 people that have kindly agreed to help me document my journey! More cool friend posts to follow. J

Cancer. The word sounds so…Dismal. Sad. Final.

Not in MY house!! I refuse to let cancer be ANY of those words. I am lucky…my prognosis is GOOD. My cancer is localized and CURABLE. While it may not be a picnic to go through the treatments to cure this ugly disease, it is DOABLE. And that is just what I plan to do. Since getting the news, I just keep thinking LET’S DO THIS!!

But I can’t do it alone. My positive attitude comes from not only having a HUGE “chandelier” at the end of my tunnel, but from the outpouring of love, support and encouragement that I have received from my family, my friends and the new people I have met along the way. I am the sum of all my parts…my life experiences (both good and bad) and all the people that have touched my life and shaped me into who I am for the last 36 years.

And yes, I did say the bad experiences…I am thankful for them too. I probably wasn’t so keen about them at the time they were happening, BUT they helped to make me who I am today, and I am happy with who I am, so I guess that would make me thankful for having gone through them. J

I saw this quote in 2009 and decided to save it. Now I know why. I think Ellen hits the nail on the head. She is an amazing person with a WONDERFUL perspective on life…and she makes me laugh, which I love too!

"I know for sure I would never change any of the hard times I went through in my life. Because it was in those times that I grew the most and gained the most perspective.

It's our challenges and obstacles that give us layers of depth and make us interesting. Are they fun when they happen? No. But they are what make us unique. And that's what I know for sure…I think."

Ellen DeGeneres

Ok…back to talking about my friends. J (Although I *wish* Ellen was one of them…SOME day I will get to her show!!)

So I want to document my journey. ALL of my journey. I may not choose to share some of the more “raw” photos along the way, but I want to have them to remember where I have been and how far I have come. I have taken photos of various aspects so far, but the tricky thing about being the subject of the photos, is that I can’t really document myself very well. (Believe me…I have tried.  I have tried using mirrors and stretching my arms out as long as possible with my phone, but that gets kinda tricky!) Who better to ask to help me document my journey then two of my photographer friends?

 My friend Jodi Addy and I started to get into photography around the same time. We met playing volleyball many years ago and both enjoy the creative side of life as well. Jodi is very talented and is the person I swap family photography with every year. (She takes pictures of our family, and I take pictures of her family.) We talk about ideas for photography and she encourages me to go manual with my camera (something she is already great at, while I am stuck on auto and lots of editing! Jodi…you will be happy to know that I signed up for an 8 week online manual class and I am SUPER excited about it!!) Anyways, Jodi graciously agreed to be on my team for Race for the Cure and is going to be my personal photographer for the race. Yay! I know it will be a wonderful day filled with thousands of people, a few tears, many smiles and lots of PINK! J

Here is a link to Jodi’s Photography on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jodi-Addy-Photography/254703411216376

My other photographer friend, who so graciously offered to help me document my journey, is Tina, who I have known for at least 10 years. We started as Creative Memories Consultants together, but I have *always* been inspired by Tina’s love for photography, her flare and her outlook on life in general. Tina is the person that I referred to earlier in my blog when I talked about focusing on a word for the year. (Perspective is my word.)

I admire Tina on so many levels. I consider her a mentor and I always look forward to reading her blog…it is full of creativity, depth, heart and of course: perspective. She has donated her time to being a photographer for Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (an organization pairing photographers with parents who want to document their newborn babies before they pass on) and The Gold Hope Project (an organization pairing photographers with children with cancer).

Tina has agreed to help me capture my journey in raw form….before surgery, possibly during surgery, and after surgery. I am a *tad bit* apprehensive about being the subject of such raw photos, but I know that Tina has worked in hospital settings and with touching situations before. I totally trust her with all of my sensitivities and insecurities.

You can check out Tina’s blog and photography site here:

http://www.tinavegaphotography.com/

And her Facebook page here:

https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Tina-Vega-Photography/49334773100

And last, but not least. I want to make a video!! (I know, I know…I want, I want! *smile*) There are so many cool videos to fun songs…I want to do this too! My friend Joe from volleyball is an aspiring movie producer and we are in the beginning stages of coming up with some cool ideas to maybe do this! How FUN!! Would love to hear your ideas for fun songs to use if you have any…

Ok…I have written A LOT already…I suppose I should wrap it up for today!

Quick note about how I am feeling. Last week was a tired/nauseous kind of week, so I wasn’t up to writing much. This week, I feel good and the best news….NO HIVES!!! WOOT WOOT!! I can’t tell you how relieved I am about this! You don’t realize how nice it is to not have itchy skin, until you have been through a severe case of hives! Happy to have somewhat normal/dry skin this week! Yay!

Have a great week everyone and thanks for reading!

Love to all…

Nae