Chapters Transcript Video Let Us Thrive Together in a World Beyond Cancer My diagnosis was I had cancer all over my abdomen. In fact, one of my doctors said that, um it's like someone blew, uh, dandy line in your abdomen. My diagnosis was stage three B. Colorectal cancer. I had colon cancer. I mean, I just could not believe it. That was the furthest thing from my mind. I was diagnosed them with stage four. Lung cancer, both lungs. I thought I had a bad case of food poisoning. Found out that I was staged to colorectal cancer. Indeed. You know, one out of eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. I'm a registered nurse. So telling me I had cancer was like, Check it again. You can't be right. It was it was gonna kill me. And they said I'd be dead within six months. I was diagnosed less than two months after my wedding. I was 29 years old when you think Well, that couldn't happen to me. I'm 35. I'm perfectly healthy. I'm getting ready to go, you know, doing another set of flying orders for the navy. You know, having cancer is the last thing on your mind. The radiologist said you're too young for this, but you'll get through it. It was like 20% live, 80% die. I said we're gonna flip that around. When I was originally diagnosed in the five year survival rate was 4%. And when I read that, I decided I was gonna be the 4% e gave it 100%. I wasn't gonna let it beat. I don't care What if they say your odds are a million to one, then my thought it to be the one I told my doctor, you know, we're gonna beat this And I said, Come along for the ride cause it's gonna be a heck of a ride. And I said, We're gonna make history. I've learned that I can persevere farther than I thought I could. I found that I was stronger than I expected to be. I might be small, but I'm not a wimp. I had strength that I never knew. A believe in yourself. When you don't think you've got the strength to do it, dig a little deeper. It's in there. You'll find it. I think it's all about the mind reframing perspective, looking at things from different angles and knowing that your perspective is your truth. But that doesn't mean that truth can't change. I would say the cancer was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. I had a life event that made me realize what really mattered, what was important. You find things are not important. People and friends are important. It's not until you think you could lose something that sometimes you recognized the importance of it. And now that I'm in a place of healing and health, I want to continue to make those memories. I wouldn't trade my experience. I wouldn't trade it if I could go back and have that colonoscopy revealed nothing. I wouldn't because my life is so much deeper and more meaningful now. Life beyond cancer has forced me to see the world very differently. You hug your kids every day, you hug your wife and your thankful for every moment for me life beyond cancer. And about 30 minutes I'm gonna go to a flight brief and I'm gonna hop in an F 18 and go flying again. And life after cancer wasn't the traditional way to have kids. But I've got two amazing kids on their here and I love them to death. Now one of the things I you know I'm really intentional about is educating people. Use the skills that you have, the experience that you have and give back, try toe, inspire others, try to motivate others. I've found that important in for my survivorship to do four, you know, pay it forward. There are other people who are going through the healing process. They may not have had colon cancer. They may have had some other type, but we were able Thio connect in that moment when I needed them the most. And I wasn't for sure what the next day would look like. They were always there with a smile. Show me that the next day would be better and I am forever grateful for that. I wear to wrist bands on my left arm and one of them says, motivate, inspire and educate and the other one I had made. And on one side it says when the day and on the other side it says, make history. We all have a limited time on the planet. You can choose to spend it having fun, or you can choose to spend it feeling sorry for yourself? You're gonna enjoy life a lot more if you have a little fun along the way. I don't have Thio. Allow this diagnosis too. Keep me in a fearful place of that. My life stops because it doesn't. So when you get up every day you have a choice. You can let life take advantage of you. Or you could say I'm gonna win today and I don't just say it. I don't just say Well, this is my philosophy. You gotta live it every day. Published October 29, 2020 Created by