ABOUT THE CREATOR

WARRIOR

STORYTELLER

OVER SHARER

AND DOG OBSESSED

I began my photography career in 2008 capturing family and high school seniors. While I enjoyed connecting with the families something was missing.

A decade later I became fascinated with animal photography. Mostly dogs, but exotics and other animals as well. At this time I recruited my amazing husband who became my dog handler, ack mule, and jack of all trades.

Using my love for animal imagery we produced a successful calendar fundraiser as well as published 2 (soon to be 3) coffee table books.

Giving back to the community is a must in our eyes. We’ve raised $17K+ for non-profits and donated countless hours to covering events at no cost. We only wish there was enough time to give even more.

LET’S CONNECT

March to the beat of your own drum

Diagnosed with Cancer

As we came out of Covid lockdown I was unsure when my last mammogram was. After making a call it had been 2 years, so I got an appointment right away.

The appointment was standard until I saw the technician’s face. She compared the last scan and there was something there that wasn’t prior. At this point, I knew, I had cancer (not official yet).

Ultrasound quickly moved to having a biopsy. Two days later my pathology report hit My Chart.

Diagnosis: DCIS, Triple Negative (only 10% of women get), Stage 1, Grade 3

FUN FACT: We named the cancer “Toby”, and 24 hours before surgery I served him an eviction letter.

Bilateral (double) Mastectomy (DMX)

I always knew if I got breast cancer I’d have a double mastectomy with NO reconstruction (going flat). That’s exactly what I did. Triple-negative is hard to treat because you don’t know what’s “feeding” the tumor.

90% of women diagnosed with breast cancer know the tumor is being fed by hormones. Part of the treatment is hormone blockers to eliminate cancer “food”.

Since my DMX I’ve become an advocate for Aesthetic Flat Closure (aka no reconstruction). It’s not offered to all women as an option. Some professionals/society believe women would always want to have breasts regardless of additional surgeries and possibly be rejected in the end.

I’m a part of a “flattie” group of women, and I’ve never found a more loving and accepting group of individuals.

Chemotherapy Infusions

Originally my oncologist wanted me to start with chemo and end with surgery. I felt very strongly about doing surgery first, and my team of doctors accepted that. In doing so they found no signs of cancer in my lymph nodes and shifted my chemo plan.

The original plan was 8 rounds of chemo: 4 rounds of Adriamycin and Cytoxan . 4 rounds of Taxol ( also called the red devil). The day after the chemo infusions I’d go in for a Neulasta steroid injection.

The revised plan was 4 rounds of chemo: 4 rounds of Cytoxan & Taxotere (a cousin to Taxol) every 3 weeks. The day after the chemo infusions I’d go in for a Neulasta injection.

The Neulasta injections were worse than chemo IMO. As it went through your system I’d get shooting electricity like zaps fire through my spinal cord.

chest Infection

The downside to doing surgery before chemo. I ended up with a horrible breast infection. Chemo was killing good and bad cells leaving my body no way to heal.

There were a few times the infection neared sepsis, but adding antibiotics to my medication list kept it at bay.

With that said, I had several open holes along my incision until my last surgery.

Infection is fairly common. It makes perfect sense if chemo is busy killing off good/bad cells.

Our spare bathroom became my wound care station, and where I’d take all my showers for a few months. Man did showers feel SO good.

Final Surgery

This marked the final step in my treatment journey.

The surgery plan was to remove my chemo port, revise what they call a dog ear on my left side, and completely reopen and close me on the infected side.

Come to find out the side I had the infection on would have never healed without surgery. Opening completely up required me to have a drain once again. If you know anyone who has had drains they will tell you they are the pits.

At this point, all that was left to do was heal from surgery & chemo.

This is the point when it all sets in. You just kicked cancers A$$. Ironically this can be the hardest time for women. Most people see it as you being “done”. Mentally this is when we need the most support.

Warrior Women Portraits Created

As a photographer, I wanted to give back to this community in some way. I didn’t want to do something that was already being done, so I put on my thinking cap.

What was important:

The women need to feel empowered and reclaim some confidence in their new bodies.
The experience needed to be all-inclusive for the warriors. No need to worry about makeup, props, or accessories. They deserved to be pampered.
It needed to work regardless of where women were at in treatment.
I wanted it to be something they could lean on in those tough days.
Every person in the studio needed to understand the cancer journey.