Photographing my Journey

Once I got over the shock of being diagnosed with Stage 2 Breast Cancer and figured out what I wanted to do with my diagnosis, the hubs and I were talking about documenting my journey.  We weren't going to document it for the blog, but more for myself, so I wouldn't forget and for other women fighting breast cancer, or any form of cancer to know that although it is very scary, cancer WILL NOT win.  I didn't want to forget what my breasts look like. I feel that a lot of women are so focused on getting rid of their cancer and so wrapped up with appointments, surgeries and taking care of themselves, that they forget about the details of their own mental health.  Anyone who has gone through any huge milestone in their lives, good or bad, tends to forget the details, details that I think photos can capture the emotion of the moment.  I had brought this up with my mom about how we wanted to do this and she went ahead and contacted a few local photographers.  Out of all the photographers she contacted there was one that we knew almost instantly that she was the one.  While one photographer told my mom that she would be too busy to take on my journey, but one of her "associates" could handle it, this photographer told my mom that she would be honored to be apart of this difficult journey in my life.

Her name is Denise Watrous, a phenomenal photographer and owner of Watrous Photography and within minutes of my mom and I meeting her it felt like we have known each other forever.  She has spunk, compassion and a big personality and my gut told me that she knew exactly what I wanted out of this.   I wanted to document all the ups, downs and in-betweens.  The emotion of the day of the surgery, bandage removal, Chemotherapy, the excitement of getting drains taken out, and the growth of my "new boobs" and hopefully the eventual happy ending of Chad and I having a child of our own in a few years.  This is a long process, but I know that if I am blessed to have children, this is such a pivotal part of mine and Chad's life that I want them to know what we went through and how we fought together

The day before my surgery, the hubs, my mom and I went to her studio and I got some "before" pictures taken.  I was a little nervous, but Denise has a way about her of making you feel so comfortable.  Having the photos taken really lessened my stress level for my impending surgery.

Denise captured the day of my surgery perfectly.  The hours before and after my surgery was such a blur that having these photos really comforts me. I love all the photos...

From the joking, happy ones...

To being wheeled off to pre-op and when the reality really set in for me...

I was so scared and overwhelmed at this point, knowing I was saying my "see ya laters", realizing that shortly I was going to be in surgery....

Denise's photographs really captured so many moments that I otherwise would never have known about...

After what felt like five minutes I was awake from surgery and the next couple hours was a total blur and Denise captured the ups and mostly downs of this part of my journey!

Even capturing the next day when I was feeling A LOT better!

It really is amazing what she has done so far and I cannot wait to see how the rest of this journey is photographed! I wish I could have met Denise under different circumstances, but I know that people and circumstances are meant to happen and come into ones life for a reason.

I could not have picked a better person to take this on!  She is not only the woman helping me photograph this portion of my life, but I think of her more as family now!  When the hubs and I first talked about photographing this journey in our lives, we thought that we would take a picture of the before, during and after and just keep it in a scrap book, but Denise has given us something for our future children and other women and men to follow and we are forever grateful for her!

Watrous Photography is located at:
831 N Grand Ave, Ste 210
Waukesha, WI
262-408-5566

She not only is photographing my journey, but she does a variety of photos, from parties to portraits and senior photos and can be found on facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/watrousphotography
or on her site at: http://www.watrousphotography.com/