It’s been brought to my attention on several occasions that I never officially blogged about how my surgery last year turned out. Fair enough…

If you’re new here, let’s catch you up:

I noticed some strange symptoms last summer and thought I felt a lump in my abdomen.
It turned out I had a 21 cm tumor growing through my pelvis into my abdomen.
I went through a few surgeons to find one capable and willing to do the “radical” surgery needed.
They were pretty sure it was an “atypical lipomatous tumor,” a rather nonaggressive and typically benign liposarcoma tumor. The problem was the difficult location of the tumor and the scary fact that when liposarcoma tumors are more aggressive and metastasis, they’re tough to treat — a truth I knew all too well having just lost a beloved to liposarcoma (We miss you so much John P!).
So, the big question was: Could I wait 5 months to have my surgery so that I could complete the remaining 18 weddings I still had at the time? It was a tough choice.
Introduce Dr. Miura in Philadelphia who specializes in liposarcoma. He was willing to do the surgery in conjunction with another specialist surgeon for the “bottom half” of the surgery.
Dr. Miura took my case to the tumor board where they had a unanimous vote for waiting to complete the surgery until my off season over the winter.
It turned out to be just a lipoma. Whew (to put it lightly)!
Dr. Miura is my hero.
I’m back to myself with a clear bill of health.

What I have never said out loud (or have never written about either) is that I have an unwritten personal policy that when someone touches my life so deeply to change it’s trajectory in a positive way, I offer a photo session anywhere in the United States….I’ll fly anywhere for you if you accept. I’ve now shot for Marc & Angel Chernoff with Marc and Angel Hack Life in San Diego, Annie Grace with This Naked Mind in Colorado and several others closer to home because of this policy — and their willingness to see it for what it is…and accept it. It takes a level of trust to have someone photograph you and your family —especially when you’re celebrity status — and I never take that for granted.

This one was different for me though. Going into a difficult surgery takes a huge amount of trust between patient and surgeon. I had never so much as broken a bone before much less had any type of surgery. It was hard for me. I also had never been face-to-face, saw week-after-week in recovery, and got to know a doctor that actually cared about my personal life so much. I still don’t know if this is an oncology surgeon thing or a Dr. Miura thing.

I don’t really know where the personal/professional line is for the doctor/patient relationship but when Dr. Miura swung the door open to the patient room I had seen him in every two weeks for countless weeks on end (the same room I have written about before waiting on a date) with a HUGE smile behind his mask exclaiming, “I JUST got the results!…..it was benign!!!!!” I didn’t really care where the line is “supposed to be” anymore. In that moment together, you are just two humans appreciating life in each other’s presence.

I offered the session, he accepted. Below are the photos. ❤️

John and Rachel,

On my birthday, today, I want to formally thank you both for helping me get to this day….for making this 41st trip around the sun particularly meaningful. Without your years of training and sacrifice, John, you wouldn’t have been the right surgeon either and I may have still been in search of the right person…or worse, settled for someone less knowledgeable and capable for such a delicate procedure. Without the support and sacrifices of Rachel and your daughter’s time and energy…always being the ones to make the shift and change to your unmoving schedule, my kids may not have the life they have today. I may have gone out of business last year and could still be searching for a job today. All those weddings I managed to photograph last year…who knows what would have happened. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for all you did for me and that you do for so many others.

You three are absolute gems of human beings and I am honored to know you.

I hope you love this little sample of photos from your shoot at Wolf’s Hollow yesterday. And, because I know how hard it can be to wait, there will be a surprise in your inbox later today. So, don’t forget to check!

Xo - Megan