Photography by Big Dreamz Creative
FIRST-HAND ADVICE AND INSIGHT TO HELP CAREGIVERS COPE
A DISCUSSION WITH
HEATHER PARRISH During two back-to-back battles with cancer, Heather Parrish, proprietor of Montgomery’s Southern Art & Makers Collective gallery and shop, learned the limits of her own tenacity and how the simplest forms of help often matter the most.
PLEASE TELL ME A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR CANCER DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT? My journey to diagnosis was a lengthy one. It started when I was 31 years old. On August 31, 2006, I started running a fever that would last several weeks. From that point until December 28, I had multiple symptoms that kept me a regular at my general practitioner’s office. Severe fatigue, fever, loss of appetite, weight loss and other symptoms were thought to be other maladies. However, due to my beloved general practitioner’s amazing medical detective skills, (thank you Dr. Scott Bell), it was discovered to be ovarian cancer. At that point (March 2007), I had surgery to remove the mass and my left ovary. Much to my oncology team’s disapproval, I choose not to undergo chemo after the surgery. Fast forward to December 2008: I found out that I needed to have a total hysterectomy. After the hysterectomy, I started having symptoms that I had before the hysterectomy. Once again my amazing medical detective, Dr. Scott Bell discovered that these symptoms were being caused by uterine cancer. At that point, in March 2009, I chose to undergo radiation and chemotherapy at the Montgomery Cancer Center under Dr. Stephen Davidson.
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PHOTOGRAPHY BY NANCY FIELDS / BIG DREAMZ CREATIVE
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