“In the Spring of 2013, I started getting really exhausted, so I thought I was getting the flu. I started getting up earlier to begin a workout regimen because I felt like I was getting so thick through my midsection. I was also in a play at the time. We were doing “Urinetown.” I played Penelope Pennywise. I would get really into my character, but I was getting so exhausted. I was doing vocal sessions with the pit for my solos. I told the director I have to sit for this because I’m getting the flu. That weekend I ran a fever. I thought this is it, I’m finally going to get over this. On Monday, I woke up and my abdomen looked like I was 8 months pregnant. I went to my doctor and she said get right to the ER. I ended up with advanced stage primary peritoneal carcinomatosis, which is peritoneal cancer. A rare cancer. It was idiopathic, so they didn’t know where it started. It spread all over. There were spots on my lung, my liver and my stomach. It ate through my diaphragm and my muscles in the front. It was massive. Stage 4. I saw the oncologist on April Fools’ Day and was told I have to have surgery right away. I said I couldn’t until the play was done. The last play ended April 21st. I got through the play and then immediately had debulking surgery. They like to get about 95% of the cancer in these procedures, but they were only able to get 60% of mine. After the surgery, I started chemo and I did that until the 15th of September. After that, I chose to be done. I decided that I’m either going to be healthy or not healthy. It was a miserable summer. When I stopped chemo, I was told I would have 2 months to 2 years to live because my kind of cancer, at the stage it was, always comes back. It’s been 3 years and I’m still alive. I feel pretty good. We’ve made contact with a clinic in Mexico that does infusion therapy with nutrition. They are now taking your own T cells out and making them into killers and putting them back in to go after the cancer. It would be crazy not to do something like that, but I would never go through chemo again. It’s just not for me. Right now, I feel good. I bike. I go camping. I live for my camping trips. From June until the middle of September, I try to go camping every other weekend. I just go. It centers me. I’m out in nature. I depend on me when I’m out there. If I build a fire, I build it. if I have a tent over me, I put the tent up. If I want to go kayaking, I get it off the car. If it overturns, that’s on me. I know who I am once the weekend is over. I’m the capable one. I can do all of this.”