A photo not only tells a thousand words, it can also heal BY LISA DAVIS
we all have milestones in our lives. Birthdays. Anniversaries. Graduations. But for the millions of people diagnosed with cancer each year, there is an- other date that is ingrained in the memory: the day you fi nd out you have cancer. For Kent E. St. John this date was March 25, 2010, when the 56-year-old senior travel editor and part owner of GoNOMAD. com received a diagnosis of throat cancer. “That day will forever remind me of just how important it is to treat yourself with re- spect and love,” says St. John who lives in Cot- tekill, New York, with his wife, Lisa. Because the location of St. John’s cancer was in an area where surgery wasn’t an option (the throat is hard to treat since so much of the body’s functions are centered there, breathing and eating, for example), St. John opted for 33 radiation and two chemo treat- ments at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Sleepy Hollow, New York. “The hardest part was to not count the days remaining but the ones passed,” says St. John. To help him, St. John mastered the power of vi- sualization, a form of self-hypnosis that people use to foster healing. “Visualization can let someone
64 PAIN RESOURCE FALL 2012
“My photos helped me feel safe and happy and, most important, alive during my radiation sessions.”
redirect their focus away from their physical pain, and it’s a great technique for coping with psycho- logical distresses such as anxiety, tension and depres- sion,” says Angie LeVan, a Philadelphia-based resilience coach, writer and speaker. During St. John’s daily radiation treatments, instead of watching TV, he looked at photos taken from his nearly 15 years of worldwide travels. “Using pictures was a way to place my mind elsewhere, to take the huge radiation ma- chine and its noise out of the process,” says St. John. The photos also helped St. John cope with his pain. “At times swallowing was shear agony; even sipping wa-
ter could feel like pins and needles.” Three photos that were especially helpful are pictured above: sun- fl owers taken at his sister’s home in Canaan, Maine, which reminded St. John of the love and support of family and friends; elephants photographed on a sa- fari in Kenya, an image that St. John says shows just how majestic the world is; and a fruit stand shot in France’s food capital, Lyon, which inspired him to embrace a healthier lifestyle. To see more of the world’s beauty through the lenses of St. John’s cam- era, visit blogs.gonomad.com/beourguest. PR