I AM HealingStrong
Discover how to transform the most challenging chapter of your life with Jim Mann's inspiring podcast. As a stage 4 cancer survivor, Jim interviews famous musical artists like Tasha Layton, Ellie Holcomb, Katy Nichole, and Tim Timmons, as well as health influencers who beat incurable diseases like depression and addiction. Through humor and a renewed sense of purpose, guests courageously share their stories of overcoming the toughest times and learning to trust God. Tune in to Jim's powerful podcast to find hope and inspiration.
I AM HealingStrong
107: Overcoming Fear and Finding Purpose in Skating and Multiple Cancer Diagnoses pt1 | Scott Hamilton
This episode features a conversation with Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton, who overcame childhood health challenges to achieving success in figure skating displays the value of resilience and perseverance. Scott shares his unique story as an adopted child, along with a humorous recollection of an early ice-skating mishap that nearly stopped his career before it even began.
Scott is an Olympic Champion, cancer survivor, television broadcaster, motivational speaker, author, husband/father and eternal optimist! During his figure skating career, Hamilton’s list of achievements includes his Olympic gold medal, over 70 titles, awards, and honors. In 1990, Hamilton was inducted into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame and in that same year, he became a member of the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame.
Following his mother’s passing and his own survival of stage 3 testicular cancer, Hamilton launched the Scott Hamilton CARES Foundation (Cancer Alliance for Research, Education and Survivorship) in 2014, with a mission to improve cancer patient survivorship by supporting world class cancer research and the highest quality patient treatment and care. The same year, he founded the Scott Hamilton Skating Academy, in partnership with the NHL’s Nashville Predators, at Ford Ice Centers in Antioch, Bellevue and Clarksville, TN, to offer students programs to help them fall in love with ice skating.
Embracing the idea of cancer as a blessing may seem counter-intuitive, yet can lead to resilience and a deepened faith.
Learn more about Scott here
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the fear thing you know is is legit. I mean the fear thing. I always say fear is a liar, because you know what does fear? Know that you don't right. Well, that's just it. You don't know, so you go into fear. You know I, when I went in for my surgery, it was going to be from my sternum all the way down to my groin like straight shot, open it all up and look for any remaining cancer. You know I was scared out of my mind and the doctor said what is your problem? What is going on with you? I go well, have you ever done this before? And they go seven this month and I was like, oh, okay, I'm good, we're good to go now, let's go have at it.
Speaker 3:You're listening to the I Am Healing Strong podcast, a part of the Healing Strong organization, the number one network of holistic cancer support groups in the world. Each week we bring you stories of hope, real stories that will encourage you as you navigate your way on your own journey to health. Now here's your host stage four cancer thriver, jim Mann.
Speaker 2:This podcast has been long in the making, since I saw you skating when I was a child.
Speaker 1:That's long in the making. That was a while back. I got to get him on to this podcast. Thank goodness for YouTube, right yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm sitting in the office of Scott Hamilton with plaques and awards and all kinds of stuff. I'm surrounded by all kinds of things Guitars I like the guitars especially. I mean I would go through all the awards that you've gotten, but our podcast will be over at that time. But people know you as the gold medalist in the Olympics and you're also a world champion. How many times? Four times, four times. That's four times more than me.
Speaker 1:Four times probably, more than I ever dreamed or expected.
Speaker 2:Wow, four times probably more than I ever dreamed or expected. Wow, my introduction to ice skating. I know you're wondering what it is. When I was four or five years old. I'm sitting on a bench in Baltimore. It's an outdoor ice skating rink. I don't remember if it was a pond or whatever it was, but I was sitting there my mother's lacing up she's ready to go in and all of a sudden this lady falls right in front of me and this guy behind her tried to avoid her, but his skate went right across her forehead and there I was, a five-year-old or whatever.
Speaker 1:I was seeing blood and carnage everywhere and it probably was hardly anything, because you know how the forehead is oh yeah, it gets bigger, and by then you've never seen anything like that before, so you have nothing to compare it to Exactly.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and so the ambulance came and took her off and I thought, oh my gosh, there goes my skating career. So because of that it was open for you to get the gold. I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:You probably got the silver. It's all about just being in the right place at the right time or being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but thank you for stepping aside so that I could realize my dream that I never thought to dream, but thank you, since I am a year older than you, I paved the way. It's not the years, it's the mileage right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a little bit of mileage on me, but tell the people I know you started in Canada.
Speaker 1:No, no, you didn't burn in Canada. No, a lot of people think I'm Canadian. I go to Canada. In fact, it's funny. I see, you know, when I lived in Los Angeles I'd run into Canadian celebrities and they go. Have you been back home lately? And it's like Ohio. There was an article.
Speaker 2:I just read that says you were born in Ontario. I think oh really Well.
Speaker 1:I was adopted, so that might be accurate. I don't know.
Speaker 2:So they knew more about you than you did.
Speaker 1:If they knew my birth parents then they'd probably know maybe I was born somewhere else. But you know, it's remarkable that you know I grew up again, you know you could say as wanted to have a larger family and they just couldn't bring a child into the world that survived. They have a lot of really horrible pregnancies. Some would go full term and the baby just wouldn't make it, and so they decided after three I think it was three failed attempts my sister was born of my parents she was a survivor of twins, from what I've been told and then they said well, we want to have a family, so we're going to go adoption route. So I was the first one and then my brother, four years later, adopted. So we look like three total strangers. No, I'm two brothers and a sister, but we look three total strangers. No, I'm two brothers and sister, but we look like total strangers.
Speaker 1:So growing up as an adopted child is really remarkable because there's sort of an expectation that comes with coming with a birth child. But with an adopted child you just kind of go okay, let's just see what happens. So life just sort of was an experiment. My parents were both in academia. If I were a birth child. That probably would have been my path, but since I wasn't, I kind of got into sports.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, and you were not that healthy as a child, right.
Speaker 1:No, I had a really odd thing that I don't think was diagnosed until 2004. So I was born in 1958, and then, around 62, I stopped growing and developing and it was just one of those things where they couldn't figure out what was wrong. They didn't know if it was some sort of food allergy or if it was some sort of something was wrong digestively with me or if something you know, if something wasn't working right. So four years in and out of hospitals, started in Ohio, went to Bowling Green, then to Toledo, then to Ann Arbor, and then, year four, I was in Boston at Boston Children's, and I had every symptom of a disease called Schwachman-Diamond syndrome and my doctor was Harry Schwachman, so he's a celebrity right. So I had to be with the man and I was there probably for in and out for over a year and he said I can't diagnose this. He has every symptom but he doesn't have the disease, so I can't treat something that I can't diagnose. So the advice was to go home and live a normal life and see what happens. And so I went home and our family physician, uh, did a one-man intervention. He said okay, um, dot. Ernie that's my parents names you need a morning off to restore and, uh, just recharge your depleted batteries, yeah, and you need to bond with this new baby and you need to do a lot of things.
Speaker 1:So I was eight years old, my brother was four and getting, you know, a toddler, getting in all kinds of things and um, and so they said they took me to the rink and it's a brand new skating rink at Bowling Green State University, just Northwestern Ohio, and they teach kids how to skate from eight to noon every Saturday morning. So I went and fell in love with it and became a rink rat. I realized after a few weeks that I could skate as well as well kids, because, being the shortest one in my class, the last one chosen for every team sport, you know it was kind of like no self-esteem, right, it was just, I was the ist, the littlest, the weakest, the sickest, I was all the ist. Not the coolest, not the coolest, no, definitely not.
Speaker 1:And so, you know, I, I, I had good friends. You know, we grew up in a very lively neighborhood with lots of kids and so we were very active and we did a lot of things, but I was always kind of the sick kid. So skating was the great equalizer, you know, put me on equal footing with everybody out there. And as I started getting better, I started realizing that I could skate as well as the best athletes in my grade. And now, now, all of a sudden, it's like, okay, I now can feel good about myself.
Speaker 1:I'm not a complete failure and everything. So I became a skater and that took on a life of its own and I started growing again. I started developing and nobody could figure out why. It was just something about. It just appealed to me, why it was just something about it just appealed to me.
Speaker 1:And then in 2004 post-cancer actually cancer 97, 2004 I'm now husband and a father and sort of symptomatic. And so I went in for a checkup and you know, as far as endovascularly I had very like you know, I had hardly any testosterone in my body and they thought maybe the chemo for my cancer, you know, prevented me from, you know, living normally, right, so we can treat that topically, it'll be fine, I go. No, there's something else. So they ended up finding a brain tumor that they had to go in and do a biopsy. So they went to the top of my head they joke, you know, it's funny.
Speaker 1:I think we found a safe corridor and it's like well, I think I'm not using any of it, so I have at it, and you know all the bad things that can happen in a surgery like that. And I woke up and I knew who I was, where I was, why I was there, and then they told me I could lose speech and motor function. I wiggled my toes and I said test, I go. Okay, I can speak. I guess the surgery went well and I was diagnosed with a craniofringioma brain tumor that I was born with. Wow, and craniofringioma is. Usually they inhibit growth and development in young people, but in the early 60s they had no scanning to find anything like that.
Speaker 2:So if they would have caught that, you could have been 6'4".
Speaker 1:No, if they would have caught it I would have had a big old C in my head and would have had all kinds of developmental disabilities. So it's probably better that they didn't find it back then, because all they would have had is an open surgery and I don't think in the 60s they're as sophisticated as they are now and and taking care of problems like that. So um, radiation, um, went back to life. Six years later came back um one surgery, it became nine. Um, well, finally obliterated the aneurysm caused by the. You know, first surgery and then six years later came back, and this one I decided to just hand it to the Lord. You know, I just felt and everything in my spirit said just get strong and you'll be okay. So that's all I've done is try to get strong physically, mentally, intellectually and spiritually.
Speaker 2:Now people look at someone like you who's always seemingly happy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, You're known for that. It is a choice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, look at someone like you who's always seemingly happy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're known it is a choice. Yeah, yeah, because I could choose not to be what they think.
Speaker 2:Well, nothing's ever happened, otherwise you wouldn't be so happy. Yeah, right, yeah, and uh and I watched your uh ted talks oh, the one on suffering yeah, yeah, I'm like because I kind of knew your story but I I was so impressed and that's that's something that also helped me because I'm an optimist. I think it's just because I'm simple-minded, yeah.
Speaker 1:Like when I first got there. Don't overthink it, right, just give me the facts. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:Like I was devastated. Of course, when I got my diagnosis I was at Disney World, but that fear and everything I mean, I cried like a little baby. Once after I've been to the surgeon, he told me what's going to happen and you know, I cried, thinking I'm not going to make it to Christmas, because it was in September when I was diagnosed and then after that I was fine, I'm like God's got this and I went on like it was just, you know, a cold sore or something like that, which I knew was a lot more serious than that. But there's something about your mindset that really helps and I never I didn't think that had anything to do with it until that point ecosystem is really important.
Speaker 1:And positivity, joy, laughter yeah, it ignites a different chemistry in your body than stress. I mean, you think about stress, anxiety, unhappiness, anger you know all the hostility, you know all those things can change, you know, create an acidic environment in your ecosystem that allows for really bad things to happen. So, um, yeah, I don't mind just sort of tricking myself into being okay, you know, and that's okay, that's fine. I don't want to be super irresponsible or stupid about anything, but at the same time, I've lived through enough to have something to compare it to, to compare this moment to, and right now, this moment is a lot better than sitting for eight hours with a chemo bag attached to my arm. Yeah, it's a lot better than that and I can compare. Getting stuck in traffic this morning was way better than a 38 staple surgery down my abdomen.
Speaker 2:Probably.
Speaker 1:Way better than that, right, but the fear thing is legit. I mean the fear thing. I always say fear is a liar, because what does fear know? That you don't right? That's just it. You don't know. So you go into fear.
Speaker 1:And you know, when I went in for my surgery it was going to be from my sternum all the way down to my groin like straight shot, open it all up and look for any remaining cancer. You know, yeah, and I was scared out of my mind and the doctor said what is your problem? Like what is going on with you? I go well, have you ever done this before? And they go seven this month and I was like, oh okay, I'm good, we're good to go now, let's go have at it.
Speaker 1:But you know, with each of those challenges, those adventures, you know it's like chemo is an adventure and the surgery was an adventure, and brain radiation was an adventure, and brain surgery is an adventure and shoulder surgery is an adventure, and getting my ankle rebuilt is an adventure, and all surgery is an adventure, and shoulder surgery is an adventure and getting my ankle rebuilt as an adventure, and all the medical intervention stuff, they're all you can be looking. You can look upon them as these, these devastating, terrible periods of your life. Or you can look at them as I'm now getting repaired so I don't have to worry about that anymore or, um, you know, things are going to be better once I get through this, this period of of challenge and struggle yeah, you, you had like I said that ted talks that you had you got two of them, I think right yeah, I did one on proton therapy.
Speaker 2:I'm the dumbest guy to ever talk about splitting atoms easily and we're sitting at a proton therapy center, which is really ironic but I thought I didn't know this part about how you would get into competition with skating and you would like come in last or-.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I was last place guy for a long time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, most people give up at that point.
Speaker 1:Nah, well, they can. It was really funny though I joke now because I embellish a little bit just to make it more fun, but I did bit just to make it more fun, but I did, I mean, my first competition. I fell so many times that I I went from I think I was fifth in figures and I came in ninth overall and last, last, last, right, and and you know, when you, when you do that, I mean I think based on results you you tend to put your yourself in a category, yeah, and so I kind of I was last place guy. I was like, well, here I am, and the next year I went back and I didn't fall as many times but I came in ninth again, but out of 10, right, well, maybe the guy that was 10th shouldn't have been there, but yeah, who knows. But you know, it got to that point where I felt like if I beat anybody, it must have been really humiliating for them because I'm last place guy. It's like I beat two guys my first year in juniors. I was seventh out of nine and I can just hear the locker room talk Wait, hamilton beat you Really. What are you going to do? Are you going to quit. I mean, obviously you shouldn't be in this sport. And then, you know, I ended up the next year.
Speaker 1:I kind of saw some things that woke me up. We were going out for a practice and there was this guy that was supposed to win the year that I came in seventh. There was a guy that was supposed to win and he told everybody it's mine, you know, you guys are all competing for second place and basically it was that. You know, it was kind, we're going out for a practice and the guy goes, you're all competing for second place. And I heard a guy like this guy I knew and he goes, we'll see about that. And I'm like you're not just going to take that as face value. Of course he's going to win.
Speaker 1:He was like second or third last year. He's going to win this year. He goes, we'll see. And sure enough, the guy that said we'll see won, wow. And the other guys on the podium looking at him going what just happened, this was mine, this was my moment, not his Right, and I go. So nothing's out of reach. And the next year, like I was the, we'll see about that guy. Like I ended up winning junior nationals the next year, wow, and I don't know if I wouldn't have witnessed that moment, if I would have thought it was possible. But from there I go up in senior level and I don't do well at all. My mom was diagnosed with metastatic melanoma breast cancer and we're talking 1975. And they threw everything in the kitchen sink at her, everything they could, to try to slow the cancer down. But it went into every organ and she had her left breast removed. It went chemo, it took all of her hair and she fought it valiantly but she never had a chance and so in that on the morning I lost her.
Speaker 1:I just decided that it was time to put some big boy pants on and just try to be the person that she thought I could be and the person that she sacrificed everything for me to be. And I started taking my life a little more seriously and the results changed immediately. You know, the last competition she saw me skate in, I came in ninth in the senior level. My first year.
Speaker 1:I went from junior champion to ninth on the senior level, and it was because I was distracted, I was too young, I was immature, I I wasn't training properly. I was just interested in everything else but what I should have been doing. And then I was awakened. We were in her room till about three in the morning. My brother and I and then my brother-in-law at the time woke me up and just said your mother is gone. And all I could think to say is I know. And it was really a weird response.
Speaker 1:But then I went for a walk in our backyard and I just in that walk decided that it's time for me to grow up and just try to honor her and be the person that she always dreamed I could be. And so the next year I was ranked third in the United States, I was on the podium on the championship men's level and 11th in the world. And then the next year I had a horrible ankle injury that put me behind. I ended up fourth at nationals, so I didn't go to the worlds. And then the year after that I really put my head down and worked harder than I've ever worked and I ended up third again at the nationals and that put me on the Olympic team and than I've ever worked and I ended up third again at the Nationals and that put me on the Olympic team. And so I was in Lake Placid for the Olympics as a tourist, a third guy on a three-man team, and then you know the top three guys I came in fifth, the top three guys retired.
Speaker 1:So the next year I went into the season ranked second in the world. You know which is kind of like huh, wow, that was quick. You know in the world, you know which is kind of like huh, wow, that was quick. You know I go from ninth to like. Now I'm ranked second in the world, ninth in the united states to second in the world, and um, and from october of 1980 until march of 1984 I went undefeated wow, I don't, I don't know that feeling no, you know, neither did I.
Speaker 1:It was kind like. But once you get on that train, it's like the first year I won Worlds. I thought I'm not worthy, like the sport is at its lowest place in history of last place. Guys on the podium at Worlds Like this is not good. This is bad for the sport. I'm killing my sport because I'm its champion, right. And then I went and my coach got me through that that year and the next year I went back and I won again.
Speaker 1:And now I'm looking around going wait a minute, I'm not competing against the history of the sport or every sentient being on the planet. I'm competing against knuckleheads just like me. These guys. All they want to do is the best they can. My job is to try to stay ahead of them for the next two years through the Olympics, and if I can do that, maybe I can win an Olympic gold medal. And so that turned into my strategy. I was just going to try to stay ahead of those guys as best I could strategically, because there were some of the young guys doing things that I knew I would never be able to do and I just had to find a way to stay ahead of them and I did.
Speaker 1:And then I got through the next two seasons really well and then, after March of 84, I decided that it was time for me to turn pro. But all that time from losing my mom until then, I was raising money anywhere I could for cancer research because I figured if I could find a treatment for my mom's cancer, I'll know. I was why I was born in the first place, because when you're an adopted kid you don't know why you were born. A lot of people aren't right, right. And then 20 years I had this like from the Olympics.
Speaker 1:I created a professional career that just kept going and going and going and I'm thinking, man, I'm fooling a lot of people here. If I get a job next year, I'm really fooling a lot of people. And it next year I'm really fooling a lot of people. And it just took off. It just became this gigantic career. It was amazing. It was just sports entertainment and it's skating was hotter than ever and we've just rode the wave in a really cool way. And then on the I was 50 cities into a 60 city stars on ice tour, where I just got so tired of the abdominal pain that I went into an emergency room to get like whatever they get people with ulcers. And it was there that they said we found a mass and I was like really.
Speaker 1:That's kind of funny. And they go what's so funny about that? I go well, I mean, I'm really like not a tall person. So here the word mass is kind of like well, it's kind of like sounds big, right. And then they're like no, you need to take this thing seriously. And they said it's either benign, malignant or something else. And he didn't know what it was. So I did the show that night and then I got on a bus and I went to the Cleveland Clinic and they biopsied it and told me I had stage 3 testicular cancer. And here's the 80% to 90% survival rate due to research. Two guys in Indiana figured it out.
Speaker 1:So I went through three different chemotherapy drugs. They were eight-hour infusions we would do five days in a row and then 16 days off. Five days in a row and 16 days off, I mean four rounds of that. By the time I got done with the third round, I wanted to quit because my life had changed from being in front of 17,000 people screaming and hollering and applauding to being in a very quiet space, suffering from nausea and just looking at myself in the mirror and not recognizing me at all. And I went into. You know, I went into that full-blown pity party that is easy to get into, right, right. And then, um, after the third round, I had one five day period left and uh, a dear friend of mine looked at me. He started laughing. I go, what he goes. You want to quit? I go, yeah, he goes. How many rounds got left? And I said one, he goes, come on.
Speaker 1:I go, yeah, I can get to the last round and so I did and um, and then it was the big 38 staple surgery and you know, my man, my size, that's most of me got opened up and, um, the fear was unbelievable. And and the doctor was he goes, what's your problem? I go, I'm scared. And he goes why? And I go, have you ever done this before? And they go, yes, seven this month. And I go okay, I'll be fine.
Speaker 1:And then life became like I got to live my life again and this time I was very intentional on doing it differently. I was given a second chance where my mom wasn't, and so I just stepped away as best I could. I wanted to keep my career going because I realized that I had now an encouragement ministry where, if I could get back on the ice for the next tour, that might inspire some people in an infusion room to understand that their life isn't over, that there's a next chapter. And so I got back on tour the next year and did that for a few more years and I met my wife and we got married and I had a child and it was like okay, what am I doing here? I want to see my son's first steps and hear his first words. Why am I still wearing spandex, running around with knives strapped to my feet? It's crazy, and so I stepped away.
Speaker 1:And it was soon after that the brain tumor started. But it was all part of. Like you know, I always joke that if you live long enough, all questions will be answered, and, having been born with that brain tumor, it was just remarkable that okay check.
Speaker 1:Now I know why. I went through all of that as a kid and it was. There was a lot of suffering, a lot of humiliation, a lot of just weird things that happened around that period of time that were difficult. But once you get through a difficult period of time you have a better understanding of how strong you are and how resilient you can be, and in that it just sort of strengthens you.
Speaker 1:I read something in I think it was David versus Goliath, the Malcolm Gladwell book, where Hitler thought that he could intimidate England into surrender by just bombing them like crazy. What he didn't understand was more people were surviving than getting killed, and as they survived they got bolder. So he made them stronger by doing the bombing instead of weaker. As long as he was a threat they were scared, but as long as they survived his attacks they were emboldened. And it just went the other way. And I think I related to that in so many ways because I've had enough medical intervention to kind of compare life. Well, life and sick life I can compare them both and having been through it, it's like I could do this, like you know, brain tumor was like.
Speaker 1:First one was like, you know, wow, that was really ignited my faith in a really cool way and it brought my marriage really tight. And then, six years later, it comes back and it was like getting kicked in the stomach. I was like what's going on, Like, why is this going? Why am I doing, why am I going through this again? And my assistant, you know, started. She looked at me and she started to laugh a little bit and I go wait, what's so funny? And she goes I can't wait to see where this one takes you. Because she understood survivors. She understood that I survived enough and each time I survived something wonderful. I survived cancer and now I become a husband and father. I survived this brain tumor and now I'm stronger in my faith than I've ever been.
Speaker 1:And the second brain tumor comes and I realize, like I packed my own suitcase and um walked out of neuro icu three times and it's like you do that enough, and it's kind of like okay, I think there's more in the tank than I ever thought there was. I think I'm stronger than I ever anticipated I could ever be. And now the fear part of it, especially because I'm rooted in faith now and not so much on what today brings. But I realize that every moment, every day, is just an opportunity to do more and that's why I founded my Cancer Foundation and now we're only curing the promise of immunotherapy and not the idea of it but the promise of it, and we really feel like you can treat the cancer and spare the patient harm by igniting their own immune system to recognize and destroy the cancer, while you know not going with the status quo of collateral damage.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah. You're like the perfect example of mindset, like I had no idea that had anything to do with it. You've been through so many things you know from birth on that you, your mindset just changes as you, that you come against a challenge and some people, uh, just give up and they have the pity party and they never really pull out of it and and that that can be.
Speaker 1:I mean, we're all. We all kind of come out. You know um the way we are. You know, and I and I think you know, when I see people that you get a diagnosis and they're paralyzed with fear or they're just, they're just like frozen in an attitude of no, uh, I'm not going to do that I. When I started CARES, we came across an Oncology Nursing Society survey where of newly diagnosed patients, 30% feared death. That was their greatest fear. 42% feared treatment.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:People would rather die than get treated for cancer. Yeah, and it's like it's it. And once you've kind of been there, done that, because I didn't know what chemotherapy was. I saw my mom go through it and so I I had a lot of fear and trepidation. But once I go, I go so are you going to take me in a room and replace all my bodily fluids of the machine? And they go no, we're just going to hang an iv bag with stuff in it and it's going to kill your cancer. And it's like that's it. And they go yeah, that's pretty much it. And I go let's go, let's go, I can do this. And my carrot, my whole inspiration, my daily thought pattern was I'm going to get through this so I can be back on tour next year. Because I not only have to do this because I want my life back, but I also really feel a sense of responsibility that if I can do this this quickly, then maybe it'll serve somebody. They'll say, wow, wow, he went through four months chemotherapy and he's back. Wow, that's crazy.
Speaker 2:That again is a mindset of looking beyond your cancer, not like, oh, here's the end, yeah or what's my today like?
Speaker 1:It's like, no, I'm still looking ahead. Okay, so the surgery's going to happen on June 23rd? Okay, yeah, so six weeks, then I can start getting back on the ice a little bit. And then I have to worry about the incision because it's an abdominal thing and I got to be careful of that. So I have to let that knit and heal, Got that. So that's going to be another. So I think I can make it to rehearsal in time to be able to get in shape, like get purely done for the show.
Speaker 1:So we like get purely done for the show. So we did choreography with marking, all the athletic stuff, and we did all that. We got prepared, I did all that kind of off-ice stuff to prepare for the year. And then, october 29th, I was diagnosed march um, 16th, um, and then october 29th, I I skated again. Wow, and it was um, it was, it was dumb, it was really dumb.
Speaker 1:I'm looking at it back now it's like why did I just take a year to heal? No, because I felt an urgency, that I had to get back on the ice. And in that it's like we all can listen to our spirit, or we can all listen to the enemy whispering in our ear all the time, and our spirit is much stronger than the whispering, right? And all the whispering said no, get on your horse, get back on the horse and get back out there, because this is important, not for you, this is important to other people, right? And so I got back and made it back on the ice and it was amazing and it was a great year and it was hard and I made some real big life changes and that was hard. But you know, I just listened to my spirit and I just said here's what you need to do and just don't listen. Yeah, listen and okay, and be obedient okay all right.
Speaker 1:And then all that, all that listening, obedience to my inner voice. Um, when I meet my wife, when we start to date, she goes where are you in your faith? And I said what any smart guy would say I said where do you want me to be? You know, yeah, but in that you know I it. It answered. It connected all the dots. It answered all the questions. It's like ah, that's why.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, cancer was the greatest thing that ever happened to me.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:The greatest thing that ever happened to me, it is yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's also the worst thing that ever happened to me, but it's ultimately the best thing that ever happened to me. So you know, I heard a girl say that, as this young student athlete lost her leg cancer, she said cancer is worse than it ever happened to me. And I was at a cancer survivor celebration, you know, on the other end and she said but I'm here to tell you that cancer is the best thing that ever happened to me. And I was like wait, what? And I'm up next to speak, right, it's like OK, that's a computer virus, right there. It's like now, what am I going to say? Because she was right, yeah, I wouldn't have the children, the family, the opportunities that I have right now, probably without cancer.
Speaker 2:We're going to end part one right there of Scott Hamilton's interview, but before I go I want to recognize a partner of Healing Strong. Rgcc is globally recognized as the leading laboratory in the field of personalized cancer testing. Rgcc partners with patients and practitioners throughout the cancer journey with powerful testing tools that provide actionable information allowing for the creation of personalized treatment protocols. To learn more, head to myrgcccom forward slash healing dash strong.
Speaker 3:You've been listening to the I Am Healing Strong podcast. A part of the Healing Strong organization. We hope you found encouragement in this episode, as well as the confidence to take control of your healing journey, knowing that God will guide you on this path. Healing Strong is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to connect, support and educate individuals facing cancer and other diseases through strategies that help to rebuild the body, renew the soul and refresh the spirit.
Speaker 3:It costs nothing to be a part of a local or online group. You can do that by going to our website at healingstrongorg and finding a group near you or an online group, or start your own, your choice. While you're there, take a look around at all the free resources. Though the resources and groups are free, we encourage you to join our membership program at $25 or $75 a month. This helps us to be able to reach more people with hope and encouragement, and that also comes with some extra perks as well. So check it out. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give us a five-star rating, leave an encouraging comment and help us spread the word. We'll see you next week with another story on I Am Healing Strong podcast.
