Making photos worth more than just a thousand words!
Pickman Photography is partnering with Children's Mercy Hospital in our effort to make photos worth more than just a thousand words! The care given at Children's Mercy Hospital is beyond amazing, and proceeds will go towards helping them continue this work.
My story
Oct. 8th, 2001: I had an MRI scheduled due to a Pop Warner football injury I received a few weeks prior. I had dislocated my shoulder and was struggling to grip a football. My dad took me to the hospital and I remember sitting in the waiting room telling him I was fine, and they were just going to tell me I couldn’t play football for the rest of the season. We sat in the waiting room and were surprised when the nurse came to get us and said, "Come with me and we'll head outside to the MRI machine.” Once I saw the MRI trailer it dawned on me that this was not going to be anything like an x-ray. The technician laid me down and informed me it was going to be loud and I need to be extremely still. Being strapped inside a vibrating tube with loud humming and banging noises led my 12-year-old-self to believe that this must be what a rocket launch is like. Still today, I'm not sure how long that MRI took but it felt like a lifetime. When the MRI was over they escorted us to a hospital room. I could tell something was off by the way my dad was talking with me, but I was clueless about the gravity of the news we were about to receive.
Oct. 9th, 2001: I'm laying in a hospital bed as a doctor is telling me a funny story about his dog eating the passenger seat of his Jeep. The night before, the MRI discovered that I had a large mass on the right temporal lobe of my brain and I was sent to Children's Mercy Hospital. The doctor who told me the dog story was the anesthesiologist who kept me smiling before I underwent a seven-hour brain operation. The surgeons removed a baseball-sized astrocytoma brain tumor which would have taken my life just a few weeks later had it not been removed. I'm sure the seven-hour surgery felt like seven lifetimes to my family, but to this day they rave about the support Children’s Mercy gave them while I was being treated. I'll forever be grateful for Children's Mercy. It brings me great joy knowing that every wedding I shoot will help provide another kid the chance to tell their story!
