Christina McKelvy 0:15

Welcome to Hopology Stories of Hope, healing and Resilience. I'm your host, christina McKelvie. Today, we're going to be speaking with Chris Fireball. Chris, how are you doing today?

Chris Firebaugh 0:25

I'm doing very well, thank you. How are you?

Christina McKelvy 0:28

Good, good, we're both in the midst of winter, all right. So tell me, you and I know each other, but I actually did not know this particular story, and so I'm curious tell me a little bit about you, and particularly your journey with skin cancer, because you wanted to share your story about that experience and I actually did not know about that.

Chris Firebaugh 0:56

Sure, well, obviously my name is Chris Fireball. I pretty much grew up in Texas. Family was from the Midwest but I'm sort of a mixed race kind of guy Part European, part Middle Eastern or Afghanistan in particular. So pretty much grew up in Texas. I'm very attached to the Southern culture and hospitality and that kind of tend to use yes or no sir, and my conversations with people just because that's how you're brought up down there. And I moved to Arizona about the age of 20 years old, in March of, actually March of gosh 1990. I think it was. And I moved to Arizona with my grandparents who actually raised me. They were basically the World War II generation.

Chris Firebaugh 1:46

So, I was kind of had a. I was kind of always different than the other kids around me because of my parents being quite a bit older. So I kind of tended always to interact as a kid, but with older people than people my own age. So I've always been kind of odd, odd duck around people my own age. So I was involved in school with music and mostly I was an orchestra, played violin pretty much from junior high school to most of high school until I decided it wasn't cool, I'm going to help me pick up girls. So I kind of quit a little bit because of that.

Christina McKelvy 2:23

The violin was I love the violin and the fiddle, which is is that? Is there a difference?

Chris Firebaugh 2:29

Yeah, the difference is how you hold them, the violin. You tend to hold the violin up higher and you kind of cradle it with your chin and the like the average, I guess what you call fiddle playing. They hold it in a lower position, more on that shoulder level as opposed to chin level, and they're both. You know I was a violin player as opposed to fiddle player. I mean, I did learn how to play cotton and Joe, but I didn't play it in a very country fashion. So, like I said, I was more more trained, schooled in the Mozart, bach kind of kind of music than I was an orchestra. They didn't have that type of violin training in school in Austin, even though it was Texas, it was purely classical music.

Christina McKelvy 3:19

Okay, okay. So you moved to Arizona when you were 20. Is that when you got skin cancer, you know?

Chris Firebaugh 3:26

circling back to no, being part of Mollution, I've always had kind of a dark complexion and I did spend any free moment I had, no matter what time of year it was, at the pool. Growing up, from the age of like 12 onward, I was at the pool as a religion I mean, I just love water. So I think it was about 26 years old and there was the. I was going to a martial arts class in Tempe, arizona, taught by a Master, joe Salamone, who was my martial arts teacher and friend. And there was a guy there my name of Todd Winton.

Chris Firebaugh 4:11

Todd Winton had just completed going to school to be a naturopath and one day we were training and I was wearing some shorts and he noticed on my left leg, which slightly above my knee, on the inner thigh, just slightly above my knee, there was a mole and he looked at it and he said hey, chris, that doesn't look good. And it had been itching and bothering me for the past year or so, about a year or not. I thought I didn't really think about it. I thought, well, a mosquito bit me. You know, I just thought it was a mosquito bite and I kept scratching it so it wouldn't heal because I kept messing with it.

Christina McKelvy 4:52

Okay, so that was what you thought was happening. But then your friend Todd, who happens to be a naturopath, or was going to school for being a naturopath, noticed that it meets those ABC criteria.

Chris Firebaugh 5:05

Yeah, yeah, I did, and so he got me in touch with some of his colleagues. A lot of the naturopaths are actually also Western medicine doctors, so they kind of do both, and so I actually went to a doctor that was associated with the I want to say it's the Southwest School of Medicine there in Tempe, Arizona, I believe it is, and this doctor they did like a biopsy and they sent it in, and about two weeks later it was. I got a phone call on the phone, you know, asking if I could come down.

Christina McKelvy 5:42

That's never good.

Chris Firebaugh 5:43

Yeah. So I got on my mountain bike because back then all I did was exercise and I rode my bike down to the appointment. And I'm sitting there. I think I'm like 26, 27 years old, 27. Worked out all the time, you know, super healthy, didn't drink, didn't smoke, no that stuff and walk in the room the doctor takes his glasses off and partying with these things. They couldn't. What on earth could this be about? Because I mean, I knew it wasn't good by his demeanor. But the furthest thing from my mind was skin cancer. Because I'm thinking how did the guy with a, you know, natural darker complexion get skin cancer, especially at a place that's not exposed to the sun directly? A lot of my sun exposure wasn't on that part of my leg, you know. You get a lot of exposure on your neck, your back, your face primarily. So he tells me I've got stage three, eight, three point eight, he said, or basically stage four melanoma, that it was a pretty deep, what they call Brezlo level.

Christina McKelvy 6:55

Okay, okay, so like does that mean? So I didn't mean to interrupt, but does that mean like deeper within the epidermis, like a few layers in?

Chris Firebaugh 7:03

Yes, Okay, yeah, so I'm thinking about the Brezlo level. The Brezlo level depending upon what that number is. It's basically their explanation of how deep the cancer has gone.

Christina McKelvy 7:17

Okay.

Chris Firebaugh 7:18

So, you know, he tells me I've got melanoma and he thinks it's pretty serious. And I'm just sort of at that point, I'm just sort of in a state of like I really was kind of in shock. But not in shock, you know. I would just sort of like how could this be? Yeah, you know I'm not. You know, I think of people getting sin cancer at a 50, 60 years old. You know, fair skin, fair, complexed people. So anyway, I was working. I believe I was driving limousines at the time, working for every Zorts and doing a lot of work in the at the time it was. It's an industry no longer exist and I mean why? I think of what I was exactly doing. Basically, my brain is. I'm actually having a brain part right now, so pardon me, but anyway, Was it the medical driving?

Chris Firebaugh 8:20

No, it was not medical driving.

Christina McKelvy 8:22

Okay, that's when I first met you. Wait a second.

Chris Firebaugh 8:25

My wife is reminding me yeah, that's what I was doing when we first met. Yeah, I was doing a transportation management.

Christina McKelvy 8:31

Right, no longer really it no longer existed.

Chris Firebaugh 8:34

Basically was a job where you you work with companies that are coming into town and you're setting up the transportation for events.

Christina McKelvy 8:43

Okay.

Chris Firebaugh 8:44

And I was going to get. That was my kind of career. It was a very fun career. It had you traveled, you met a lot of people, which is you know something at my alley back then.

Christina McKelvy 8:55

Yeah.

Chris Firebaugh 8:56

So, yes, so I was involved in destination management, that kind of stuff. But the problem was it did not have insurance because of the nature of the work it was kind of. It was kind of contract work A lot of times, you know, you work when the company's booked you your services. But so at that point I found out I got cancer, no insurance, I have to figure out how to pay for the treatment, and so at that point I kind of I had to quit working, because to get on access you can't have any assets.

Christina McKelvy 9:32

So and access is Arizona's Medicaid program, just for our non-Arizona listeners.

Chris Firebaugh 9:38

Yes and thank you access, because I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for access. Yeah, so I got on that program after basically getting rid of my any of my material possessions that showed as assets you can't have a lot of. You can't have a lot of you can't have a lot of you can't have real income or assets on this. So I think about two months later I finally managed to get on the program and start the whole process of getting treated.

Christina McKelvy 10:06

Okay.

Chris Firebaugh 10:07

For this, oh yeah, and basically with through a series of tests they read many tests on me Did a biopsy of my lymph nodes. It found out, you know, it had a backspread to the lymph nodes and from there, you know, they basically prepped me for a surgery, which was two surgeries, actually the lymph nodes on my left side of my leg and to actually do a I believe it was a six inch in diameter incision of the area where the cancer was found. So I went through that and was, you know, fairly involved and then about after two weeks of recovery of that and they started me on Alpha interferon to be, I believe it was. And, an interesting thing to note, the doctor I had was from the Mayo Clinic, Okay, but I wasn't, but I wasn't at Mayo at the time and I attribute it probably to part of you know. I had a very good doctor and he did the right thing to help me prolong my life, Because obviously, 53 today, still here after so many years with no other recurrences of skin cancer but um.

Christina McKelvy 11:31

And it was a very serious. I mean, all skin cancer is serious, obviously, but with melanoma, you know, stage four and, like you said, deep in the skin or epidermis, spreading to your lymph nodes, I mean that's, that's pretty scary.

Chris Firebaugh 11:45

It must have been very scary, you know I mostly, I did have one day, one particular moment, with what I was, you know, with my, my grandmother, who, who I called mom, and uh, there was a moment where I had, I had fear and it wasn't really like you know, it was emotional for me for about one hour, literally one, about one hour of emotion about it. And I was with her and I was just thinking about what if I left her, you know how, how would, how would she handle it? And I had I did have fear for a moment, but honestly, god, during the whole process, I never thought about it. I never. I never went to a negative place in my head during the whole process about, about what I was going through. I just accepted it and tried to be as happy and positive as I could be during the whole process.

Chris Firebaugh 12:42

Um, well, basically, the treatments for about a, a year on this medication, which was pretty hard to handle, it, made you feel like you were nauseous. Okay, you had the flu and, uh, was it chemotherapy? Uh, it's a type of chemotherapy.

Christina McKelvy 13:01

In Vietnam.

Chris Firebaugh 13:02

Yeah, but it was more intense. Okay, it wasn't. Nowadays, I think. I think the treatments they have are a lot more advanced and don't don't have the same side effects Like they used to. I think they've advanced that field pretty. Uh, they made some good advancements in that field as opposed to back when I was doing it, um, in my hair I did, I did lose hair and all that and I lost my appetite and I found it, you know it was.

Chris Firebaugh 13:34

You felt very run down and tired. It was about a year of exhaustion and also to after about 10, you know, it actually started affecting me emotionally the medication, because as I'm taking, taking the stuff, it's affecting my thought processes and all that it had an effect on me mentally because of the way the medication was doing to my system. Now, during that time, you know, I I attributed getting through it to a, you know, my friend, dr Todd, went and natural path and down in Phoenix, arizona. He gave me stuff to help me combat the side effects. Uh, you know, uh, it's affecting my liver and stuff like that, and so that helped me get through it. I kept practicing martial arts. In particular, I just started focusing on Tai Chi and I believe that kept my energy going during the whole process. I did that stuff for every day.

Christina McKelvy 14:34

Tell me a little bit more about the Tai Chi, like what Tai Chi is like for you or for an individual and how. Yeah, the connection between that and the positive thinking and being able to navigate this.

The Healing Power of Tai Chi

Chris Firebaugh 14:49

I think Tai Chi can be done in many different ways. Uh, for me, the primary thing is moving meditation. It's a type of moving meditation. Typically, as you're doing Tai Chi, you're coordinating your breath and your body and your mind is one. You have to keep your focus of the movements and while you're doing that much like sitting and doing meditation you basically keep out the outside thoughts because of your actions, because you have them, because of the fact you're having to coordinate movement and breath together. There's no time to think about oh, did I leave the stove on at home? You're, you're. It forces you to be present in order to do the form correctly.

Christina McKelvy 15:40

Mm forces you to be present. Yes, I can see where that would care, how that would carry over into everyday life. You know the more consistent you are with practicing Tai Chi, forcing yourself to be present, how that almost becomes like second nature or natural for you.

Chris Firebaugh 15:58

I've done it long enough to work the aspect of doing Tai Chi. I can never forget it. But if you don't practice it enough the benefits that you gain you will lose those to a degree. My blood pressure is low today and I attribute that to Tai Chi. I mean, I'm about a three to 40 pound 50 pound guy and my blood pressure is that of a 27 year old. Okay, but that's that's due to doing Tai Chi and being able to calm yourself down, cause you have the tools.

Chris Firebaugh 16:35

Tai Chi teaches you the tools in order to calm yourself down. You know it. It enables you to control your breath better and I think it was keeping my energy up during a process that you know was really draining and it gives you a sense of when you're doing it. You feel a sense of purpose in what you're doing and the connection to it, and you're always striving to get better at it. So you always have a goal, and the goal is a positive goal. It's about self. You know it's. So. For me, tai Chi is primarily a moving meditation. It's a physical exercise as well. It's a general exercise, and if you do it every day, you gain great benefits. I hate to say this, but I haven't been doing that in quite a while, but I definitely intend to get back to it.

Christina McKelvy 17:42

Let's dwell a little bit more into you just mentioned the goals about self. What does that mean?

Chris Firebaugh 17:48

Well, self, okay, I think of raw to me. We're on a spiritual journey and it's easy to get lost in the sea of life and getting bogged down by negative thoughts and chase things around us that are outside of ourselves, and I guess what it reminds me of the greatest accomplishments are things that can't be taken from you knowledge that's the greatest treasure you ever have as knowledge of self, and things you have learned and can teach others. That's basically, to me, a quick, short version of that. I do have to back up for a moment. I actually did start Tai Chi as a child. I had really severe asthma as a kid growing up in Houston. My uncle Lyle, who was my first Kung Fu teacher at the age of about 10 years old, 19 years old, he started taking him into a Tai Chi class to help with my asthma. Within one year of doing Tai Chi, I no longer had asthma.

Christina McKelvy 19:10

You no longer had asthma.

Chris Firebaugh 19:12

It, got rid of it, I quit using inhalers and all that stuff. I mean, I use them again now because I'm not doing Tai Chi.

Chris Firebaugh 19:23

But yeah, I was hospitalized, probably oh gosh as a child. I spent about two weeks in an oxygen tent because I think I was about four years old. One night I woke up and just wasn't breathing. I got rushed to the hospital with my grandfather and my uncle. I had really severe asthma growing up. As soon as I learned how to do breath control and really the mind body spirit connection, even as a kid, as soon as I learned that it was gone, I did not have asthma until I let myself get out of shape and quit practicing. So I can definitively say it does take care of illnesses like that for sure, because my life before that I was not a fit child because of the asthma, but after learning Tai Chi that all changed. It really did change my physical being to some degree.

Chris Firebaugh 20:36

It sounds like Tai Chi was, it took my health.

Christina McKelvy 20:39

Yeah, yeah, something. Tai Chi was very I'm losing the word too but important Therapeutic.

Chris Firebaugh 20:50

Therapeutic.

Christina McKelvy 20:51

Yes.

Chris Firebaugh 20:52

Yeah, okay.

Christina McKelvy 20:56

Yes, and so you were getting treatment. You were getting.

Chris Firebaugh 21:02

Was it immunotherapy you were receiving, or I believe that's the terminology for it immunotherapy yeah, Okay.

Christina McKelvy 21:08

Okay, so you're receiving immunotherapy. You were feeling really sick. The medication was kind of altering your mental state. You were able to navigate a lot of it because of Tai Chi being staying in the present. Some of that positive thinking, what else contributed to being able to kind of push through your treatment? And how long were you in treatment for?

Chris Firebaugh 21:35

About one year, but I actually jumped ship on the treatment at month 11.

Christina McKelvy 21:42

Okay, okay.

Music Therapy and Karaoke's Healing Power

Chris Firebaugh 21:44

So the reason was, is it started affecting me emotionally? I felt, maybe, like I was growing a little bit. I felt like my mental stability wasn't great because my emotions started. I started losing control of my emotions. Like, say, if you're watching a funny movie and something was it would make you chuckle. I would laugh like it was the greatest joke I've ever heard in my life. Or just say, you're watching ET and you watched I hope there's a spoiler alert here for ET dies and if you get sad, I would get extra sad. It would make me just feel terrible. So part of my brain said this isn't good and I did not like I can handle physical maladies, but when my mind starts getting affected, whatever it, I could not do it any longer. I just couldn't do it. So even when I had four weeks ago, I'm like no, I'm absolutely done, because I wanted to get. I did not want to. Emotionally, I didn't want to feel like I was going crazy For lack of a better way of saying it just emotionally unstable. I did not like that feeling.

Christina McKelvy 23:00

I'm curious where you would have been if you didn't do Tai Chi, If you would have been even more affected emotionally and to you were mentioning you felt emotionally unstable but at the same time Tai Chi was helping you.

Chris Firebaugh 23:12

I think it kept me out of depression because at that point my career was essentially dead and I had nothing really to do with my time at all except go through these treatments.

Chris Firebaugh 23:27

I couldn't work, I was too sick all the time, so the only thing I was able to do was attend martial arts classes, but being involved. Also, I was involved with other people my teacher, joe, my friend Todd, dr Winton being around everybody and just having that type of social connection with people on a positive level, doing something positive. At that point in my life, as I was going through all this, I basically started shifting to the thought process to maybe I should teach martial arts because it was helping me get through a difficult time in my life. I've lost everything professional and was kind of over and I thought to myself, well, I want to do this because this is helping me get through this difficult time, and I thought, well, that's a positive thing and it's probably what I need to focus my life on time. And so I think that at that point martial arts became more of a focal point in my life and gave me a purpose. It gave me a purpose.

Christina McKelvy 24:37

It gave you purpose. I like that Okay. Yeah and having purpose gives someone hope, and when someone has hope. They feel they can move forward and they have that.

Chris Firebaugh 24:47

Yeah, we all. I think that's a thing we all need in life is the feeling of purpose. Mm-hmm, without feeling a purpose were just ships, ships adrift on the ocean with no destination of mine. Not that, not that really you're ever gonna reach a destination. The journey is the reason, not the destination. But it definitely gave me a something to strive for, to improve at and to. It was something I started living. It started become my whole life, became about that. I Actually started teaching kids after I recovered from the cancer. I start teaching preschool martial arts to little little kids.

Christina McKelvy 25:32

Oh, oh, that's adorable.

Chris Firebaugh 25:36

Yeah, I tell you what it's harder. It's harder than it looks.

Christina McKelvy 25:40

I Used to be a preschool teacher for a few years and, yes, I believe you.

Chris Firebaugh 25:47

Yeah, yeah, so you understand what I'm saying. Mm-hmm, yeah, I got to that. I also Will have to say that another thing that didn't help me during the whole process was up One night During the whole chemotherapy thing. A couple of my friends came by because you know, I was pretty much just home all the time, and they took me out. They took me out on the town. They go sing karaoke, and I'd never done that before, and so I was at a bar. Scots dealer is only called doctor field goods, which no longer exists doctor Good yeah it was.

Chris Firebaugh 26:27

It was in Scottsdale, like South Scottsdale I think, off of I want to say McClintock, and it was Just a dive bar, you know, and they took me in there and I They'd heard me sing, you know, just messing around singing, and they thought, well, you might have fun doing this. So I, I put it in a song, I think it was a. It was a duet with a friend of mine to all the girls I've loved before willow nelson and Julio Glacias.

Christina McKelvy 26:59

So my yeah, yeah and.

Chris Firebaugh 27:01

I messed up somehow and wound up doing both parts of the song. You know everybody was laughing about it and I was always a natural class clown. So I thought, oh great, I can make people laugh by singing karaoke. The next thing, the next thing you know I'm singing in Hotel California and just off and running. So you know I started doing that as well during that time period and that did Give me something to do other than just sit around. So I guess I you could say it was karaoke music and Taiichi to help me get through the whole process. What I went through kept my mind. It kept me from being too depressed about life at the time.

Christina McKelvy 27:39

Let's let's focus more in on music. You know that, um, I interviewed her wife. She was my first podcast guest, haley Park, and you know we talked a lot about music therapy, and so I think it'd be an interesting perspective to look from a different angle where you were receiving it. But yes, in a way, I should say right.

Chris Firebaugh 28:03

Very much so. I actually host karaoke today and I can say that without a shadow of a doubt, mm-hmm, the people that come the karaoke show typical person Does really love doing it. It makes them, makes them happy, they're performing and you can take a person who can't, who's never spoken public, who is awkward in front of a group of people as far as giving a presentation. But yeah, yeah, a few, a few years of doing karaoke, that problem will go away. You won't have any problem talking in a room full of strangers because you're used to Thinking all kinds of different songs on a microphone. It kind of it removes stage fright and the anxiety a person might feel by speaking in front of people.

Christina McKelvy 28:51

And so you can see, yeah, good, oh, you and you and.

Chris Firebaugh 28:54

Oh.

Christina McKelvy 28:56

No, finish it's okay.

Chris Firebaugh 28:58

Oh, I guess what I'm saying is I saw it bring a lot of people out of the show and I think once a person starts doing karaoke it becomes a great outlet for them as music. Music in itself is therapeutic. You know. You can always think of your favorite song and how it makes you feel. Well, when you're singing your favorite song you're just Getting even more of that feeling and the connections of the music, and we're all connected by music and sound.

Chris Firebaugh 29:27

You know that's people like you know. You know. You know Like you may like liver and onions and I may hate it, but we may like the same song. You know it's a way for people to connect as well. I Think, yeah, and also karaoke in itself kind of tends to breed a community effect of people around it. They do karaoke, they become friends with each other, and I've met a lot of great people through karaoke, for sure, and a lot of friends do it. And I would say if it wasn't for karaoke I would have not met my wife at all. That's the reason I met her and initially, you met her through karaoke.

Christina McKelvy 30:10

And how many years after your journey cancer journey was that, oh Did. I met my wife Mm-hmm to karaoke.

Chris Firebaugh 30:20

I'm gonna say it close to 20 years. Okay, okay close to it. Close to it. Yeah, I met her 2018 and karaoke. I think I started care. I think I first went into a karaoke bar I want to say it was 2008, yeah, yeah, okay and then I started hosting karaoke, I think a couple years afterwards.

Chris Firebaugh 30:42

After that, or a year and a half afterwards- and you do other things with music too, besides hosting karaoke, correct, yeah, yes you know, I, when I was an organ in high school, I played a violin and I basically being I grew up in Austin, texas as well, and the day Steve Ray Bond died, I actually bought a guitar because I love Steve Ray Bond so much, and I Started playing guitar a little bit. But when my my grandfather passed away I think in 92 it was I quit playing guitar and then I didn't start again, and so my my mother passed away in 2015. So I decided. When I was, you know, a kid, my parents told me music was the thing that I'm best at and that's what they put me in the orchestra in the first place, and they thought that was my path, I believe and.

Chris Firebaugh 31:38

But I think that I I did not realize that, you know I Did not focus on it enough. His death made me go from loving music to not I.

Christina McKelvy 32:06

I, I went, I became very negative, your grandpa yeah, okay.

Chris Firebaugh 32:10

Yeah, I took it really hard and it became pretty negative from it and you know, that was when I was 21 and I did not react. I did not handle it too well for the most part. As far as just personally, I let myself go at that point a bit, you know just, I became very angry and bitter and about everything, just because you know. But you know, him leaving was just not what I had in mind, you know. And yeah, so I wound up basically taking care of my mother grandmother, if you will After he died, because she was alone and you know, and we only had each other at the time. I had an uncle that lived in Arizona as well, but you know he had a family. So you know he couldn't be there as much as he wanted to, yeah, but yeah, so, basically, when he died, I quit playing music. But when my mother died, my grandmother died in 2015 I Started thinking about my dreams when I was younger and I really wanted to be a musician.

Chris Firebaugh 33:23

When I was living in Austin. That became my, my dream. I just wanted to play guitar but, quote-unquote, be a rock star. But you know, I Kind of quit for many, many years until she died. Then, all of a sudden, I thought to myself well, I was 45, 40, 45 at the time. I thought to myself, well, maybe I need to pay attention to what they were trying to tell me. They're no longer, my parents were no longer here, so the only thing that I could do at the time was focus on the advice they gave me when I was younger. So I thought, well, the only way I can respect my family really is by fulfilling what their dreams and wishes for me were. They told me to play the music, so I decided going to go get a guitar and start doing it again. Yeah, so about a year after that, I wanted to play in a backyard party with a couple of friends of mine in Phoenix, and one of them used to work at Yamaha recording studio in LA once upon a time.

Chris Firebaugh 34:28

And he told me he says you're pretty good on a guitar. I'm like I can play maybe three songs. And you know he started working with me and we started just playing music together. And the next thing, you know, we had a band going and that went on for a gosh a number of years and I got better and better at it. Finally I wound up having a monthly gig down at a bar called Gallagher's in South Phoenix and I guess I played there for about six or seven years on the patio and that's how I started playing live music and I met my wife because she was doing a. She's also does live music. She was doing a show, a bar called the Legacy, which is a golf resort.

Christina McKelvy 35:10

OK, yes, yeah.

Chris Firebaugh 35:12

Yeah, they do like weddings there and all kinds of different events, but it's a nice place and they they needed someone to come run the sound for her. So I got the call from a friend of mine who was supposed to do it that he couldn't do it, and he asked me if I could fill in for him. And oh, luckily, luckily, that was me.

Christina McKelvy 35:28

So could he not do it because they were hooking, setting you guys up? Or was it just happenstance?

Chris Firebaugh 35:35

No happenstance.

Christina McKelvy 35:36

Oh OK.

Chris Firebaugh 35:38

All happenstance? Yeah, that wasn't a plant thing, it was just a thing. Or is he bailed out the last minute and called me the day before?

Christina McKelvy 35:46

But just worked out.

Chris Firebaugh 35:48

Yeah, worked out.

Christina McKelvy 35:50

OK, so when you were diagnosed with cancer, going to that journey, tai Chi music, but sounds like music and in a way also Tai Chi has been that consistent.

Chris Firebaugh 36:04

Yes.

Christina McKelvy 36:06

That, that consistent healing practice for you.

Chris Firebaugh 36:10

Yes, yeah, and definitely is definitely part of it. They, they, they were both have been my constant in my life that I was either doing one or the other.

Christina McKelvy 36:24

You know and.

Chris Firebaugh 36:27

I feel that at my age now that it's kind of time to get back to the Tai Chi thing as well and bring that back into my life, because I definitely could tell that without without. I need it because it's good for my health, because I've got some health issues related to going through all the cancer treatments I went through and developed later on as a result of the lymph nodes being removed. It caused some problems with my health and my immune system.

Christina McKelvy 36:57

OK.

Finding Purpose and Hope After Cancer

Chris Firebaugh 36:57

Oh yeah, so, so definitely, as I'm getting older and feeling the effects of age, I definitely think that Tai Chi is becoming a very important thing for me to do. Yeah, it's a general form of exercise on top of being a meditation.

Christina McKelvy 37:16

And Tai Chi gave you that. So, like when you were teaching Tai Chi, it gave you that sense of purpose and yeah, karaoke. And with purpose comes hope, with hope comes resilience and resilience comes healing.

Chris Firebaugh 37:29

Yes, yeah, it sounds like something Yoda would say.

Christina McKelvy 37:33

Yoda oh, Yoda yes.

Chris Firebaugh 37:35

Yoda, yeah, star Wars, nerd here.

Christina McKelvy 37:37

Yeah, I'm afraid to say I'm not. I'm going to get like chastised by the Internet community.

Chris Firebaugh 37:43

Oh, that's OK. Well, there's two. There's two types of people in the world either your Star Wars or Star Trek, or none of it.

Christina McKelvy 37:52

I'm none of it. I actually get Star Wars and Star Trek confused.

Chris Firebaugh 37:57

That's why I'm for me.

Christina McKelvy 37:58

To the dismay of my father-in-law. I do like Lord of the Rings, though I think I'm more like. Would that be fantasy? I guess fantasy yeah that's fantasy.

Christina McKelvy 38:08

Well, you know, chris, I'm noticing. Like I said, I think the theme is when you have that sense of purpose and doing something consistent consistently, excuse me and it's bringing you joy. It helps with that resilience and that hope. It can help you, maybe not because, you mentioned, the medication was affecting a lot of your mental state, but at the same time it gave you a sense of purpose when you were doing Tai Chi, and so it didn't get a lot, but it, when you have that it's. It helps you navigate life a lot better and yeah, yeah. So it's like finding that sense of purpose, even if it's simply small.

Chris Firebaugh 38:50

I've never been a person that wants to be a nine to five guy. I don't like working in offices and you know, at the time I was, I was sort of doing that a little bit. But then I realized that working for yourself and doing things on your own was a bit more freeing. And after I got the cancer I started realizing. It made me realize that we're only here for a short amount of time. It put mortality in front of me, and having mortality put in front of me made me look at life as a bet in a completely different way than I was before. I just saw life as work as much as you can, make as much money as you can, and not because I was materialistic, but because that's what you did. You know that was, that's what you did.

Chris Firebaugh 39:46

And I think getting cancer made me abandon that path of life. Because I start thinking to myself well, I have to say that I attribute cancer In my particular case, the doctor I had, the naturopath doctor. I was asking him what do you think caused me to have melanoma, and, and, and he looked at me and he says well, I took his glass off, he goes, because a lot of people say it's the sun he goes. I don't say that Because I don't see it that way, particularly in you. So a big question became what caused me to have cancer and I never had it again or since then I've never had melanoma ever again and it just was something that came up. I had it and then it was gone. I don't believe it was some related myself, because the part of my body I got it on is not exposed to the sun. So it makes me wonder if I will tell you that after my dad died I pretty much was in a dark place for quite a while and it was.

Chris Firebaugh 40:58

Tai Chi that pulled me out of the dark place, but by the time I started doing it I already had a problem going on and on my leg. So I often wonder if it was just depression and negativity that brought it on, because I definitely lost myself after my father died. I was so very lost.

Christina McKelvy 41:25

Yeah, yep. But then you got that hope back? Yeah, I found a path.

Chris Firebaugh 41:31

I had no path. I started finding a path. Yeah, it's been an interesting journey. It's finding the path and then trying to stay on the path, and staying on the path is harder sometimes than finding the path. Yes, because you look around you and everybody's doing this and this and you're off here playing in the daisies. You know in your life. You know, that's kind of how I could describe, but I definitely, definitely don't usually fit in with a typical crowd of people because I just don't see things in the same way.

Chris Firebaugh 42:08

Because of the cancer journey. It made me. It made me abandon how a typical person thinks about their life goals and what they're looking at. You know, I became, I guess I started looking at life in a total opposite way as everybody else around me, and I think that was because I did not want to put expectations and stress upon myself, because I decided it was probably stress that helped me get cancer or attributed to it. Possibly and that may be the case or may not be the case, that I don't know, that's not a scientific thing, that's just my opinion, of course.

Chris Firebaugh 42:48

Yeah, so that is probably why after that I never really dove back into the nine to five. I tried, but I developed, like a Hashimoto's, a thyroid condition from the treatments and after a math of all that and I've been told a lot of people develop immune problems after going through cancer treatments and that affected my ability to work full-time job and to do the typical things a person does do, and I found out that my only really approach to survive was doing things that did not cause me a lot of stress in life, and so I looked for things to do that I felt like I was giving back to people, or at least doing things in a way that made myself happy. I always found that if I'm making other people happy, I also, in turn, feel happy by making others happy.

Christina McKelvy 43:42

Yeah, let's stop there, because I think that's an important thing to note. You're feeling happy. When you make other people happy, you're finding your purpose. You have found that path. I like to close with this question with everybody because, again, my podcast is called Hopology. You've answered this throughout the podcast interview. But what brings you hope?

Chris Firebaugh 44:26

What brings me hope. You know I typically live day to day. That's my goal anyway Day to day living. Don't look too far into the future and make each day the best you can make it, because you don't know what tomorrow is going to bring.

Christina McKelvy 44:46

Being present.

Chris Firebaugh 44:49

In a present moment. That's the lesson I've known. I've got a great friend in Phoenix, the Buddhist monk, my friend Joe Salamone, the Kung Fu teacher. These things were taught by pretty much. Both of them had the same thing to say. They're different.

Chris Firebaugh 45:07

I think that's the wisdom of all sages and of all different paths that the truth is to be in the present moment is the highest goal you could have changed. I try that as much as I can. I'm not perfect at it. I definitely think if you're in the present moment, everything will be as good as it can be because you're not thinking about tomorrow. Tomorrow is worried. You're always worried about what's going to happen tomorrow.

Chris Firebaugh 45:40

If you live day to day, it tends to lessen the effects of that particular stress. I think try to figure out what you can do to create a more stress-free life for yourself. That's all based on the individual. Everyone has different paths in life they must journey on. I think find the path that is less stressful for you, because the stress and time we waste can't be. You can't get it back. Once your time is gone, it's gone. If you spent your whole life in a state of stress and suffering, essentially, then I feel like you've probably wasted your life a bit. It's better to be focused on the present moment, living day to day. We all have our own goals and things we want to achieve in life.

Finding Purpose Through Life's Challenges

Chris Firebaugh 46:37

Mine is I definitely would like to teach again and I'd like to do more live music, just because that's what brings me joy. But also karaoke, it brings other people joy. I'll continue to do that which makes people happy. If I do a karaoke show and I look down and I see everyone's having a great time, it always makes me feel good about it. That's it. It's more that because I make okay money at it, but I actually I hang on the fact that I see other people enjoying what's going on around me. That's my main motivation. I do a show or there's no one there, it's not how much it affects me, it's how I see there's no one there really enjoying themselves. I live for that. The people around me having a good time, and I'd like to be involved, a participant, in that, if I can. That's pretty much I feel like my path in life.

Christina McKelvy 47:34

Your path walking and the skin cancer was on your leg.

Chris Firebaugh 47:43

Yeah, that's what started me on this journey. It was the beginning of a new path in life. Cancer began was a new beginning for me.

Christina McKelvy 47:53

Yeah, hopefully we all don't have to get cancer to figure out our path. But, finding our purpose, finding what brings us hope, finding what brings us joy, can really help with any type of internal healing we need.

Chris Firebaugh 48:11

Yeah.

Christina McKelvy 48:12

It sounds like, chris, that's what you got. That's what happened for you. I really appreciate you sharing your story with me. It's really exciting. I can't wait to see you continue with the live music starting Tai Chi again, karaoke and I am excited to see your path. Thank you so much for being here.

Chris Firebaugh 48:36

Thank you so much for interviewing me. I appreciate you Live music. I know I get it.