Sunday, January 27, 2013

Called Back Into Action

      So it's been nearly two years since I last posted. Since then I have accomplished a lot of the goals that I set out to when I first got sick. Over the last two years I have done two century rides and a half marathon. I also started my own company. I was finally getting on track and moving forward. But then in December, while laying in bed, I felt a tiny bump on the back of my head.
      At first I thought nothing of it, and then I started feeling around my head for others. Normally I'm not a paranoid person, especially after being almost two years cancer free, but something didn't seem right. I felt uneasy about them. I didn't tell anyone about what I had found for almost two weeks.
      I was scheduled for another throat injection to help my vocal chords, and it was at this time that I finally brought it up to my throat doctor and asked what he thought. After speaking with him he felt that it was nothing to worry about and it was probably just swollen lymph nodes from fighting a cold. Hearing that made me feel better about it. He wanted to do a biopsy just to be safe because of my history. So I thought okay, no big deal.
      The following week I went in for a biopsy and the doctor doing the procedure had the same feeling as my throat doctor. He wasn't worried about it but said better to be safe than sorry. That was on Tuesday January 8th. I wasn't going to get my results until the following week.
     I didn't really care when I was going to find out the results because in my mind it was going to come back negative. I mean the reoccurrence rate for my type of cancer is only like 7%, so two years after being cancer free would I really fall into that percentage? On January 15th when I got the call from the doctor with my results I was expecting him to say "Hey, the results came back negative" and then I would hang up and continue my day. But that is not what happened.
     I was finishing up lunch with my best friend Christina when he called. All I remember him saying is "The results came back positive for seminoma." The only thing I could say was "Really." In the background I heard Christina say "Oh fuck." I really don't remember what else he said after that; it's kind of just a blur. I hung up the phone and just gave Christina a hug and cried.
     I thought, is this really happening? Yes it was. The sadness didn't last long because there was nothing I could do to change it. It was time to take action. After calling "my team" we got everything in order to face this head on. By Thursday I had a meeting with my oncologist and the next day a PET scan would be done. 
     My oncologist informed me of how we were going to handle this. He said I will be starting my chemo on January 28th, doing four rounds for five days, five hours a day. I will have three weeks off in between each round. He said that this regime was going to be more toxic then my previous one and was going to take a toll on my body. So basically I had less than a week to get everything in order to receive my chemo.
     After battling with myself I ultimately decided that this time around I was going to do chemo through a port. So on Wednesday the 21st I went in to have the port put into place. It was a simple surgery and I'm 100% confident that it was the right decision.
     So in just a few short days I will be starting Day 1 of 91; 91 days until I'm done with this battle. Every champion has a challenger. Cancer wants a second chance at the title and just like the first time he isn't going to get it.

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