November 7, 2020
So it was July 2016; I had just joined a gym two weeks prior thanks to my wife’s teasing (the woman loves to workout)so I caved and started going. One evening after the gym i was taking a shower and noticed what felt like a lump the size of a penny. It was hard like marble so i showed it to my wife who told me i should make a doctor’s appointment. I was ready to write it off as a cyst but took her advice .
I’m happy I did because she saved my life. A trip to the doctor turned into an ultrasound and then a biopsy. A few days later I’m sitting in the basement drinking a cup of coffee and i got the phone call. My doctor told me it was carcinoma and he scheduled an appointment to meet with the oncologist and radiologist to discuss surgery. I could not believe it; male breast cancer. I’ve been through some crazy things in my life but you could have knocked me over with a feather. Within a week I having surgery. My surgeon, God bless her, was getting ready to leave for vacation but postponed it on the chance we caught it early. (That plus I kept saying I was going to take a bottle of Ouzo and a steak knife and remove it myself if they didn’t operate soon. Lol.) One surgery later I’m at home missing one nipple but recovering from surgery and watching daytime television. I was lucky and blessed that it was caught Stage 1 but the downside was it was a very aggressive tumor so they wanted me to do 3 months of chemo. I’m not going to lie, the thought of doing chemo terrified me but in the end I caved in; I did not want that garbage to come back. For 3 months I walked around looking like Gollum from “Lord of the Rings ” and suffering from aches, pains and exhaustion. (I can’t totally complain because I dodged the nausea bullet) Its been 4 years and I’m still here. I’m still taking my Tamoxifen and trying to stay healthy. I have a whole new appreciation for life. I appreciate the time I spend with my wife and daughter and the trips we take for vacation. I’ve even started drawing again. I stopped for a few years but cancer lit a fire under my ass. I’ve met alot of wonderful people who either had cancer, are currently fighting or have family members fighting. To those people I say God bless you and give you the strength to overcome this. You fight and you keep fighting because you owe it to yourself and the ones you love!