Cancer Story

Hey so just a heads up… some of this stuff is very personal and details my journey with testicular cancer. So some of this page will include things that come along with that. Just an FYI.

Also, I am sure I have some spelling or grammar issues with this. So I’ll try to review and update accordingly.

Alright so I’m going to try to recall everything that happened with this cancer stuff. I have notes and reports saved in a variety of places, and some of this may be too much information since we’re dealing with reproductive stuff and all that. While talking about stuff can be embarrassing for some, I have realized over the years the more I keep my mouth shut about the good things I was able to get through, the less of a help I am able to be. God is faithful and good, and He provided comfort and help not found anywhere else, so why be silent with what he’s done? Sure it can be awkward since it’s not something discussed much, but it is part of my story and my testimony and it’s not something to be ashamed of. I’m feeling ballsy so let’s get to it (smh at that joke).

Sooooooo……..


December 2013
Back in December 2013 while I was a senior in college at Liberty University, I started feeling some discomfort with one of my balls. I figured I had gotten hit or bumped into something, maybe strained a nearby muscle or something else. It was very sensitive but like with many other injuries, I thought maybe it would just heal on its own or go away. My biggest fear at the time was testicular torsion but it did not feel like all of the symptoms described online. Over the next month through the holidays into mid January it started to become more of a constant throbbing pain especially if I moved or sat down differently. It was definitely isolated to one testical, and I noticed that it started to become very hard (your balls are not supposed to be very firm) and seemed to be ever so slightly growing in size. Looking up the symptoms online along with the increase in pain, it became pretty apparent that this was going to be a medical emergency and possibly a cancerous tumor. I didn’t want to overreact, and I was still on my parents’ insurance so I decided to schedule a normal yearly physical since I had not had one in over a year. This was also back when they would check for hernias. Growing up an athlete, this test was not new nor awkward so I felt comfortable going to the normal doctor’s office and letting the doctor know what was going on. I guess nowadays they don’t do that as routinely, but for sports we always had to do the cough cough test. 
I was able to get a physical scheduled for Monday, January 27, 2014 but the Friday before the pain had become bad enough where I called the local urologist and asked to come in for a visit. They told me scheduling the physical was the right thing to do, and since I have the appointment scheduled in just a couple days to go there and tell them what is going on, but if the pain is so bad then definitely make the trip to the ER. I have been to the ER before, and have had multiple surgeries growing up. The ER was not a place I wanted to be or wait at. Especially if it was “nothing” after all (some doubting here unfortunately even with the pain). So I decided to bear it out through the weekend and get the physical done on Monday.

January 27 2014
I went to the scheduled physical, and the only other person I think that even knew about anything was my girlfriend at the time Lizzi. I didn’t tell my parents anything until afterwards because I didn’t want my mom 350+ miles away to freak out nor did I want the embarrassment of nothing being found (which is not a healthy fear to have by the way). At the physical I told Dr. Thomas what was going on, and when she checked it she knew the potential severity of what was going on so she sent me straight to Lynchburg General Hospital to get an ultrasound. The most experience I’ve had with ultrasounds in the past was seeing a lady on TV or in a movie have some device moved all around her stomach so I was not sure exactly what this would be like. Lizzi went to class and told our professor I’d be missing it because of a medical emergency and should be back later that week, and I went off to the hospital.
This was my first trip to an appointment without telling any information to my parents so I had to navigate giving them the insurance cards and everything for the first time. Thankfully I have had misc surgeries from sports accidents and such before, that I came prepared. What I was not prepared for was having a bubbling stomach and getting my balls ultrasounded. If you ever have to do this, definitely make sure you use the bathroom first because there’s some pressure put on you around the lower half of your abdomen while somebody goops up the transducer and rubs it around all the sides of your testicals. This is very awkward since you are pretty exposed. I was asked if a nursing student/radiation tech student could come to observe and I figured if they are like me, the best way to learn is by experience. So the radiology lady and nursing lady observed on the screen what they saw and it felt like forever. The radiation tech was noting stuff on the screen to the student, while trying her best to be discreet. She told me she can’t tell me anything because the radiologist needs to review it first. Finally that was done with, and I was sent on my way home. Not thinking about the most optimistic outcome after reading everything on the web, the doctor’s reaction, and the secret discussion between the tech and the student, I finally got a call from the doctor who did my physical just a couple hours earlier. She said unfortunately, they found a mass on my testical and I would need to see a urologist. 

Notes from the ultrasound:

Large inhomogeneous significantly hypervascular mass of the mid to inferior left testicle of concern for a neoplastic process. There is normal Doppler flow to the right testicle and no intratesticular mass of the right testicle is noted. This was conveyed to the clinical staff at time of dictation utilizing the critical results tool, the details of which will be documented in the electronic medical record.

The echotexture of the right testicle is homogeneous without focal mass noted. There is normal Doppler flow to the right testicle

Left testicle with normal echotexture noted. No focal abnormality is seen. Left epididymis is normal in echotexture and size. There is a large focus of inhomogeneity involving almost the entirety of the testicle. This mass is considerably hypervascular. 

No hydroceles or varicoceles are noted.


January 29 2014
I was able to get an appointment with a urologist two days later, Wednesday, January 29, 2014. I was sent for bloodwork to check for tumor markers and meet up with a urologist at Seven Hills Urology. The tumor markers were higher than normal since there was obviously a painful tumor growing. 
The urologist, Dr. Cook, reviewed the tumor markers and radiology reports and told me that this testicular mass is indeed a problem. The standard procedure for this is to remove the testical and get a pathology report on it. Biopsies are not done due to the risk of causing a spread if it is cancer, but at this time, the cancer status was not known. Either way, the testical had to be removed because the tumor had taken over it. It was a bit nerve wracking mainly because I was not married nor had any kids, and I know how important testosterone is for men. I was told that when a testical gets removed, the other testical will take over the testosterone production (which is awesome) to make up for the lost one. This was comforting, and also that this would not affect me having kids naturally. There is a risk, if this was cancer, that it had spread, and there’s also an increased risk it also happens in the other ball, but right now it was known this thing had to get out of there. And with the pain I was in, there was little hesitation. I was upset with losing the one ball, but looking forward to getting whatever was causing the pain to be out of me. The surgery to remove it was scheduled for early the following morning. A very packed week but thankfully there was not wait like there is today for some of these medical appointments. My grandparents drove up from South Carolina that evening and stayed at the hotel next to my house to be with me when I went in for surgery the next day.


January 30 2014

Notes from Dr. Cook’s documentation:
The patient is a 22-year-old, white male with evidence of a left testicular mass. This has been confirmed by ultrasound. I have discussed with he and his family the nature of this finding. We discussed the need for a left radical orchiectomy. We discussed the risks and benefits of the procedure and he agrees to proceed.

Early morning Thursday, January 30, 2014, my grandparents, Lizzi, my roommate Ricky, and I made our way to the surgery center. My mom and little brother David would drive down in the morning and meet up with us shortly after the surgery. The surgery would go well and I would awake trying to make “I’ve feel like I’ve gone nuts” or related jokes. I don’t enjoy the awakening from going under anesthesia after my previous surgeries in high school, but this one was not too bad. I was sent home after everything post-op went well to recover. I pretty much just chilled at home the day with an ice pack.

So this type of surgery is interesting. They don’t remove the ball from your scrotum, they remove it higher up through your lower abs. They make a maybe 5 inch incision right below the beltline, pull the ball and spermatic cord out through there, cut it and seal you up like it was a bad hernia.

January 31 2014
Friday I went back to the doctor’s office for a check up and everything seemed to be on the right path with healing. I stayed home from work that day, hung out with my friend Daniel and went out to eat with my mom and David. I was up and walking around fine and kept an ice pack tied to where the incision was. Sitting down was uncomfortable because of where the cut was, but standing was good. I was not allowed to lift anything heavy because of the cut, just like you would with a hernia repair.

February 01 2014
Back to work. Usually when complicated things happen in life, my resort is to keep life’s pace as close to normal as I can. I don’t like being stuck home sick or delaying whatever I want to get done (even though rest is a good thing and also needed). Since I was able to walk around and needed the money from my job, I only took those two days off and went back to work Saturday. The desk I was stationed at would be a standing desk, so the only thing I was restricted from was lifting heavy things. My mom and little brother drove back up with PA and I went to work with no problems. I don’t even think I brought the ice pack with me.

February 02 2014
Superbowl Sunday. I was able to hang out with some more people at my friend Brandon’s house and talk to them about the surgery and all that. I remember sitting in a chair and starting to feel pretty uncomfortable. I was scheduled to work again that night, but ended up just going home instead and called the night off. My friends joked around that I was just taking off to watch the Superbowl, but we all knew it was just an extra rest day needed.

Week Recap
So the past couple days covered so far include a painful start, meeting with multiple doctors and techs, getting urgent surgery and recovering. Through this time, only a few people knew about what was going on. I didn’t share it online or even talk about it with everybody I knew. A handful of friends and pastors back home, some family, and the guys I worked with knew but that was it and I would go on hardly sharing at all. We didn’t know of the cancer diagnosis yet, only that this tumor on my ball was growing painfully and needed to be removed. I wasn’t part of a local church, just casually attending a megachurch close by.

The Following Week
The urologist who performed the surgery called me the next week and told me that the tumor was taken to a lab and reviewed by a team of pathologists. They found out that it was indeed cancerous and called “Seminoma.” However, after getting CT scans, lab reports, and reviewing the notes from the pathologists, it was determined that this cancer was localized and had not yet spread. With testicular cancer, it usually goes upwards. So it will go to some lymph nodes in your lower back, then some organs like your lungs and then eventually your brain. Doesn’t sound fun.. but thankfully this was localized and limited to the area they removed. I began the stage of “remission” since this cancer that was in “Stage 1” needs five years of clear scans to be considered “cured.” Chemo was an option in case there was a spread, but since it appeared to be localized I chose to go with the aggressive surveillance route.

Sharing the Cancer News… kind of…
After getting the news that it was cancer, I didn’t really feel much different about it. I was still without that ball I had my whole life, worried how this would affect how I was viewed, concerned if this would actually end up affecting having kids, but also relieved the pain was finally gone. That absence of pain definitely helped lighten up the situation. I would go on being very protective of the other ball though (haha) because that’s all I had left for testosterone production, and providing me the ability to have kids. I told those people that knew I had gone through surgery that it did end up being cancer. I knew that God was with me the whole time, and guided me through every decision, provided the right people around me to be there, and gave me a peace of mind as I thought about it being localized and caught early. God does comfort us if we lean on him.
I was on the phone with Pastor Dave of my home church back in PA, and remember telling him these verses in 2 Corinthians 1: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” One day I would be able to share this story with somebody, but I wanted it to be on my time. I did not want to immediately post all over the internet that I, an otherwise healthy 22 year old childless unmarried guy, just lost one of his balls. It bothered me so I decided to keep it as secret as possible and many of my friends that knew what I went through respected my request to not talk about it with others.
I want to note the professors for my courses this semester were pretty lenient and helped me anyway they could, allowing assignments to be late that I missed from surgery, etc. The two guys on my capstone course team, Derek and Chad, took on some extra work for our project without hesitation (thankfully). My boss at the time, Casey, also worked with me and went out of his way to try find ways HR could help me, and him along with my coworkers helped pick up the slack with my schedule and not being able to lift much for a bit.

Years Of Secret Appointments
Over the next three years with the “aggressive surveillance” I would end up getting lab work and CT scans done whenever I could without anybody knowing. I’d use my lunch break to go, or just excuse it from work as a misc doctor appointment and not mention anything else about it. The scans were not fun, and to this day I still don’t like getting poked with needles. For the CT scans, they were specifically looking for a spread but scan after scan showed all clear. With these scans, you have to drink a lot of this radiographic contrast agent called Barium Sulfate. It tastes disgusting but thankfully they started coming out with different flavors so while still nasty, it makes it a little better. The drink also made you go to the bathroom and those days became days that were not fun. I would end up trying to make sure I had time to go home afterwards or plan to work from home if possible.
Unfortunately, after three years of scans in 2017 I got my first “uh oh” moment. A lymph node in my back had grown to a size that was out of the normal range. I was sent to meet with an oncologist, Dr. Patel, at the local cancer center, and he let me know this could be nothing, but a biopsy should be performed to grab some cells from this lymph node to assure us it’s either nothing or come up with a plan if it is cancer. This biopsy would be my first visit I couldn’t do alone because it came with enough sedation to where you agree not to drive for the day. The biopsy was a CT guided one, meaning they push a needle in you to grab the cells a little bit at a time and then run you through the machine. Then move the needle a little more and scan you again. This happens over and over again until they reach the node and they are able to grab some pieces from it. Since I was not able to drive home, my friend Brittney stayed with me at the hospital until the procedure was over and drove me home. Her and her husband Kameona lived across the street from me and were some of the people that knew about the cancer from the beginning. After the results came back, I met with the oncologist and he said no abnormal cells were found, the lymph node was no longer outside of the normal range, and I could continue back down the path of surveillance like we were. PHEW.
This would continue again for another two years, and I started to open up (very little, but more than nothing) about the cancer to some additional people. Maybe a handful more if that. I started attending a different church regularly, and even started serving there but I would continue to go to service and then leave. I didn’t even tell anybody there what I had, and what I would be going through. This was a HUGE error on my part, because I was letting pride get in the way of others praying for me, and coming together to support me which they would have absolutely done.

Year 5 – What Was Supposed To Be The Finale
2019… what year, and what a wild few years leading up to this. The relationship I was in when it started had ended, I had another long relationship that ended, I had dozens of new roommates moving in and moving out, graduated college, started a new job and began serving at a new church. Some close friends had gotten married towards the middle and end of 2018, and 2019 was going to be a year where it’s time to start looking for a house. Other roommates were leaving so the time at this house we all lived in and hung out in was going to be coming to an end. I sold my pick-up truck (I’m not calling it old because it was made the same year I was born) for $1700 that January. That January, I also had my yearly scan, and this was going to be the last one. 5 years of no recurrences meant I would be done with drinking this nasty contrast, no more cancer related doctor appointments, and no more trying to work this disease around my life.
I had a conversation with my friend Mike about celebrating the end of these scans and being cured, and we discussed how to go about sharing it. I was conflicted because of that verse in 2 Corinthians. Should I make a post online sharing with everybody what I was going through? God brought me through this trial and deserved credit for his faithfulness, his comfort and his love. At the same time, I’ve kept it secret for so long, maybe I could continue holding it to myself and those I wanted to know about it. I could balance being okay sharing it but only doing it at my convenience. That way, I could place this all at my timing, and I could be the one in control. Well, the scan ended up not being clear in the same way it wasn’t clear two years prior. That dang lymph node was swollen up again, and even if the biopsy this time was again clear, it would be best for me to come back the following year just to make sure it’s still fine. So no celebration, this would go on for one more year. Wrong again! I drove myself this time and asked not to be sedated during the biopsy (don’t do this it’s not worth it… it definitely hurt) so I could then drive myself back and go back to work. The results from this scan showed that the cancer was indeed there, and this journey was going to get at least 10 years longer. Good luck keeping that a secret. 

Q1 2019
Great. Within a couple weeks I went from celebrating my secret victory over cancer to being told it’s come back and will need further treatment. The cancer had spread to my retroperitoneal lymph nodes in my lower back and was making its way, slowly but surely upwards. Thankfully additional chest CT scans and a brain MRI showed that this did not advance to any organs, and it was currently in Stage 2A. 
Common approaches to testicular cancer in modern medicine is chemotherapy or radiation. There are other approaches outside of modern medicine that could have cured this too. I prayed and researched and thought long and hard about the options. Chemotherapy was recommended by my oncologist in Lynchburg as well as from a second opinion at UVA. I ended up choosing this route for myself, so we got a port placement scheduled and starting in the middle of March I would be getting the first doses of chemo. The port is an access point for the drugs to go in that’s in your chest. It sits right under your skin but over top of your muscle, with nothing but a tiny hose that drops down to the top of your atrium. This makes it much easier for the nurses to put drugs inside of you and also take blood without having to stick a needle through a vein in your arm every time.
As time got closer to the start of chemo, and this next part of the cancer journey became a reality, I would start to tell more people about it. I knew my body would be changing from the side effects and I’d be losing my hair, so the secret was going to be out eventually. I called friends living back in PA, sat down with some close friends I hung out with very often, told my coworkers etc. Sometimes I’d bring up that it was testicular cancer, but many times I just said it was in my back because I didn’t want to have to describe everything I had gone through before, and I was a bit embarrassed about it. That was mainly a me problem, not a problem with everyone else. There are some people in this world who will take every jab they can at you, but my friends and coworkers didn’t do that. They supported me and loved me so much through one of the biggest trials of my life and I am very thankful.
A very cool story that I like to share because it has to do with work. People ask me what it’s like to work for Liberty University because it has had a controversial past, and some people don’t have great experiences. My teams worked so well with me when I had to go through chemo and get procedures done, and the flexibility, prayers and meals helped a lot. My director Adam called me to his office when he found out I was going through chemo and offered ways to help with work but also took it a step further. He asked if I had any family in Lynchburg, and when I said no, he offered to go to any and every appointment with me if I wanted somebody to be there. Wow! The people really cared about me, not just the position I was in. That shows a lot about the place you work at. My mom would come visit for the three weeks that had the most aggressive treatments, and periodically my brothers and dad would join too, so while very appreciative of my director’s offer, I had plenty of support coming into town even though they didn’t live here.

Non alcoholic chemo cocktails 
Testicular cancer usually has these chemo drugs: Bleopmycin, Etoposide, and Cisplatin. Sometimes bleomycin is not used because of the harshness it puts on your lungs. Since I was not a smoker, I was cleared for it. However, I would definitely recommend someone to carefully consider this, and look into the possible options of avoiding it. There have been cases of it actually killing the patient. Rare, but it can cause bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis. This is when your lungs scar over, and it’s not reversible (though hopefully a cure is found for it). The rest of your life you cannot smoke, be around tobacco smoke for long periods of time (those bars aren’t even fun anyways), and you also cannot be given oxygen. Wild right? So if you have surgeries, you ask them to use room air unless absolutely necessary. Oxygen given through with a nasal cannula or venturi mask can trigger that scarring we are trying to avoid.
Etoposide and Cisplatin work great together and were a huge discovery for this type of cancer in the 1970s. The survival rates went from very low to high. Stage 1 has like a 99% ten year survival rate, and even the worst stages now have a higher rate like 70% or something like that.
Chemotherapy is wild. It gets pumped through your entire body looking for fast growing cells. That is why many times you lose your hair. It can also affect things like the skins on the inside of your mouth. The course of chemo I would go through is noted as 3 X BEP. Which means 3 cycles of these three drugs. Each cycle made up of 3 weeks:
Week 1 – 5 days of Etoposide & Cisplatin, 1 day of Bleomycin
Week 2 – 1 day of Bleomycin
Week 3 – 1 day of Bleomycin
I was getting infusions that would take a few hours every day during week 1, and short infusions during weeks 2 and 3. The chemo drugs aren’t the only thing you are given- you are given steroids and anti-nausea medicine as well as other things to deal with the side effects. I have an entire list that I’ll post somewhere. 
I took off the first week of chemo from work, and then the other long weeks I was able to work remotely from the cancer center because I would be there for hours. I was so thankful for this because I needed to keep working to keep my benefits and health insurance (more on that later). Many friends would come visit me almost every day and bring lunch for me and my mom. Kameona worked in a building close to the treatment center so he would walk over often to spend some time and check in. Other friends would come hang out for a bit, and sometimes some would even bring their Nintendo Switch and help play Mario Kart or something for a bit to pass the time. I had lots of support and am so thankful for everybody. 
During the time of treatment, my oncologist told me I need to be avoiding alcohol during the treatment. So I’d share a beer with my friends the day before I’d go in for the first day of treatment and then stop for the 9 weeks of chemo. My brother Randy also went the 9 weeks drink free too to support me. My friends and I would go out every Wednesday to our favorite place for pilsner night. The restaurant, Neighbors Place, was our go to place and we became friends with some of the servers and managers there. I was able to make it to every hang out there, but they would give me pink lemonade instead of pilsners so I could at least enjoy something. Ariel who worked there even brought me some neighbors food for lunch to the cancer center one of the days I was getting treatment! The skirt steak was delicious.

Side effects
Alright so back to the drugs and all that. Chemo takes a huge toll on your body. I had already been working out and exercising regularly, so I was hoping to keep up with it while going through treatment. I was not able to do as much as I wanted to, but the stuff I did helped a lot. The first day wasn’t so bad, but I definitely felt different because I had just gotten a bunch of chemicals pumped into me. I went through the rest of the day fine. The next morning though, I was starting to feel a bit exhausted. I went to the gym around 5 or 6 am to go for a run on the treadmill, and this would be one of my last times if not last time in the gym for several weeks, as exhaustion and nausea would start to become a regular thing. As the days went on, I would get more and more nauseous and tell my oncologist that I was an absolute baby when it comes to throwing up. I avoid it at all costs, even though it’s usually better for you to get it out. I think throwing up from chemo is different, because it’s not like there’s something bad in your stomach that you consumed that your body is trying to get rid of. I made it the first week without throwing up, though there were several times I thought it was going to happen. 
The second week was different and nausea was much worse than the first week. I did end up throwing up in the middle of the night Sunday of week 2. It was the most brutal and violent puking episode I’ve ever endured to this day. You feel banged up from the treatments so that on top of it was not fun (especially when you despise throwing up at all costs to begin with). This would be the only time I would throw up during treatment, because they increased the anti nausea drugs and I would work as hard as I could to hold it in. I went to work on campus the next morning and my team could tell it was a rough night.
My hair did start to fall out after a couple weeks. I got it cut somewhat short ahead of time, but it came to the point it was falling out fast. So, my buddy Curtis shaved it for me after giving me a mohawk. Then a couple days later I’d shave it with a bic razor and I was bald for the next couple months. The rest of my hair on my body would thin out immensely, with most of it going completely away. 
So exhaustion and nausea would be the biggest factors. I lost a lot of strength, but thankfully had some friends help out with working on some projects. For example, I had to change some stripped lug bolts on my car, and I had no strength to get them out. Brandon came by and got them off for me so I could continue fixing the car. My appetite would also change, and I would crave certain things at certain times. Some people compare appetite and nausea to being pregnant (yes yes yes I know being pregnant is much harder work). You have to be careful because your white blood cell count goes down from the chemo, so you can pick up colds and other illnesses much faster. Infections and all that are things you want to avoid.
I did have one night where I woke up with my legs in excruciating pain. It was the most random thing, and both legs hurt so bad I called the on-call doctor for the cancer center. He said since it wasn’t one leg it probably wasn’t a blood clot, and that it’s from my bones trying to make up for the low white blood cell count. I took some tylenol, but when I woke up for work the next morning, I got up out of bed and almost collapsed straight on the floor! I could not put any weight on my legs, and had to lean-walk as much as I could, but army crawling ended up being the easiest way to get around. I crawled to my desk to message my manager and say I was going to work remotely until I could use my legs again (kind of an awkward thing to explain). The pain started to go away that afternoon though and it didn’t happen again.
Another side effect of chemo is the chance of going sterile. I’m not as familiar with the studies on this, like if someone was sterile before chemo and didn’t know about it. But they say there’s a chance of it happening. So if you want to have kids, this could affect you. You will be told about this before going through chemo, and it will be recommended to freeze some reproductive cells with cryostorage. This is a decision you’ll have to make on your own. It costs money and insurance usually won’t cover it.
Other surgeries need to be put on hold if possible, especially dental work. I was scheduled to get my wisdom teeth taken out that spring too, but I had to wait until treatment was over to get them done.

Post to everybody
I don’t post on social media often, especially about personal things like this. However, I knew it was needed. So many people had no idea what I was going through, but I knew a lot of them cared. I put together a post, my friend Meagan reviewed it cause it was a bit lengthy and obviously when I type out stuff I can ramble on. I posted it and had gotten so many encouraging messages sent back. People were praying for me and offering to share my story with others so they could pray too. It was very encouraging, and while going through the trial I felt like the luckiest person in the world because of all the love shown to me.

Ding ding ding
Well, I made it all nine weeks. It was rough, and I felt beat up, but I made it. The day of the last treatment on week 9, some friends joined and the nurses cheered me on as I rang the bell, symbolizing the end of treatment. Phew! Now to wait on scans to see what’s up. My next round of CT scans showed the lymph node was reduced, and there was no more evidence of cancer. I would continue on meeting with aggressive surveillance, finally moving on to yearly scans. These scans will go on for 10 years, and once year 10 hits I will be considered cured. Remember how Randy went the 9 weeks without sharing a drink with me? The week I ended treatment, we had some Yuenglings in a glass case hanging up. He drove to Lynchburg, and we got to break it open and celebrate the end of treatment with each other and multiple friends. Truly a special time.


Sharing the story for good
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” This verse that had been stuck with me from the beginning was something I finally needed to start living out. I’ve had friends, co-workers, and strangers reach out to me once they found out what I went through who were going through similar things. Whether it’s themselves or someone they love. The experience I had was able to provide some comfort to others, and I was able to use these opportunities to point people to the Lord. Since it became obvious that it was helping others out, I became more vocal about bringing it up. I’ve been able to travel to share this story in multiple countries around the world and encourage those who may either be going through something like this, or something similar someday. I am thankful for what God brought me through, and know he can bring you through your trials too. James 1 says: “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”