Wait.. We All Have Cancer?!

Boy do I have some funny stories to tell you. Is it messed up that I am writing a blog about cancer and people walk away laughing? Oh well! That is just the way I roll. 

If you know me at all then you know how late I stay up. I don't really know why, but I have hated going to sleep recently? It is the weirdest thing. I just feel like there are better things that I could be doing! So that leads me to staying up way later than I should. One night I found myself trying to make a 3-D representation of my tumor with paper and tape... I got about half way done when I realized that I had a problem and promptly went to bed. Haha! I usually listen to music because that seems to help, but I got pretty frustrated with spotify. They really seem to have a playlist for EVERYTHING... except "I just found out I have cancer". If anyone comes across that playlist, let me know.

I don't know about you.. but I have been doing great. Wow. There are so many amazing people out there. Countless people have done some really nice things for me. All from bringing me dinner, to singing me songs in my front yard. If you ever feel down about the wicked people out there.. come talk to me. I know some pretty awesome people that will restore your hope in humanity. That was a cool lesson I learned. It isn't always the big things that make a difference. The little things really help too! One of my friends (Connor White) came and sat with me for an hour and we literally did nothing. But it was just what I needed!! Just some food for thought, little things make a difference for people.

Enough rambling. Here is the update on my situation. I met with a new doctor!!! Fun fact about this new guy, he likes to eat mustard packets. Anyway, we found out that they still don't know what kind of cancerous tumor it is? They are pretty sure that it is a PNET (still not exactly sure what that means). Once they hear back from the pathologist in Georgia and know for sure what it is, I will start treatments. I will probably start chemo next week sometime! He started talking to me about the side effects of chemo, and it is going to suck. Haha! There really is no way around that. The way he described it was comical though. He started off with "Yeah you won't have hair for sure", and then talked about nausea and fatigue, etc. I was like, "I knew all of this from google, come on doc! Tell me something I don't know". Well be careful what you wish for there Sean. The next thing he mentioned made my jaw drop. He said, "by the way... you might be sterile after this, and you won't be able to have kids". WHAT?! Google did not mention that. 

Then he told me that I will need to go to a sperm bank this next week just in case. Just when I thought having cancer was the absolute worst... he had to throw in the sperm bank thing. Oh it was really funny though! My friend Amanda was with my parents and I again, and my mom asked the question of the century after he told me to go to the sperm bank. She says, "So how do they go about getting that out?". Shoot me now. I guess you could say it was pretty awkward. I won't tell you how he responded to that question, but we all had a good laugh about it afterwards. 

The plan for now is to start chemo for 12 weeks, then do the surgery and recover for 6 weeks, which will be followed with 16 more weeks of chemo. Before this whole cancer thing I was stressing because I didn't know what to do with my life, but now at least I know what I am doing with my life? Hahaha!

OH. I had been trying to get in touch with one of my really good friends. I hadn't been able to tell him the news, and he never gets on Facebook. So one night he finally answered his phone! I broke the news to him... and he told me that he had cancer too. What are the odds of that?! He said he was even starting chemo at the same time. I was freaking out! Then he said that his grandpa just died of cancer.. and he was kind of laughing. He was either pulling my leg, or just really twisted. Then I realized what was going on... I called him on April Fools Day. Ahhhhh... I tried to convince him for ten minutes, but he wasn't buying it. I finished the conversation with "You are gonna feel really stupid tomorrow".. but lets be real... that was my fault. 

Colton Broadbent and family made some sweet bracelets!! They say "SeanStrong" on them.

I am passing them out to everyone who wants to help support the cause! When you get one, I want you to think about something. I have realized that we all have our own "cancer". Everyone has trials and struggles right? Well figure out what your cancer is. It could be low self esteem, or maybe it is a bad habit? Just something that you want to change about yourself. Pick something? Good. Well I am going to start chemotherapy soon to fight this cancer... and I want you to do the same thing. You will be starting your own chemo with me!! Whatever "medicine" you need to fight your specific cancer, use that method to KILL your cancer. Because we are gonna overcome this together. So now every time you look at that red bracelet on your wrist, remember that we are killing our own (different) cancers together. 

We all have trials but it is my belief that we "can-cer vive" anything that life tries to throw at us. Just remember that life is whatever we make it. I choose to make it good, cancer and all.