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Everything was going good.
I don't know that you consciously feel
like you're an untouchable. But you're young. Everything is in your favor. Four healthy kids.
I enjoy hunting.
And I was coming up on hunting season.
Everything seemed to be going real well
and then I had the knot come up on my leg.
And I didn't really give it a whole lot of thought. And I don't think at thirty-two you
do. You know I've pulled a muscle.
It'll go away.
I didn't even say anything to my wife.
And so I watched it and as it didn't go away,
I brought it to her attention. And said do you feel that on the back of my leg, but
she too thought
it'll go away.
But it didn't. It got larger.
And it got to be where you could more than feel it, you could see it.
So I had to find a primary care physician,
just to recommend me to go see a doctor to have it looked at.
And I think that doctor knew what it was
because he told me there was a possibility it may be cancer.
So he said I had to come out right away.
When I got home that night my wife had come out. And she was upset.
And we had talked out in the garage because you know,
the kids don't know anything.
It was just overwhelming the thoughts that run through your mind.
Has it spread.
Am I going to deal with this forever.
You know, why?
I was very
frustrated. It was
an inconvenience in my life.
When I met with the surgeon before surgery, he said do you have any questions.
And I said, "Are you going to get me in a deer stand in three weeks?"
And he said if you do what I tell you to do
we'll get you in a deer stand in three weeks.
I think it's just an escape from reality.
At times it could work the opposite. You're sitting up there with nothing to do but to think about it.
But for me it was...
Nobody's calling me. Nobody's talking to me. I don't have to think about it.
And I could just hunt.
I was in a lot of pain.
But I was successful.
My wife was not impressed with my determination, but
I was able to do it. So.
The cancer was a liposarcoma.
They had cut into the bend of the knee,
all the way up to just below the bottom.
Because it was so it was pressed up against the bone.
After the surgery,
the surgeon said you need to do some radiation.
I told him I worked in Alton. Then asked if there was anybody in Alton.
And he had turned me onto Saint Anthony's.
It's like a family, and they just, they seem to genuinely care about your well-being
and
makes you feel, I guess
welcome in a bad, what I would say is an unfortunate situation.
I think some people have used the term Cancer Survivor.
And I would tell my wife, what are they talking about it was a tumor that had cancer in it.
It isn't like I had cancer.
But to be a survivor means there was a chance that you may not.
And I don't know that I ever felt like I wouldn't.
Going through this put certain things in perspective.
And it's more important to just spend time with the
with the family. So in that aspect, I'm outside working in the garage and the kids will say...
Can you, can we play basketball.
And I think I really need to get this done.
But that stuffs more important than I think it use to be.
Life is what you make it. It's your attitude. It's your outlook.
Now I did not apply that same thought process when i found out that uh... that
I had cancer. But I did eventually get to the
to the place that you play the hand your dealt.
And that was the hand I was dealt.
But that won't be who I am.
It was an event.
But it won't define me.