The Backstory

It was 2009 when it started. I was working out in the Alberta Oilfields for an engineering firm. Tough as nails, bulletproof and 22 years old. Had the world by the scruff of the neck and had really found my stride in life. Times were simple, times were good. Went home to small town nowhere British Columbia for a visit with the parents, that is when the headaches started, terrible uncontrollable headaches, eat half a bottle of tylenol and try to lay down for some brief moments of relief. I went to the hospital after much prompting. They were somewhat concerned and lined up some CT testing, the headaches worsened and after a night of eating my way to the bottom of a bottle of T3's and vomiting them up like clockwork I decided that it may just be time to go into the Emergency. From emergency I was thrown in an ambulance and sent to the closest medical center for more testing, withing a handful of hours I was diagnosed with Cancer. The weight that is asserted onto your body with that declaration of having cancer, unfathomable. I was loaded into yet another ambulance and transported to the regional airport where I was put onto a Lear Jet and sent to Vancouver, upon arrival I was diagnosed with brain cancer and told I must undergo immediate craniotomy or else the consequences would be fatal. Within 24 hours of having problems in my home town I was 1000 kilometers away, under the knife and having the first of four brain tumors removed. Can you believe that, headache one day, having a man drill through your skull to pull out a golf ball sized tumor that has caused extensive hemorrhaging the next day? Yeah, neither could I. What followed was a drug induced 4 month stupor as I had another three brain tumors removed and very aggressive chemotherapy. I felt like hell and slept for a majority of that 4 months. Life events passed with me in a deep drug induced stupor, my birthday, valentines, winter turned to spring, spring turned to summer. And yet I made it through, ten feet tall and bulletproof, an anomaly, a miracle. The next 4 years passed by quickly, I went on many hunting trips, flying deep into the bush looking for adventure, snowshoeing out to remote cabins for weekends, travelling solo through Europe, going to Thailand, Taiwan, South Korea, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Sweden. I was proof of a miracle, proof of life. Everything took on a different feeling, I felt more and more blessed for every day that I was given. Each day being more glorious than the last, more promising than the last. Late into the 4th year of remission some negative blood work came back and I was told the cancer had returned to my lungs. With tumors still riddling my body it felt like it was just a matter of time before something like this happened. Over 50 tumors in my spine alone and dispersed through my lungs, lymph system and brain, this still came as a shock. "The cancer has returned" I had minor lung surgery and had the bottom lobe of my left lung cut out, we were hopeful that was it, we were positive, we were wrong. The ensuing bloodwork showed that the cancer tumor markers were still on the rise, I returned for more lung surgery, this time through an 8 inch incision and cutting out 50% of my lung. That was okay, take that cancerous prick out anyways. After 3 weeks of recovery I was told that alas the cancer markers are still growing. They went from 4000 to 9000 to a new high of 29,000. I have been committed to the BC Cancer Agency, back to this place where the smell of piss and death is right outside your door, where you wake up and hear people crying out at night. One of the most depressing places I have been. I look back and realize that it has been 5 years to the day since I was first diagnosed. Now isn't that just adding insult to injury. Right now I am just undergoing testing but I am supposed to be starting chemo by the weeks end. They say it will be more intensive than last time, that I will need to donate bone marrow because the chemo will kill all of my blood cells and bone marrow and they need to reinject me with healthy bone marrow after the testing. I have went through this hell once before, I cannot believe that I am going through it again. I will be strong, I will not back down, Bring on the poison....