I was born and raised in Philadelphia and grew up playing sports. Baseball and snowboarding were and still are strong passions of mine. One of the reasons I decided to get into Physical Therapy was to help athletes like myself get back onto the playing field, no matter what their interest may be. I always looked at sports as a release from any stressful situation and I also am a junkie for good competition.
On October 14th I began one of the toughest competitions I will ever be a part of. I began chemotherapy for a rare and aggressive form of testicular cancer that I was diagnosed with just 3 weeks earlier. I was left with no other option than to put aside what I was doing and face this thing head on. I had the support of my family and my amazing wife which made the whole ordeal more bearable.
I endured 3 cycles (9 weeks) of treatment and during that time, every day was harder than the last and there were times when I just wanted to call it quits. It took what little strength I had to make it through treatment after treatment. After the 9 weeks I was told that the treatments had worked and I was cancer free. Looking back, it truly has yet to hit me that I had cancer, so when I was told I was cancer free, my reaction was not as excited as one would expect.
In the end, I look at it this way. One day I will look back and it will finally hit me that I fought a battle that many people don’t have the opportunity to win. I was one of the lucky ones that had the support and the team in place to make sure that I could return to do what I love to do. With that said, I now not only look at life with a new outlook, I now have a purpose. That purpose is to do what it takes to make sure that people who are in the situation I was in have the same support I had. Therefore I now consider myself a Rider Against Cancer.
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