Serious time

I attended a cancer benefit for AJ Raebel. I went to college with him and we were friends with the same friends, but never really knew each other. AJ was most well-known for being an AMAZING football player who ended his career with the all-time career lead in tackles and solo tackles in WIAC history. AJ was diagnosed with testicular cancer and this benefit was to raise money for the various cost his family will endure during the very tough stages of treatment and chemotherapy that are sure to follow. Cancer is a horrific disease that we really haven't gotten much better about in 40 years. Conventional wisdom is to douse yourself with chemotherapy, which is poison. Theory being cancer cells will consume more of the poison than the rest of your body, therefore the cancer will get the worst of it and die off before the chemo kills your good cells. That's why survival on cancer is so dependent upon early detection.

If you know me you may or may not know my mom was diagnosed with cancer when I was in 8th grade. My mom was insistent that something wasn't right, and working at our local clinic she had a lot of opportunity to be tested. The standard mammogram showed nothing, and after convincing the doctors to do further testing, she was finally given a biopsy. A biopsy is a sampling of tissue from the site in question. The biopsy revealed nothing. My mom wasn't insistent enough, but eventually got more biopsies that revealed a very aggressive cancer. My mom was in remission, or something similar, for a little over 5 years before the cancer returned, and a few days before my 20th birthday she passed away. You know yourself better than a doctor and despite years of school, never forget that if something is wrong, something is wrong. Be insistent if you would like further testing. If that isn't working, go to a different doctor. Doctors are for the most part incredibly knowledgeable and obviously smart people, but you can question what's going on with your body. AJ has a great chance to beat this, but once again early detection played an enormous role.

Bottom line: Keep AJ in your prayers and if you know something isn't right with yourself, don't stop until all options are exhausted to prove you are healthy. Trust yourself when it comes to yourself. I'm also not trying to destroy the credibility of doctors, I just want to point out everyone is different and trust yourself.