Episode 003: Building Knowledge Beats Cancer Anxiety
Feb 23, 2018•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Episode description
In this episode, I'm talking to Mike Craycraft who turned the tables on his cancer diagnosis to transform it into a mission to help others. Mike is amazing because he puts in an incredible effort in running the Testicular Cancer Society and continuing support of folks joining the Testicular Cancer Forums. In the interview with Mike we get to hearing about:
The criticality of finding support online
How to put diagnosis into a more positive perspective
What conditional survival is and why that's important
How building knowledge beats cancer anxiety
Taking the opportunity to live a better life and help others
Links
Testicular Cancer Society
Testicular Cancer Forums
Dial It Down
Battle Scars
Full Transcript
Joe: Mike, thank you so much for doing this. I’ve been really looking forward to it. Mike, can you please tell me about yourself?
Mike: Sure. My name is Mike Craycraft. I’m a clinical pharmacist by trade and also a testicular cancer survivor. I was diagnosed in 2006 and then founded the Testicular Cancer Society after my diagnosis just because there wasn’t a whole bunch of resources available back then. I felt like with my survivor experience and healthcare knowledge, perhaps I could help make a difference.
Joe: Thanks, Mike. I know that you waited for over seven months from when you first felt a lump in your testicle until you went to the doctor. What was the time like? What was going through your head?
Mike: It was like a vicious cycle. I would actually get hot flashes at night, so my scrotum would get loser and I could feel the lump. I’d like, “I’m going to call the doctor in the morning.” I checked myself in the shower and I wouldn’t feel it and I’d go to work and I wouldn’t remember to call until it was noon, and the doctor’s office was closed. Then I’d like, “Well, okay, after lunch I’ll call.” Then I wouldn’t remember again until six o’clock at night when the doctor’s office was closed.
Then it just became this vicious cycle of just delaying, delaying, delaying. I had a whole bunch of things going on, obviously with the holidays, with Christmas, with New Years, my dad’s birthday. I kept thinking, well, after this, I’ll go to the doctor. I really don’t want to come home for Christmas and say, “Merry Christmas, your son has cancer.” The next thing I know, it was pretty quick that I realized that my delay probably had meant that I had metastatic disease and I convinced myself that I would die as a young man, to the point where I even threw my own going away party. I went back home for our Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S. and asked a friend what bar I could have.
I’m going to rent it out and buy all the drinks and I figured in a couple of months, my friends would realize that I had cancer and was dying. It was quite a hellish period for the seven months. Just not sharing with anybody. Not friends, family, doctor. Just keeping quiet and literally living like I was dying.
Joe: Horrible. It just drives you crazy, doesn’t it?
Mike: It’s a very lonely period, yes. I’m probably one of the few people that finally when the doctor said, “You have cancer”, I felt some kind of relief. Most people were shocked, and I was just like, okay, I’ve known this. You’re saying I’m going to live, well, great, can I get some money back because I just blew a whole bunch of money in the last seven months. By the way, I didn’t get any back, so don’t do what I did.
Joe: Yes, absolutely. Yes, you’re probably one of the very few people to say that. I know that your mind just plays tricks on you. I know that when I was, you know, I also had testicular cancer, and when I was in the shower and I reached down and I found it, I think the fact that really helped me was that I’m a complete hypochondriac, so thing I did the next day was I ran to the doctor immediate...
