Baseball star returns after finishing cancer treatment
Colorado Rockie's pitcher Chad Bettis is ready to return to the major leagues after taking nine months of for testicular cancer treatment.
Bettis will make a comeback on Monday night when he starts at Coors Field against the Atlanta Braves, having missed 117 games this season.
The 28-year-old finished chemotherapy in May and has been working ever since to get himself back in shape for an appearance during this season.
And it was hard. Chemotherapy left Bettis's stamina and endurance low, causing him to get tired just minutes into exercising.
But he wanted to push himself to rejoin his teammates before the season was through, as the team has a real shot of making the playoff's for the first time since 2009.
Monday will be his first game since September 30, and he is expecting it to be emotional.
'I don't want the moment to be ruined, so I'm not going to project. Whatever the moment is, I will let it be that moment,' he told the Denver Post.
Making a comeback: Chad Bettis finished chemotherapy in May and has been working ever since to get himself back in shape for an appearance during this season. He is pictured with his wife and newborn daughter Everleigh during his last chemotherapy infusion
The 28-year-old will make his return to the pitcher's mound on Monday night in his first major league game since September 30. He is pictured in the September 30 game
Bettis was diagnosed with testicular cancer on November 21, 2016, just a few days after he discovered a lump in one of his testicles.
That discovery led to a doctor visit and testing with a urologist.
While he was at dinner celebrating his first anniversary with his wife Kristina, he got the call confirming the bad news.
At the time he was just 27 years old and his wife was pregnant with their first child - a girl.
The diagnosis came just a month and a half after the final game of the 2016 season, on September 30, which Bettis started in.
Last season he finished with a career high 14 wins, 32 starts and 186 innings pitched, and was hoping this year will be just as rewarding. Bettis has been pitching for the team since 2010 when he was drafted from Texas Tech University.
He was expected to lead them into the playoffs for the first time since 2009. The team has only been in the playoffs three times, and has never won a World Series.
But his shock diagnosis put all those ambitions on hold.
Eight days after the diagnosis he went under the knife to have one of his testicles removed in hopes that would wipe out the cancer.
And at first that seemed to be the case.
Just three days before Christmas, Bettis got a call from his doctor while he was driving toward his hometown of Lubbock, Texas, to tell him it looked like he was in the clear.
'I was a truck stop outside El Paso when I got a call from my oncologist, he said "Your blood looks good and your tumor markers are all in the normal range." I took that to mean I was cancer free,' Bettis told the Post.
'I wanted to scream out. I started making phone calls because I wanted to tell people how great that moment felt.'
Testicular cancer is the most common form of the disease in men aged 15 to 35, but is only accountable for one percent of all male cancers.
It can develop in one or both testicles and, if caught early, carries a 95 percent five-year survival rate.
Bettis was diagnosed with testicular cancer on November 21, 2016, just a few days after he discovered a lump in one of his testicles. Within nine months he would undergo one surgery and 21 chemotherapy infusions. He is pictured with his wife Kristina and his daughter Everleigh on Kristina's birthday in April
TESTICULAR CANCER In the US, an estimated 8,720 men will be diagnosed with testicular cancer every year. Younger men are more likely to get testicular cancer. Almost half of those who get it are under 35. Men in their early 30s are the most likely to get testicular cancer while men over 55 are the least likely to get it. It's not fully understood what causes the disease, but there is a 95 percent five year rate of survival if it is found before it spreads. If it has metastasized there is a 71 percent five year survival rate. Source: Testicular Cancer Society
But if the cancer is metastatic it can spread to other organs such as the lymph system, the lungs, or the brain, which makes it more difficult to treat.
That's what happened to Bettis - on March 10, right in the middle of spring training, Bettis found out his cancer spread to his lymph nodes and he would have to have chemotherapy.
'People talk to be about it now, and I'm quick to say it wasn't that bad. But it was,' he told Sports Illustrated.
'I wasn't prepared for it, mentally or physically. I couldn't have been.'
Bettis was back in the hospital 10 days after hearing the news for his first chemotherapy treatment. In total he had 21 infusions of the drug over a nine week period.
His doctors put a port on the right-handed pitcher's left side under his clavicle so he could keep throwing if he felt up to it, which he says was rare.
Bettis lost all of his hair and his eyebrows and had almost no energy, though luckily he was maintain his weight at 210lbs.
'I'm not going to lie, chemo was tough, brutal at times. There were days when I didn't want to get out of bed,' he told the Post.
But the birth of his daughter Everleigh Rae just nine days after his first infusion helped him get through it.
'It was a blessing,' Bettis told Sports Illustrated.
'People stopped asking me how I was doing and started asking me about how Kristina and Everleigh were doing. I don't think she'll ever understand the impact she made on me.'
He said the birth of his daughter Everleigh Rae (pictured in her mother's arms) just nine days after his first infusion helped him get through the chemotherapy treatment. He has now been told there is a 90 percent chance the cancer will not return
On May 16 he had his final chemotherapy infusion, and tests following that treatment showed that there is a 90 percent chance the cancer won't return.
Though the comeback seemed unlikely while he was undergoing the chemotherapy, Bettis is now back in playing shape and ready to step up to the pitcher's mound.
This year's season started at the beginning of April, just after his first chemotherapy infusions. He missed the first 117 games.
Bettis told Sport's Illustrated there were moments he wasn't sure he would make it back for the season.
Though his strength held relatively steady, he found his endurance and stamina were incredibly weak, and would get winded just five minutes into exercising.
Recovery took longer than he might have wanted, but the ultimate goal was to be able to get back in the game before the season was over.