Ever since I was three years old basketball was my passion, that's all I ever knew and all I ever wanted to do.

In July of 2002, I started feeling pain while with my high school basketball team at Gonzaga University.  It wasn't just any pain, this pain was severe.  It kept me from sleeping and even walking at times.  Unfortunately, my time there at Gonzaga was the last time I would ever step on the court again. After seeing multiple specialists, I was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma on Oct 14^th, 2002.  Osteosarcoma is a rare form of bone cancer that strikes less than a thousand people a year.

In August of 2003, my body was tested and was found "clean" of cancer.  I continued to do therapy on my knee, and started to get back into shape once again.  Although I was given the "clean" bill of health, there were still scares of cancer.  And the new knee joint had set backs as well.

In August of 2005, I began a new chapter of my life by attending ASU.  I thought for sure that I had turned the page as far as cancer goes.  At school, due to the size of the campus I walked miles every day.  That took a toll on my "new" knee joint.  I asked the doctor if the chronic knee pain would ever go away and unfortunately it's just something I had to deal with.  That winter the pain was severe.  I found out that my knee cap was detached from my knee itself causing extraordinary amounts of pain, but I chose not to drop out of school and had the surgery in May of 2006. Up to that point, I had a total of 8 surgeries.

I recovered from that surgery, and I went over a year without any complications, and in July of 2007, I was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma once again.  This time the pain was much more severe, and in three different locations.  I had no idea that I had Osteosarcoma, because 95% of the time Osteosarcoma metastasizes in the lungs.

In August of 2007, I began my journey with chemotherapy.  This time the doctors were not optimistic about the outcome.  I also struggled with optimism at this point because I had mentored two other patients that had succumbed to this disease.

After 4 months of chemotherapy and dieting, I received unusual results.  The tumors all began to shrink.  The medical staff was pleasantly surprised as well because this form of cancer is very deadly when it comes back.  At this point, the first of my three scheduled surgeries is scheduled for Jan 31, 2008.  The initial surgery will be very complicated; the surgeon will remove my hip and half of my pelvis.  He will replace it with artificial bone and joints.  I will also undergo two more surgeries, if everything goes as planned that will remove a rib on each side.  I'm "mildly" optimistic about the outcome because the survival rate is still at a slim 20% if all goes well.

The staff that is performing all the procedures is very well known; but because my case is very rare, they have no guidelines to follow for this type of cancer.  I'm set on returning to school this next August at ASU, so chemotherapy will likely continue up to that date.

After returning to ASU, I plan on graduating two years later.  I want to pursue a "normal" life and giving back to my community.  I thought about pursuing basketball as a career maybe in the management side, but my options are open as far as a career goes.  I continue to take one day at a time and know that God has a plan. I also know that this cancer is bigger than I am and want to find a cure for this disease.