Drew and Me

I met Drew the February after he was diagnosed with Testicular cancer. He had just got back to working full time after Christmas. His hair was grown back already, curly blond. I noticed him right away because probably the last time I saw him he was bald. I was a receptionist at his building so I saw him walk in everyday into the Lobby and I would say "HI" or "Good Morning." He didn't actually talk to me though until February. Drew came in one morning and handed me a LIVESTRONG bracelet. LIVESTRONG is a foundation that Lance Armstrong created for the awareness of cancer and his own fight with Testicular cancer. Later that day Drew and I started to e-mail each other and he told me about his cancer and all the treatments and surgeries he had been through in the last year. I had a million questions to ask too. It was so interesting to see all that this young man had been through. He had graduated from Western Michigan University with an Engineering degree, got a great job with one of the Big 3, and then got and was fighting Testicular Cancer. I find him to this day one of the most remarkable people I have ever met. We hit it off right away and have been dating ever since, about 2 1/2 years now. The first year, things really seemed to be going OK. He still had cancer, I don't think they ever said he was in remission. In fact, I remember about a month into us dating he had a CT scan and it showed a tumor in his chest, one the doctors were concerned about, was shrinking. He gave me a Lance Armstrong book to read called, "It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life."
He said that this book would help me understand a little of what he went through and the cancer he had. It was a very insightful book and helped me get a grip on what Drew had been through.
That first year, we did a lot of things that young couples do when dating, we went to baseball games, ate at restaurants, went to some bars, etc. He of course would get winded and need to just stay home for a night because he was still sick. Drew was and still is in constant pain but he was able to control it a little more then. I can't begin to imagine how he felt or what he was thinking but things to me felt normal. Things still feel normal now, I have a boyfriend, we have little fights every once in a while, we laugh, we watch movies, we text each other and talk on the phone but he is just really sick right now. We don't go to the bars, we rarely go to movies or out to eat. But we make things work and I think our relationship is a lot stronger because of that. I think we have become best friends because of this. Cancer can't take that.
I have a lot more to write in this blog about Drew's journey with this terrible disease. I just wanted to give a background on how I came into the picture.