About Casey's Fight
About The Fight
In late April 2023, our world flipped.
A little tightness in my lower belly turned into four words nobody wants to hear: stage IV colon cancer.
From that day on, everything centered on one goal. Become cancer’s enemy. Build a team. Learn fast. Move faster.
Early on, a man who had walked this road gave me his best advice: “Do not give it a seat at your table.” We have not. I am not a statistic. I am not content for some search engine. Cancer is not a friend. It is an enemy. We do not give it an inch.
The First Push: 2023 to early 2024
I went straight into aggressive bi-weekly chemo. More than 22 rounds in that first stretch. I kept training, kept riding, and kept eating like an athlete. Every follow-up CT showed the same story. Sites shrinking. No new growth. Life of struggle paid off. My body and mind knew how to fight.
By nine months in, I was approved for a surgery I had been told would never be an option. If it worked, I could wake up with no visible cancer. I doubled down. Best shape possible, physically and mentally.
April 25, 2024: The Big Cut
Seven hours on the table in Pittsburgh.
Twelve inch midline incision, 38 staples.
Bowel resection with no ostomy.
Liver resection.
Omentum removed.
A few other fixes while they were in there.
Eight nights in the ICU. A few more on the floor. Then home. Sore, lighter, alive.
May 8, 2024: No Evidence of Disease
Post-op, my lead surgeon told us the words we had been swinging for. No Evidence of Disease. We moved to clean-up chemo to hunt anything microscopic that might still be hiding. I kept moving. I kept writing. I started laying bricks for what was next.
Spring 2025: A New Twist
In May 2025, a CT read stable, but my tumor markers crept up. A PET scan flagged a few small areas of concern. They showed up while I was on chemo, which points to resistance or mutation.
I met with one of the top young-onset colon cancer oncologists in the world. She and my primary agreed. The path forward is grit. We will cycle through less common options to hold the line while new doors open.
Current Plan
Right now I am on Lonsurf plus Avastin. The mission is simple. Keep the disease at bay and keep moving.
Today
Physically, I am still rolling. Still training. Still getting on the bike. Treatments punch holes in the week, but there is a rhythm now. I am not chasing perfection. I am keeping cadence. Move when I can. Rest when I have to. Repeat.
Mentally, I cut the noise. My people and my purpose get the focus. The rest can go. Some days feel like a full pack uphill. Some days I could bottle the clarity. Either way, I make my own heat. One honest push forward.
There are quiet wins. A session I almost skipped but finished. A chapter that finally clicked. A message from someone who said my story helped them keep going. Those matter.
If you take one thing from this, let it be this. I am still here. Still in the fight. Still building what is next. Whatever you are pushing through, stop waiting for it to get easy. It is not coming. Show up anyway. Show up tired. Show up unsure. Show up.
More to come.
— Casey
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In late April 2023, our little world got flipped upside down. What started as a little tightness in my lower belly and a trip to my doctor turned out to be stage IV colon cancer diagnosis.
Since that appointment, our lives have been a whirlwind of information, education, determination, and team work all centered around a goal of becoming cancers enemy.
I’ve completed 22+ rounds of aggressive chemotherapy and have had 3 follow-up CT scans which have each showed that the sites continue to shrink and no new sites are forming.
Early on, I met with an individual with a similar diagnosis and I asked him for his #1 tip - “Do not give it a seat at your table.” So, we haven’t.
I am not cancer. I am not a made up clickbait statistic by whatever site has the biggest search engine marketing budget. Cancer is not my friend. It’s my enemy. So, we haven’t spoken about it much. We’re in the fight and we’re going to win - we’re not giving it a fucking inch.
My team and I believe that a reason I’ve been able to tolerate and rebound quickly between these bi-weekly treatments is my relationship with exercise, nutrition, and struggle. I’m very thankful for a life that has contained struggle, as it has prepared me challenging things. I am very thankful for being able to continue exercising (with few exceptions) throughout treatment thus far.
A former coach of mine had a quote that I think about every day. “What do we do when things go bad? The same we do when things are going right. It’s about Composure.”
We’re built for the fight.
This post is not a call for sympathy. We’re doing just fine. Life is good. This is a call to arms for my friends and family - Now is the time to make time. ❤️ Friends, Family, Forever.
March 2024 Update
“Cancer didn’t make me a warrior.”
This came to me on a ride in December.
You have to be a warrior before the sound of gun fire or the first spear is thrown. Your battle doesn’t make you a warrior. You battle because you are one already.
These gloves… man, they’ve been through it. The nosebleeds from my treatment, often come out of nowhere. Imagine the sight… 270lb tattooed, bearded ginger in spandex rolling at 21mph on a bike that weighs less than his ear lobes, with globs of Kleenex hanging out of both noses and blood covered American flag gloves. It’s happened…. Often since I started treatment. Wash the gloves, and more blood. But, that’s part of the game. That’s part of the journey.
The learning curve has been wild. Learning what my body can do today and then tossing it out, relearning again tomorrow. With this, I’ve had to keep my eyes pointed FORWARD. Away from the enemy. I’m out running the enemy, I know I am, so it’s needless to look back.
These blood soaked gloves are going on my wall, because we just turned a chapter.
After 9+ months of chemo... 20+ rounds of chemo, (and almost 2000 miles of cycling while under treatment), we didn’t quit pushing. 9 months with no solid long term plan from the medical side. We found ways to endure longer and continue on. Sometimes, you have to take the wheel and make your own plan.
Last week, I was approved by the surgical oncology board at Allegheny Health in Pittsburgh to have a procedure done, that if effective would leave me cancer free when I wake up. The cancer has been receptive to “first line” treatment (all sites have reduced in size) and have shown zero growth or spread over the 9 months. For this, they’ve agreed to plan on removing the tumors entirely via surgery.
We’re locked in for some dates in April (almost 1 year to the day from my original diagnosis) and they say they want me in the best physical and mental shape possible going into it. So that’s where I’ll be.
Thank you for the love and support. I’m posting this because you guys have kept me with my foot on the gas. Thank you.
“All I want to do is the most.” - Mac Miller