Dill pickles gave me cancer...

Greetings, and welcome to my first blog entry. I would like to take you on a journey back in time, when my adventure with cancer first began.

For those of you who do not know me, my wife Jessica and I are active military in the United States Air Force. Prior to moving to Arizona, we were stationed at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi Mississippi. This journey of our life lasted from 2012 through 2016. It was there in Biloxi where this story begins...

Jessica and I were on the tail end of our four year tour at Keesler Air Force Base. I was in my fourth and final year as a Professional Military Education - Instructor at the Mathies Noncommissioned Officer Academy. Those last twelve months were stressful. We knew we were up for orders to move, had just purchased an investment property, both actively perusing our graduate degrees, juggling the kids' school programs with Connor's football and, oh, by the way, I had just quit smoking.

That last item... the smoking! If you didn't know, I was a smoker for the better part of seventeen years. I had started smoking in high school and it followed me into my military career. If was great! The lifestyle of a military firefighter and smoking seemed to go together like peanut-butter and jelly. There was nothing better than sitting around the "smoke pit" joking and sharing stories with the guys (and gals) you accepted as honorary family members. There was something magical about the bond created among military members that occurs while huddled around the picnic table, bench, or whatever was available in that area designated specifically for smokers. If you needed legal counsel, you got it at the smoke pit. If you needed marital advice, you got it at the smoke pit. If you needed to rant and rave about your leaderships' bullshit tasks... you could do it at the smoke pit. Smoking was my ticket to a healthy social wellness.

Doctors will tell you that anything bad for you will eventually catch-up to you. Guess what? They are right! By the time I hit my thirties, my smoking habit was having a negative impact on my physical wellness. I guess my body could no longer recover like it did when I was in my twenties. I was getting short of breath when climbing stairs, struggling to run my mile and a half run, and woke-up every morning coughing on nasty phlegm build-up. I decided it was time to quit. I had tried quitting twice before, using Chantix to help, but I don't think I was truly ready to give-up my social cancer stick. This time, I knew I was ready. I used the Chantix again for the third time, but only got through two weeks of taking the medicine before I finally quit for good. I was finally free of the addiction and guilt. Best part, I was saving money and no longer smelled like an ashtray. The only drawback... I wanted to eat everything!

Cutting a habit like smoking after seventeen years definitely has its drawbacks. The rumor about gaining weight is real. My appetite has always been "healthy," but after I quit smoking, I was like Agustus Gloop in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. I ate all the time. Not only did I eat, I ate out way more than I should have. My love for Gulf Coast fried seafood, Korean, and craw-fish had me throwing on the L-B's like it was the cool thing to do! At one point, I got heavily involved with eating sunflower seeds.

Right around the time I decided to help coach Connor's football team, I picked-up the habit of chewing sunflower seeds. Not just a handful once in awhile like a normal person, but multiple bags of the things each week. If you didn't know, sunflower seeds have come a long way since the 90's when I played youth sports. They have tons of flavors: bacon (yum), ranch (yum), Old Bay Seasoning (okay), cracked pepper (yum), and DILL PICKLE!! Now, I know what you're thinking..."dill pickle sunflower seeds?" Those are by far the best flavor seeds I have ever had in all my life! I couldn't get enough of them. I ate bags an bags and bags of those things. I was spittin' seed shells all day long. I would be willing to bet I ate millions of Dill Pickle sunflower seeds in the eighteen months I spent knocking out my master's degree. It was during this time that my doctor told me for the first time that my cholesterol was high. Well....duh! I could have been drinking sea water and had less sodium than those seeds. Anyways... I ate a lot of them, and over time, I could tell something wasn't right in my mouth.  

After a couple million sunflower seeds, it wouldn't be too hard to convince someone that all that sodium and sharp shells would eventually do a number on the inside on one's mouth. I sat at my computer one day and noticed there was a touch patch of skin running along the bottom of my tongue. I took a look in the mirror and it looked like there was a patch of what could be a callus or build-up of skin on the bottom of my tongue. I did what any smart person would do; I went to the doctor. I returned to my computer and immediately asked Dr. Google what this callus might be. He refereed me to WebMD, another wise and all knowing doctor. Here, I discovered that it could be a couple different things. I tried to match each diagnosis to pictures on the internet. Unfortunately I was not having much luck. I then came across the "c" word... CANCER! Cancer? Dill Pickles did not give me cancer! That was crazy talk. Just for giggles... I looked up pictures of tongue cancer on Google. WOW... those picture look a lot like my tongue. It can't be. There are NO documented cases of people getting cancer from Dill Pickle flavored sunflower seeds... I was in denial.