health update

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Hia, what's the crack? It's Aaron and it has been a we minute since I've come on and gave you an update. So, I've just come up to our regular coffee spot. It's quite late in the day, so I just missed the coffee shop. They're now closed and I'm pretty sure where I'm sitting is going to close in like 10 minutes. I I thought I'd come on and give you a we update. As you can tell, I am sitting in the driver's seat. This is actually me in my own car, which if you have followed me for a while, you'll know I had brain surgery two and a half years ago. And with that, they told me I wasn't allowed to drive. Took my license away understandably, and I've been waiting since then to be able to drive.

[00:00:37]And I got this car last week, this day last week, and I have loved driving it around. I've put way too many miles on it. Um, but I that's a very small we positive note um of this video. It's been nice to have that sense of independence back because you really don't realize how good you have it until you lose it. So, I've been very grateful for that. In terms of health updates, um, there is no difference with myself.

[00:01:08]My next MRI is next week and it's every 6 months. If this one is clear, then they're going to reduce it to once a year, which is unreal. The update that I do have is something that I don't think anyone would ever expect, unfortunately.

[00:01:24]Um, and I remember the doctor said to us, um, lightning just happened to strike twice, which is just I don't know. So, unfortunately, Devon has cancer.

[00:01:42]And saying those words, it's like I feel like anyone that's been in this position will know what I mean when I say it sounds like a lie. Like, it's just so unbelievable. It's so hard to believe.

[00:01:54]It just feels like a lie when you're saying it at the start. And it was like that with myself, too. So, it just comes with time. But, they found my brain tumor when I was 26. Devon's 26 now. and they're telling him that he has cancer and we were just like in absolute shock.

[00:02:12]So he started fighting his cancer in February. That's when everything started and he knew something wasn't wasn't good. There's a lot of similar experiences between him and myself where the doctors were saying your symptoms don't line up and you're too young and all that kind of stuff and then again whenever they do the scans they they see it for what it is. So, as of right now, we have his surgery date. Um, it's a few weeks from now. And they said that from the blood test that they did, they know the tumor markers in the results mean that he will need chemo, but they just don't know how much chemo yet. Um, so he does have testicular cancer, which is a really, really treatable cancer.

[00:03:03]It's a really like no one wants any kind of cancer, but it's a very very highly treatable one, which is good, but it just seems like it's going to be quite a long road for him. But we we hope that that's not the case. We hope that in an ideal world, he just has surgery and the doctors were wrong and he doesn't need to go through chemo. But if he does need chemo, that he only needs a few rounds of it. He might only need one round. So, we won't know until after the biopsy, after his surgery. It's been a really difficult time. Like, he's so young and we feel like we just had a breather from recovering from my journey. And so, for us to to go right back to all the hospital appointments and all that kind of stuff, it was just like whiplash. And not just for myself and Devon, but for my family, too, where we were all just kind of like, "Yep, we all feel the exact same way." Like my brother was saying, like he didn't know that he had that feeling still in him. And I feel like other people won't get it. Maybe you will. I don't know. But I feel like I wouldn't have got it in the past, but I know exactly what my roller means where it's the same feeling, the same anxiety, the same feeling of kind of numbness whenever they tell you it. And I could remember feeling it, but I didn't realize that I still had it in me as well until they told us that news. And it just was like we had just pressed play again. So Devon is very positive as he should be. He is gonna fight it and he's going to be absolutely grand, but he's quite uncomfortable right now and he goes through days of being in pain more so than others. So, he's kind of struggling with with not being at work and stuff like that. He really misses it. No one in the world deserves to have cancer. Not a single soul in the world, but least of all Devon, honestly. And he was my absolute rock for me when I was going through my health journey. And it is so difficult to see the switch. Not that I'm not there for him. Like I would kill someone to be there for him obviously, but I found it easier for me to be the one that was not well. I find it a lot more difficult for me to know that he's not well and to see him going to the appointments and stuff like that.

[00:05:35]That's been quite a difficult part of it. We are feeling very positive. I know that he is going to absolutely kill it. He has a surgery coming up. He would love to have had his surgery yesterday to get it out of the way so that he wasn't so uncomfortable and wasn't in pain, but I'm trying to take comfort in the fact that they're not rushing it. There was a concern in his CT where there is swollen lymph nodes and they're a bit worried that that might be the cancer starting to spread. And this type of cancer is a microscopic cancer that spreads through the blood vessels and they go to your lymph nodes and it was lymph nodes in his abdomen and that is where this cancer goes to first or usually it does.

[00:06:25]So that is a concern as well. They said they don't know if he'll need radiation or not. I don't think that that is usually done anymore for this type of cancer. So, we're obviously hoping that that's not the case, but we're just taking it back to surgery, biopsy, waiting the two weeks, and hopefully it is 2 weeks this time, and then going from there. I'm not a particularly happy video, but we are feeling very positive about it. I had absolutely no idea what to say for this video. It's there's not an easy way of wording it. We're definitely still in shock and trying to process it, but my family were saying to us, you know, it's important to raise awareness and stuff like that. And it's just it's unbelievable that the two of us have went through this within the space of 2 years and both of us were still in our 20s and it's just so much. So, if there's anyone else that's facing that on their own or facing it with their partner and they're in the same situation as us that this would be helpful to them or it makes people be a we bit more mindful to be aware of your symptoms. You know, when we went to the doctor originally for Devon, they had said to him it was an infection. So, he got antibiotics. The antibiotics didn't work. Then we went to the emergency room or A&E and the first doctor was like, "Your symptoms don't line up to infection, but they don't line up to cancer, so we don't really know." So he ended up bringing two other doctors in and the three doctors disagreed on what their their thought process was. One was convinced it was still an infection even though he had had antibiotics and his blood tests were coming back with no infection. Another one was convinced that it was a stomach ulcer and kidney stones and one of them was convinced it was like an injury.

[00:08:16]There was a million things being thrown out there, but they all agreed that he needed an ultrasound. And so then when we had the ultrasound the next day, they immediately sent him for a CT and they knew from then. But we had heard with my situation and Evans, you're too young and your symptoms don't match up. This is your reminder that you're better safe than sorry. Do not feel like you're being dramatic. If you can feel something, if you have a symptom, like that is a symptom and you should be heard on it. Even if a doctor doesn't necessarily think that it's going to line up to something. One situation where that happens is rare, but two is just unbelievable.

[00:08:53]So, I I wasn't really sure what to say in this video, but any prayers is appreciated. Send all your good vibes Devon's way. you know, whether you manifest it or you pray or whatever you do, we would appreciate it just to have nice thoughts, nice energy coming our way. And I if if Devon is feeling up for it, then we might share a we bit more.

[00:09:18]If he's not, then we might not. Um we're just going to see see how it goes and and how he's feeling. But hopefully the next video I post is saying that Devon has fully recovered from his surgery and is absolutely bouncing back and that everything is grand. So I again sorry that it's not the nicest video, nicest update, but um we didn't want to ignore it either and pretend like it's not happening. So I if you've made it to the end of this video, thank you very much for watching and I will see you next time when I have good news for you. Bye-bye.