Joe Karasek's Life was Saved by Testicular Cancer
Joe Karasek's Life was Saved by Testicular Cancer
Welcome to Episode 61 of It Takes Balls
Joe Karasek is a testicular cancer survivor living in Florida. Joe talks about his troubled past with drugs and alcohol, being diagnosed with and treated for testicular cancer, nearly taking his own life after his orchiectomy, finding purpose and love while overcoming his disease, writing a book, and more!
Below is an excerpt from Joe’s book, “A Life with Love.”
“Every day, I wake up on a set of train tracks. My body is a wreck, barely able to move to sit up and assess the situation. I can see the lights and hear something approaching from the distance. Although it is recognizable to me, it’s still very far away. The fact it is so far away provides some kind of comfort. I feel as though there is time to get off the tracks. I’m not succumbing to the train, but it’s there. The longer I take to get up, the louder it gets, and the brighter the lights appear in my peripheral vision. The longer it takes for me to get up, the weaker it feels that I become. The strength that once existed
within me is waning, and my body cannot lift itself off the tracks. I yearn for the strength to pull myself out of this situation. If I could pray for anything in the world, it would be for the strength to lift my body off of these tracks and onto another path. For now, I lie here and wonder what I must do to summon the strength to leave. I feel as if I am here alone. I don’t have a hand to help me off of this. Even if there were a hand here, I don’t know if it would be able to lift me off of these tracks. It’s something that, in some capacity, I must do myself. As I ponder this thought, the train has gotten slightly closer to me. As I try to figure out how to get off these tracks, I am losing my most valuable asset: time. I feel like I have a lot of time, but what if that is an illusion in itself? It’s hard to see the train. It’s hard to know how fast it’s coming. There is a lot in the unknown when going through this. The train may be moving a lot faster than it once appeared. I am at mercy to my mental fortitude. There is a source of power I can tap into to get myself off these tracks before this train comes, and I must find it. I’m not sure if I know what it looks like or completely understand what it feels like.
For now, I’m trying so hard to be strong, but I’ve never been more scared.I pray every day for the strength to get through this, and I pray every day that I don’t die.
Whatever is out there, I hope to draw strength from it. The universe or God, whatever could show me the light.”
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