Cancer and Owning a Business
Still frame from my last vlog about my testicular cancer journey.
All my life I’ve considered myself fairly lucky when it comes to health, so when I went to the doctor at the end of May 2019 to be seen about something that had been at the back of my mind for the previous two years I was confident it wouldn’t be diagnosed as testicular cancer. I was wrong.
Everything in my life, both personally and professionally, had been going so well. As a company we were about to take on our largest job so far with Continental Pools - our first job for which we would travel out-of-state to shoot. I’d been working with the company’s liaison to prepare for every hiccup I thought we may or may not encounter. The one I didn’t see coming was the one that would take me out of commission for the rest of 2019.
Four days after my 25th birthday and a couple weeks before the shoot, I had to have an orchiectomy - a surgery to remove my left testicle which contained the cancerous mass. I still planned on going to Maryland with the crew to help in the production in a supervisory position until my surgeon told me that 1) I shouldn’t stray far from home in case of post-op emergency and 2) I needed to have follow-up scans and appointments to determine whether or not the cancer had spread to my retroperitoneal lymph nodes. I was devastated that I couldn’t go, but I was confident that my partners and crew would deliver a fantastic product.
It was predetermined that Victor would DP this project and we’d contracted Jeremy Bates to direct the project. In my absence we called the audible to also include two film students from Old Dominion University to act in production assistant roles. Caitlin Whitaker and Katie Lange answered the call and exceeded expectations. We also brought on Nate Villaire as an AC. Everyone kept me updated on how the shoot was going and I was able to assist remotely when needed with administrative duties.
I’m extremely thankful to the ODU film department for facilitating the connections we’ve made with Jeremy, Caitlin, Katie, and Nate because they made it possible for us to continue our year-over-year growth even when I was out the rest of the year between chemotherapy and a Retroperitoneal Lymph Node Dissection (RPLND) - another surgery to remove a cancerous mass in the back of my abdomen.
For the remainder of the year I was handling administrative tasks while Victor and crew worked on projects such as the testimonial for Frog-Skin, where Caitlin and Katie also offered production assistant services.
During the time when I was out, I made vlogs documenting my journey in hopes of raising awareness about testicular cancer. I shot most of these on my iPhone but the last one Victor and I produced more professionally. You can view these vlogs and more about my story at the links below:
VB man and WAVY director shares battle with testicular cancer
Testicular Cancer Vlog #1 - 17 Days Post-Orchiectomy
Testicular Cancer Vlog #2 - Backstory
Testicular Cancer Vlog #3 - Travis Pastrana, Smagical and Friends Shave My Head
Testicular Cancer Vlog #4 - Cycle 1 Update
Testicular Cancer Vlog #5 - Cycle 2 Update
Testicular Cancer Vlog #6 - That’s a Wrap
I’ve been given the all-clear and will continue to have follow-ups to keep any instance of it potentially coming back at bay. I plan to continue to use my platform and resources together to create more awareness for testicular cancer so stay tuned for that. Please feel free to donate to my Facebook Fundraiser I’m running for the Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation!
-Steven Crocker
