I’m a 10 Year Survivor of Testicular Cancer! Welcome To My Website!

About Steve Pake.com

I was diagnosed with a Stage IIB Non-Seminoma Germ Cell Tumor (90% Embryonal Carcinoma, 10% Yolk Sac, no Teratoma) back in February of 2011 at the age of 33, and thought my life was over before I had even truly started living it. This is my story of life as a young adult cancer survivor.

I went through EPx4 chemotherapy followed by the RPLND surgery and thought I was all done, only to be completely blindsided by all of the challenges of life after cancer. I was afraid for my life through every ache, pain, and surveillance scan, suffered from anxiety that I didn’t know how to deal with, depression when I had never been depressed before in my life, and also suffered from PTSD that was so bad that I had contemplated suicide at one point. Imagine surviving cancer and being a hero in the eyes of many, only for the rigors of life as a young adult cancer survivor push you so low that you were ready to end it all. That was me just yesterday. All this from a highly curable “good risk” cancer with a 90%+ cure rate. There is no easy cancer. 

It was only through the support of my wife, the love of my family and some truly amazing friends, that I managed to find my way back through all of this. Although I still had a long ways to go, I was inspired to start writing and sharing my story with the world, and the result is the award-winning website that you’re reading now. Testicular and young adult cancers are exceedingly rare life experiences to have, and younger men especially can have trouble finding the support that they need, and coping with terrible emotions that they never knew they had. Many suffer in silence as a result, and that’s why I do what I do. My website and writing has saved lives.

No matter what someone might be facing, I want them to know that they’re never alone, and that yes, even invincible young men like yourselves can be feeling what you’ve been feeling after cancer. I’m here to help fellow survivors find their paths forward.

Cancer Blogs

I’ve done a ton of writing about cancer over the years, over a hundred thousand words worth! From dealing with anxiety, depression, PTSD, and so many mental health issues, to the physical challenges of life as a young adult cancer survivor, there’s few bases I haven’t covered, and they’re all here for you.

The first link below is my manual archive page through which you can search everything. The other links below cover my most recent cancer blogs, which have slowed to a trickle at 8 years out, and then a few pages that contain a collection of my blogs on various topics. My Testicular Cancer Awareness Month blogs are a collection of blogs for both patients and survivors and the public that I like to try to share every April, to help educate the world both about Testicular Cancer, and what young adult cancer survivors face in the aftermath. The last link is a page that contains just my essay series about PTSD after cancer, which is some of the most difficult writing that I’ve ever done. Many of us experience this, and it can easily be worst than cancer itself, because we have no idea what we’re even up against, or how to fight back. These essays have saved lives.

For Wives, Moms, girlfriends, Caregivers, And Loved Ones

It’s funny that I end up talking to more women about testicular cancer than men. It’s highly likely that your male species loved one is going to internalize everything, and that they won’t have even the slightest clue about what they’re feeling, how to deal with it, or how to even express it, much less admit to anything at all. Men are just socially conditioned to never show any emotion, but we all feel the same things inside regardless of gender and so many other made up differences. Our humanity binds us regardless of race, gender, skin color, wealth, religion, upbringing, or anything else. I honestly feel as though this is an evolutionary trait of human beings as a whole as well, to always appear “strong” to the outside world, even as we’re crumbling inside. I’m a Scorpio. I’ve always felt things ten times stronger than most, so when the fit really hit the shan, I had to find an outlet for everything that I was feeling inside, because otherwise I was going to blow. That’s the kind of energy that I put into all of my writing.

If you find something on my website that you think might help your loved one, send it to them. They might just read it, and even if they don’t say anything, it could help find their way. Often times, just knowing that they’re not alone is all they might need. Once in awhile I hear back from your loved ones, and it’s a blessing to know that I’ve helped pull more than a few people out of some very deep and dark downward spirals with my writing.

Testicular Cancer Summit of 2017

In 2017, I Co-Founded and Chaired the Testicular Cancer Summit with fellow 44-year testicular cancer survivor Ron Bye, which was the first time that doctors, patients, survivors, caregivers, and advocates from all over the world assembled for an incredible weekend under one roof.

I managed to meet Ron by pure chance all the way around the world in Singapore or all places! Little did either of us know at the time that we had both long aspired to put together a national or even international testicular cancer event for survivors everywhere. When Ron called me a few months after our chance encounter about doing something like this, not only did he have me at hello, but we immediately found ourselves completely on the same page as the other, as we had both had already put so much thought into this long before we had ever met! What an amazing synchronicity! Together we developed this first international and independent Testicular Cancer Summit event, open to all, and with the help from the amazing team that we put together from across the testicular cancer community.

The first Summit was a success beyond anyone’s wildest dreams, and was so much greater than the sum of all of its parts. The Summit lives on under slightly different name(s) and management today, and even though neither of us are involved or attend, you should definitely plan to go to at least one of them sometime if you can.

It was a great honor to have evolved our entire community with these events for the sake of all we serve past, present, and future.

Fun Things And Other Interests

I purposely self-named my website and didn’t give it a testicle or “ball” theme, as I never wanted it to be about just cancer, because how depressing would that be? My website isn’t just an award-winning cancer blog, but a blog about life and living it as well.

It doesn’t matter if we had a “good cancer” (there’s no such thing), nor how good our prognosis might. As young adult cancer survivors, we never really feel like we have more than about a 50/50 chance of making it, and I felt that way for years even with everything in my favor. It’s only since I’ve turned 40 that I’ve started to believe that maybe I’ll be around for a little while longer. It’s important for all of us to get out there and live our lives to the best of our abilities and the best we know how, to enjoy our friends, families, and loved ones, and to try to make a difference in the world in some way, because in the end those are the only things that are going to matter. Did you love, were you loved in return, and did you make a difference? That’s all it is, so get after it!

Life is crazy, and human beings are especially crazy, and sometimes I write about the insanity of the world we live in in the “Life” section of my website. Warning. It’s unfiltered, not politically correct, and commonly loaded with f-bombs.

I’m a “big time” photographer, have an entire cabinet full of high end camera bodies and lenses, and sneer at even the latest iPhone 11 Pro triple cameras (pfft!) I’m usually too busy shooting to ever write about photography much, but occasionally I get a blog up, which you can check out in my Photography section. The real place to check out my photography are in the yearly “2019” type pages, which are pages of photo albums from the year for friends, family, and readers to check out and enjoy.

We’ve also become dog owners as of December 2017, when we brought home an adorable mini Goldendoodle puppy! He’s “all growed up” now, and has been an amazing addition to our family, but I have a few pages for him too, and try to put some new photos up of him every once in awhile.

My Social Media Pages

NEW SOCIAL MEDIA - As of 2020 you can now follow me on Gab @K2xxSteve

JUNE 2020: I HAVE NOW PERMANENTLY DELETED MY FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, AND TWITTER ACCOUNTS.

Sign up on Gab and follow me if you want to see dailyish cool photography (travel/food/adventures/dogs), cancer support blogs, or interact with me in cancer support groups that I’ve setup. You can also securely and privately message me on Gab via their Chat platform which offers end-to-end encryption that no one else can read. Read my blog here about why I’ve switched to Gab.

Testicular Cancer Support Groups

The TC-Cancer.com web forum has been around for ages, and is anonymous. Recently I’ve created some cancer support groups on both the new Gab.com open source social media platform and Telegram, where not only can you sign up anonymously, but you can also privately and securely message me as well.

TC-Cancer.com Web Forum
Gab.com: Testicular Cancer Fighters and Survivors Support
Gab.com: Young Adult Cancer Survivors Lounge
Gab.com: Cancer Fighters and Survivors Unite!
Telegram: Testicular Cancer Support
Telegram: Young Adult Cancer Chat

Note that while there are some decent Testicular Cancer support groups on Facebook, I can no longer recommend or support these groups due to the gross invasions of privacy on this platform where everything you say and do is packaged and built into a secret profile about you, and then sold off to the highest bidders or whomever is willing to pay. Not only is this unethical, but it’s potentially exploitative of a vulnerable user base! Your privacy matters, even if you think it doesn’t.

Yes, there’s a critical mass of people on Facebook and a lot of great people on there. But we are all being exploited and our privacy violated in the name of Silicon Valley making a profit. When it comes to cancer support and finding the information and help that you need, that is just plain wrong.

Contacting Me (Click the button!)

Please DO contact me for any reason at any time, but do so here directly and NOT on social media! I always love hearing from readers directly that have seen some of my blogs, or somehow found my website in this crazy world. It’s great to connect with people from all over.

Life has moved on and evolved considerably for my family and I over the years since my cancer fight, in both good ways and bad, so regretfully I just don’t have the time to spend hours surfing social media and testicular cancer related support groups anymore, and answering and providing feedback in most every single thread like I used to. Believe me when I say it’s not because I don’t care — our lives just keep getting busier and more complicated is all, and there just isn’t the time. All you really need to know is that I had to turn over my beloved BMW convertible to my wife, which we bought when I was going through chemotherapy, and that I’m driving a Chevy (freaking) Suburban these days, to understand that I typically have my hands full. Lol!

That’s It!

Thanks for stopping by and for checking out my new About page. Please enjoy the rest of my website and my writing, and definitely get in touch if you’d like. The rest below is my boilerplate website bio. :)

Best,
Steve Pake

Steve Pake is in his mid-40’s and is happily married to his wife Debbie of nearly 20 years. They reside in Rockville, Maryland and have two teenaged children, and an adorable mini Goldendoodle named Puffles. Steve is an Electrical Engineer and holds a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University, and is also a Penn State alumni. Steve's website, "StevePake.com: The Life of a Young Adult Cancer Survivor", was awarded as a Top Cancer Blog of 2016 by the IHadCancer.com community. In addition to IHadCancer.com, Steve's blogs also appear at The Mighty, Cure Today, and at the Cancer Knowledge Network. Steve is a former cancer non-profit director, was the Co-Founder and Chair of the 2017 Testicular Cancer Summit event. All glory to God the father.