Rockies pitcher Chad Bettis is cancer-free and resuming workouts
If you like good news, then we’ve got a doozy for you. In an interview with MLB Network Radio’s Power Alley show, Chad Bettis, a pitcher for the Colorado Rockies, revealed that he’s been declared totally cancer-free by his doctors. Yay!
Bettis, 27, was diagnosed with testicular cancer only a few months ago. He discovered a lump in mid-November, and immediately talked to his doctor about it. After the cancer was revealed in ultrasound, he had surgery on November 28 to remove one of his testicles. The surgery was successful, but the doctors didn’t know at the time if the cancer had spread.
A follow-up exam after the surgery would let the doctors know if Bettis’ cancer had spread. Thankfully, the exams he had just before Christmas showed that it hadn’t, and he was officially cancer-free. Now that’s a great Christmas present, right?
Despite the cancer diagnosis and the subsequent surgery, Bettis has somehow only lost two weeks of preparation time for the upcoming season. He had just started his throwing program when he was diagnosed, and lost two weeks of conditioning after the surgery. He started full workouts once the two weeks were up, and now he’s also started throwing again. Bettis has been in the Rockies’ rotation since 2015, and in those two seasons he’s pitched 301 innings in 52 starts and has a 4.57 ERA. Not bad considering he spends the majority of his time pitching at hitter-friendly Coors Field.
Bettis has said he initially struggled with whether or not he should talk to his doctor about the lump he found, and recognizes that many people may have the same issues. He’s committed to encouraging everyone to speak up and ask questions about their health, which he emphasized in a statement he released to ESPN in December, just after his diagnosis was made public.
“This only reinforces my belief that each of us needs to be totally in tune with our own physical health, and that taking action sooner than later when we feel like something is off can sometimes literally be the difference between life and death.”
With Bettis’ workouts back on track and a clean bill of health from his doctors, he should be ready to go for spring training, which is just 38 days away.
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Liz Roscher is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on twitter! Follow @lizroscher
