Monday morning marked the beginning of fall camp for the Colorado Buffaloes, and the team is already 1-0.
Deion Sanders took to the podium for the first time since Big 12 Media Day in Frisco, shocking the sports world by announcing that he underwent a battle with an aggressive form of bladder cancer and emerged victorious.
“We’ve already got one win stacked up, so I’m happy,” said Sanders on his cancer battle during his Monday presser.
Sanders has been away from the team since May for what the program
described as an “undisclosed medical issue.” We now know that the undisclosed issue was an aggressive cancerous tumor attached to his bladder, which was caught in a regular health screening of his vascular system.
Sanders said he was faced with two options for how to attack the cancer. He could have either gone into treatment at a hospital once a week and hoped that the cancer subsided, or he could have had his entire bladder removed. The bladder removal is the riskier, more extreme treatment, which Sanders ultimately opted for because he believed it would enable him to return to coaching his team faster.
Janet Kukjera, UCHealth’s Director of Urologic Oncology, performed the surgery, removing part of his small intestine to create a new, synthetic bladder. Sitting alongside Sanders on Monday, Kukjera enthusiastically told the media that the surgery was a success and Sanders has been cured of his cancer, and cured isn’t a word she uses lightly.
Kukreja says that Sanders was extremely lucky to have caught the tumor early, as it led to their ability to cure the cancer so quickly. The senior urologist added that only 10% of people with Sanders’ condition live five years if the cancer metastasizes.
“We are very lucky to have found it at this stage where we could still say the world cure because I don’t use that word lightly as a cancer doctor,” Kukjera said. “There are a lot of patients where we don’t have the same conversation.”
The road to a cure wasn’t easy for Sanders, as he painted a small picture of his life at his house in Texas over the last few months, saying he lost 25 pounds at the peak of his medical issues.
“I’m out at 7:30 in the morning with [lead CU trainer Lauren Askevold] like ‘let’s get this walk.’”, Sanders said. “I’ve got two bags of blood and urine with me, walking. God told me I had to walk, and I walked 1.3 [miles].”
After fighting a hard battle with bladder cancer and winning, Sanders will resume full duties as the Buffs’ head coach on the sideline in Boulder. Kukjera says that Sanders’ outlook is “very good” and no more treatment is required, other than routine check-ups with his medical team. Any rumors of him stepping aside were squashed when he emphatically announced his return.
“I’m not gonna rely on [my coaching staff],” Sanders said. “I’m back, baby.”
Although Sanders is back in Boulder with a brand new bladder, some changes will be made around Folsom Field. Namely, a sideline porta-potty due to some ongoing complications with Sanders’ bladder control.
“[Bladder cancer] is real,” Sanders said. “So if you see a porta-potty on the sideline, it is real. I’m just telling you right now, you’re going to see it.”
Other than the fact that the Buffs are in the market for a brand-new, top-of-the-line porta-potty, things are back to business as usual within the Champions Center. Sanders and his squad have around one month to prepare for their season opener when a tough Georgia Tech team comes to Folsom Field on August 29.
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