Olympic Testicular Cancer

That's an American Olympic swimmer named Eric Shanteau in the photo. He has testicular cancer. That is not currently being treated.

I was over at Lulu's, up in her attic, making magnets, earlier today. She had the TV on to the Olympics.

The first thing I saw was some women's swimming event. I know the Olympic coverage has gotten mileage out of personalizing an athlete's story, if there is a story to tell. So, for the women they focused on a Pole who had been in a car wreck in which her brother had died. After we heard all about that sad story and saw the race take place we couldn't figure out if the Pole was one of the swimmers.

It was confusing. But Lulu and I are easily confused.

And then it was time for the men to swim. The sad story to tell for the men was about a guy named Eric Shanteau who found out he had testicular cancer shortly before the Olympics were to begin. He opted out of immediate surgery in order to swim in the Olympics.

That's fine. But the way they made this sound so heroic and brave grated on me. First off, testicular cancer, caught early, is highly curable.

Second off, risking your life, even if the threat is highly curable, in order to swim, does not seem all that heroic to me.

Being in Iraq or Afghanistan. That seems heroic. Finding out you had testicular cancer while in Iraq and opting to continue your tour of duty, rather than seeking treatment, would seem foolish to me, not heroic.

But what really grated on me, about the way they covered the story of the Olympic swimmer's testicular cancer, is how they went on and on about it, how brave he was, how heroic, such an inspiration.

Full disclosure, I am testicular cancer survivor. I know it's no picnic. And the surgery Eric is postponing is not a pleasant thing. But every day you leave that cancer growing in your body is one more day it has a chance to metastasize to another part of your body.

What bugged me really bad about how NBC milked this story is they could have used this as an opportunity to tell their viewers what they needed to do, self-exam wise, to early detect if they have a problem.

I figured out I had a problem when I saw a testicular cancer storyline on the TV show St. Elsewhere. Ironically, I believe, on NBC. That was soon followed by a story in the Seattle P-I about the, then, little talked about cancer. From both the TV show and the P-I, I was fairly certain I had cancer, before I visited a doctor.

I'm sure at least one of NBC's viewers who was watching NBC's full of pathos vignette about the Olympic swimmer, has testicular cancer and does not know it. Telling the viewers that they need to check regularly for any odd lump in that special zone and to get that lump looked at immediately would have been what is known as a public service. Instead NBC chose to milk and exaggerate this guy's story for their own self-serving purposes.

And don't get me started on the non-stop yapping of the commentators while the people are swimming. My belief is if you don't need that narration when you are watching something in person. And if you wouldn't allow some bore to go on and on and on in your TV viewing room while you're trying to watch something, then the same principle should apply to how this type thing is covered on TV.

And have I mentioned before that Bob Costas needs to be fired and taken off TV?