MINNEAPOLIS — Cancer doesn't care who you are. It doesn't care who you love. Casey O'Brien got another reminder this week.
“I had a relapse in my right lung from the osteosarcoma that I've been through five times before,” says Casey.
“Surprised, shocked, sad, what's your emotion?” asked KARE 11's Randy Shaver.
“I would tell you that obviously was surprised, but not shocked. I've been through this stuff five times already and I know it's pesky and that it's not gunna let me get off the hook easy,” says Casey.
We've documented Casey's battles from his freshman year in high school at Cretin-Derham Hall.
His football career had to be put on hold. He had 24 rounds of chemo and his left knee replaced.
He would battle cancer throughout his time at the U of M, but he never quit, and who can forget that Saturday at Rutgers in October 2019 when Casey, no. 14, made it on the football field in a Big Ten game — simply amazing.
And, that hug afterwards with P.J. Fleck, it was all so inspiring.
Two years ago, he sent out a tweet, saying he'd beaten cancer for a fifth time.
“So the only other time I had gotten to two years I had a relapse, and this was my two year scan to finally break through that point. We got blocked at the rim,” says Casey.
“There's got to be a part of you that says 'C'mon now, enough.'” said Randy.
“Yeah it’s frustrating for sure. I feel like I do a lot to try to keep myself healthy in terms of diet and sleep and exercise, but at the end of the day everyone's got their own battles that they're going through and when I went up to get my scans on Monday, I was the healthiest person in the room,” says O’Brien. "It puts things in perspective pretty quick when you go back to the hospital.”
So, as Casey knows all too well, life goes on.
As he says, what choice does he have?
After all, he's 23 now, out in the world. He just started a new job at RBC Wealth Management a year ago.
There's no time for a pity party. There's only time to live for today.
“Is your fear that this is something you're going to have to live with for the rest of your life?” asked Randy.
“Yeah, I mean, that's a fear. I truly believe at some point I'm going to grow out of it. It is a pediatric cancer. They've had plenty of patients where you gotta chase it back and forth a few times in the lungs, and then you keep cutting it out, and all the sudden it doesn't show up anymore, so that's kinda what I'm fixing my mindset towards, is that hey we got to go clean up another one, but maybe this is the last one,” says Casey. "I don't think, I don't hope I have to live with it, but if it is, and I get to stay around and be alive, then that's what we have to do,” says Casey.
“The thing I said this morning was another day on Earth, get another day to wake up and enjoy the day, be around people who care about you,” says Casey.