00:00:01.637 --> 00:00:07.397
Kevin Lowe: Sometimes, well, you could say oftentimes, life doesn't ask your permission
00:00:07.397 --> 00:00:11.377
Kevin Lowe: before it changes directions, before everything changes.
00:00:11.737 --> 00:00:16.457
Kevin Lowe: One moment, you're running full steam towards the life you think you want,
00:00:16.777 --> 00:00:19.777
Kevin Lowe: towards the dreams that you think are about to come true.
00:00:19.977 --> 00:00:22.877
Kevin Lowe: In the next moment, everything can change.
00:00:23.257 --> 00:00:25.237
Kevin Lowe: The course changes completely.
00:00:25.617 --> 00:00:29.277
Kevin Lowe: Everything that you thought was is no more.
00:00:29.917 --> 00:00:34.457
Kevin Lowe: Today's story is about a young man who had this happen to him.
00:00:34.617 --> 00:00:37.077
Kevin Lowe: He thought his life was headed in one direction.
00:00:37.597 --> 00:00:42.277
Kevin Lowe: And then he heard three words, three words that we all fear,
00:00:42.797 --> 00:00:48.077
Kevin Lowe: three words that change a life, the change of family.
00:00:48.437 --> 00:00:53.757
Kevin Lowe: You have cancer. But those three words, which can sound like an ending,
00:00:54.137 --> 00:00:59.657
Kevin Lowe: would in fact become the start of a new beginning, a grateful new beginning.
00:00:59.937 --> 00:01:05.777
Kevin Lowe: So my friend, if you've ever walked through pain and have been left to wonder, what could it mean?
00:01:05.997 --> 00:01:11.197
Kevin Lowe: Why did this have to happen? Then today's episode is gonna speak to you because
00:01:11.197 --> 00:01:17.477
Kevin Lowe: what I want you to understand is that even the hardest chapters in life can grow something good,
00:01:17.757 --> 00:01:22.237
Kevin Lowe: can bear fruit, just like they did in the story of today's guest.
00:01:22.737 --> 00:01:27.417
Kevin Lowe: Today's guest is Steve Garraty, the author of a book titled Greatfruit,
00:01:27.737 --> 00:01:31.497
Kevin Lowe: How Cancer Led to Leading a More Fruitful Life.
00:01:32.177 --> 00:01:38.957
Kevin Lowe: You're going to hear his full story, the impact of those words, You Have Cancer.
00:01:39.685 --> 00:01:44.745
Kevin Lowe: But what comes next? It's after the devastation where it all comes together,
00:01:44.745 --> 00:01:50.785
Kevin Lowe: where things start to change for today's guest and what I believe is true for you as well.
00:01:51.045 --> 00:01:57.245
Kevin Lowe: If you love today's interview, then my friend, you're going to really love Steve's book.
00:01:57.485 --> 00:02:01.685
Kevin Lowe: Please be sure to check out today's show notes where you can find links to get
00:02:01.685 --> 00:02:04.305
Kevin Lowe: your own copy of Greatfruit.
00:02:04.305 --> 00:02:10.765
Kevin Lowe: Or you can also just head on over to https://gritgraceinspiration.com/greatfruit
00:02:10.765 --> 00:02:13.065
Kevin Lowe: to find that link as well.
00:02:13.625 --> 00:02:21.325
Kevin Lowe: Lastly, I want to give a big shout out to a past guest of this podcast, Bishoy Tadros.
00:02:21.605 --> 00:02:24.865
Kevin Lowe: Bishoy is the one who connected me and Steve together.
00:02:25.125 --> 00:02:30.825
Kevin Lowe: So Bishoy, my man, thank you so much for making such an awesome introduction.
00:02:31.425 --> 00:02:38.125
Kevin Lowe: And last but not least, if at any point you think to yourself, ah, you know what?
00:02:38.245 --> 00:02:41.085
Kevin Lowe: I'm just going to press pause and I'll finish this later.
00:02:41.385 --> 00:02:46.965
Kevin Lowe: Well, I beg you to think differently because, my friend, chances are if you
00:02:46.965 --> 00:02:50.085
Kevin Lowe: hit pause, you're going to forget about it and you're not going to come back.
00:02:50.265 --> 00:02:54.645
Kevin Lowe: And I'm telling you, you want to listen to this entire episode.
00:02:54.925 --> 00:02:59.545
Kevin Lowe: The interview is amazing. The conversation with Steve is life-changing.
00:02:59.545 --> 00:03:06.225
Kevin Lowe: And awaiting you at the very end, you get to go from an interview to listening
00:03:06.225 --> 00:03:13.525
Kevin Lowe: to maybe your new favorite song as I took the creative inspiration and turned
00:03:13.525 --> 00:03:15.785
Kevin Lowe: today's story, Steve's story,
00:03:16.225 --> 00:03:18.805
Kevin Lowe: into a song titled Greatfruit.
00:03:19.265 --> 00:03:23.825
Kevin Lowe: So just know that is waiting for you at the end of today's episode.
00:03:23.845 --> 00:03:30.525
Kevin Lowe: My friend, I'm your host, Kevin Lowe. This is episode 435 of Grit,
00:03:30.705 --> 00:03:32.145
Kevin Lowe: Grace, and Inspiration.
00:03:32.405 --> 00:03:38.285
Kevin Lowe: Without any further ado, this is my interview with Steve Garraty.
00:04:04.567 --> 00:04:08.707
Kevin Lowe: What's up, my friend, and welcome back to Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.
00:04:09.107 --> 00:04:13.087
Kevin Lowe: Today, I have the pleasure of being in the studio with Steve Garraty.
00:04:13.467 --> 00:04:15.927
Kevin Lowe: Steve, my man, welcome to the podcast.
00:04:16.607 --> 00:04:20.627
Steve Garraty: Thanks for having me, Kevin. I've been excited to do this today, so thanks for having me.
00:04:21.107 --> 00:04:26.187
Kevin Lowe: Absolutely, absolutely. Well, Steve, I'd love to start with a question of,
00:04:26.367 --> 00:04:32.707
Kevin Lowe: for the person listening today, what do you hope that they take away from hearing your story today?
00:04:32.707 --> 00:04:39.467
Kevin Lowe: If you could wave that kind of magic wand and got to choose how they left feeling,
00:04:39.467 --> 00:04:41.327
Kevin Lowe: what would you hope that would be?
00:04:41.567 --> 00:04:45.267
Steve Garraty: Yeah, that's a good question, Kevin. I would say that it hopefully provides
00:04:45.267 --> 00:04:51.107
Steve Garraty: a new or a little bit different perspective in how your listeners view adversity
00:04:51.107 --> 00:04:54.287
Steve Garraty: that they've either been through or they're going to go through.
00:04:54.287 --> 00:04:59.047
Steve Garraty: It's really not a question of if, but when, right, we hit those life hurdles.
00:04:59.407 --> 00:05:05.887
Steve Garraty: For me, it was cancer. but the hurdles can be divorce, job loss, grief.
00:05:06.167 --> 00:05:09.767
Steve Garraty: There's a lot of things that we go through. And I think we all have our own
00:05:09.767 --> 00:05:12.087
Steve Garraty: story of challenges and hurdles.
00:05:12.247 --> 00:05:17.287
Steve Garraty: And I hope that my story provides a little bit of perspective in how we view
00:05:17.287 --> 00:05:23.547
Steve Garraty: that and how we can grow and live a stronger and better life coming out of those life's roadblocks.
00:05:24.264 --> 00:05:30.004
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Yeah. I love it. I love it. Well, well, Steve, where do you think your
00:05:30.004 --> 00:05:32.404
Kevin Lowe: story really kind of begins?
00:05:32.404 --> 00:05:36.044
Kevin Lowe: I mean, I know from from preparing for an interview and stuff,
00:05:36.204 --> 00:05:41.204
Kevin Lowe: I would say probably around that age, like 17, junior and senior year.
00:05:41.424 --> 00:05:45.704
Kevin Lowe: But but if you know a better starting point, you started where you feel the
00:05:45.704 --> 00:05:47.204
Kevin Lowe: best places for us to begin.
00:05:48.044 --> 00:05:53.604
Steve Garraty: Yeah, I think the junior and senior year in high school provide some context behind this story.
00:05:53.904 --> 00:05:57.524
Steve Garraty: My junior and senior year in high school, Kevin, were, you know,
00:05:57.604 --> 00:06:04.204
Steve Garraty: I think to back up, my family had moved a couple times, and I came from a stable family.
00:06:04.404 --> 00:06:07.304
Steve Garraty: Parents are still married 60 years in now.
00:06:07.884 --> 00:06:11.864
Steve Garraty: Middle-class family. Dad was a hard worker. My mom stayed at home with us.
00:06:12.404 --> 00:06:16.984
Steve Garraty: Had a good, stable family life. We moved a couple of times, the second of which
00:06:16.984 --> 00:06:19.744
Steve Garraty: was end of middle school, beginning of high school.
00:06:20.004 --> 00:06:25.864
Steve Garraty: It also was from the Northeast down to back in the 80s, what was a very rural,
00:06:26.384 --> 00:06:29.144
Steve Garraty: I would use the word redneck kind of area of Georgia.
00:06:29.724 --> 00:06:35.424
Steve Garraty: I just for me, that was a big challenge. And it was I struggled with that socially and fitting in.
00:06:35.964 --> 00:06:40.424
Steve Garraty: And a couple of years later, when I did start to build my social circle,
00:06:40.664 --> 00:06:43.884
Steve Garraty: it probably wasn't the best or they weren't the best influences.
00:06:44.124 --> 00:06:50.504
Steve Garraty: And it led to a couple years of hard partying and running a very hard lifestyle
00:06:50.504 --> 00:06:54.844
Steve Garraty: that continued to spiral more and more downhill.
00:06:55.224 --> 00:06:58.924
Steve Garraty: I like to use the analogy of, for those that have watched Breaking Bad,
00:06:59.404 --> 00:07:04.544
Steve Garraty: probably similar to the character of Walter White and how he kind of each episode
00:07:04.544 --> 00:07:06.584
Steve Garraty: and each season spirals more downward.
00:07:06.884 --> 00:07:12.944
Steve Garraty: And I just was not looking at stopping that spiral, I don't think I was probably
00:07:12.944 --> 00:07:15.764
Steve Garraty: capable or in the mindset to stop it.
00:07:16.486 --> 00:07:21.626
Steve Garraty: And had wrecked my parents' cars about five times under the influence of something.
00:07:22.026 --> 00:07:26.586
Steve Garraty: Grades were suffering. Just was kind of headed down a really bad path.
00:07:26.606 --> 00:07:32.126
Steve Garraty: And I think something probably more tragic would have happened if not for some
00:07:32.126 --> 00:07:36.486
Steve Garraty: intervention. And that intervention was a lump was forming on the side of my
00:07:36.486 --> 00:07:38.666
Steve Garraty: neck towards the end of my senior year.
00:07:38.846 --> 00:07:42.666
Steve Garraty: I ignored it for a little while. It started growing very aggressively.
00:07:43.046 --> 00:07:48.526
Steve Garraty: Went in and got a biopsy. and on July 4th, the surgeon called her house,
00:07:49.264 --> 00:07:53.644
Steve Garraty: to inform me that the three words he delivered were, you have cancer.
00:07:54.164 --> 00:07:58.764
Steve Garraty: Not something I expected, but it started a year of hell.
00:07:58.984 --> 00:08:02.224
Steve Garraty: And that's probably where my story begins. But the background,
00:08:02.524 --> 00:08:07.484
Steve Garraty: because I do believe my lifestyle and poor choices and the path I was headed
00:08:07.484 --> 00:08:10.584
Steve Garraty: down, I do think contributed to me getting sick.
00:08:10.744 --> 00:08:15.684
Steve Garraty: And I also think me getting sick put me on a different and better path in the long run.
00:08:16.024 --> 00:08:24.024
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, yeah. Wow. Now, before getting to the discovery of you having this cancerous tumor,
00:08:24.444 --> 00:08:28.324
Kevin Lowe: during that kind of junior, senior year, graduating high school,
00:08:28.564 --> 00:08:36.664
Kevin Lowe: in this party phase of life, did you have any plans for life after high school at that point?
00:08:36.964 --> 00:08:43.564
Steve Garraty: I had seen the movie Animal House many times. And I had this vision of what
00:08:43.564 --> 00:08:46.524
Steve Garraty: Greek life, what a paternity life would look like.
00:08:47.144 --> 00:08:52.164
Steve Garraty: And it fit in with, for those that have seen the movie, it fit in with what
00:08:52.164 --> 00:08:53.644
Steve Garraty: I had been doing the last couple of years.
00:08:53.784 --> 00:08:59.484
Steve Garraty: So I was excited to head off to college and kind of join a fraternity and live
00:08:59.484 --> 00:09:02.744
Steve Garraty: that kind of lifestyle that I had seen on Animal House.
00:09:02.804 --> 00:09:09.404
Steve Garraty: And I was excited about the freedom to be away from my parents and restrictions and rules.
00:09:09.564 --> 00:09:13.704
Steve Garraty: But I would say those are probably not the best reasons, right? are the best.
00:09:14.544 --> 00:09:19.244
Steve Garraty: Yeah, I didn't have a good path forward. I was looking to party more and with
00:09:19.244 --> 00:09:24.504
Steve Garraty: less restrictions and less rules. And I do think that would have led to,
00:09:25.345 --> 00:09:30.685
Steve Garraty: Be it me failing out of school or, God forbid, getting into an accident,
00:09:30.985 --> 00:09:32.625
Steve Garraty: hurting myself, hurting others.
00:09:33.105 --> 00:09:37.005
Steve Garraty: And so, yeah, I think I don't think I would have made it through four years
00:09:37.005 --> 00:09:41.045
Steve Garraty: of college had I gone off to school and not been sick.
00:09:41.665 --> 00:09:47.265
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Amazing how life can get in the way sometimes,
00:09:47.285 --> 00:09:51.585
Kevin Lowe: sometimes for maybe for the for the benefit for, you know.
00:09:51.585 --> 00:09:59.025
Kevin Lowe: Now, talk to me a little bit more about the tumor, the type of cancer.
00:09:59.485 --> 00:10:05.345
Kevin Lowe: And with that, I guess I would love to kind of group in together of just your
00:10:05.345 --> 00:10:11.225
Kevin Lowe: mindset, your thought process, being told, here you've just graduated high school
00:10:11.225 --> 00:10:13.725
Kevin Lowe: and now all of a sudden you're facing cancer.
00:10:14.085 --> 00:10:18.945
Steve Garraty: Yeah. So when the surgeon called the house, I guess two things I would say to
00:10:18.945 --> 00:10:20.205
Steve Garraty: answer your question there.
00:10:20.205 --> 00:10:24.885
Steve Garraty: One is when the surgeon called, he informed us that he took a mass out of the
00:10:24.885 --> 00:10:27.385
Steve Garraty: size of my neck that was the size of a grapefruit,
00:10:27.965 --> 00:10:31.385
Steve Garraty: which is pretty great every time I go to the grocery store and that crosses
00:10:31.385 --> 00:10:35.285
Steve Garraty: my mind when I go in the produce sector, the fruit section.
00:10:35.485 --> 00:10:38.605
Steve Garraty: But it was the size of a grapefruit. So it was pretty large.
00:10:38.905 --> 00:10:42.745
Steve Garraty: But I think what sums up where I was in life is the surgeon,
00:10:42.945 --> 00:10:47.725
Steve Garraty: and I'm sure my parents had given the surgeon some backstory about my drinking and partying.
00:10:48.185 --> 00:10:51.765
Steve Garraty: But the surgeon said, listen, you have cancer. We're going to need to do,
00:10:51.965 --> 00:10:56.385
Steve Garraty: you're going to need to see an oncologist, get some tests done to find out how much it has spread.
00:10:56.965 --> 00:11:01.325
Steve Garraty: But one of the things he said was definitely no drinking for at least a year
00:11:01.325 --> 00:11:02.785
Steve Garraty: and potentially ever again.
00:11:03.623 --> 00:11:08.903
Steve Garraty: And my mind went to this place where I stopped listening to everything else he said.
00:11:09.303 --> 00:11:16.323
Steve Garraty: My family, I have two siblings, my parents, all sitting around the family table, family room table.
00:11:16.543 --> 00:11:22.343
Steve Garraty: And I think my family was devastated and upset. And my mom and my brother were crying.
00:11:22.543 --> 00:11:25.383
Steve Garraty: I was in this state of shock that I can't drink.
00:11:25.643 --> 00:11:29.503
Steve Garraty: And so I was not really that upset about the cancer.
00:11:29.763 --> 00:11:34.003
Steve Garraty: I was upset about the fact that I couldn't drink. So that's where my mind was,
00:11:34.163 --> 00:11:39.423
Steve Garraty: which might be a sign of denial, I guess, the first stage of dealing with something.
00:11:39.663 --> 00:11:44.823
Steve Garraty: But that's where my head was. And my mind started going to what about the what
00:11:44.823 --> 00:11:47.363
Steve Garraty: about going off to college? What about my independence?
00:11:47.723 --> 00:11:51.923
Steve Garraty: What about, you know, all I at that point, I was partying every night.
00:11:51.923 --> 00:11:54.023
Steve Garraty: I was going out every single evening.
00:11:54.223 --> 00:11:57.463
Steve Garraty: Again, I was out of high school. I was working a part time job.
00:11:57.783 --> 00:12:01.263
Steve Garraty: It was really full time during the summer. And I was going out every single evening.
00:12:01.843 --> 00:12:07.423
Steve Garraty: It just it rocked my world that socially you know I knew that a lot of my friends
00:12:07.423 --> 00:12:11.683
Steve Garraty: were friends because we would go out partying together and I just knew that
00:12:11.683 --> 00:12:16.903
Steve Garraty: all that was now in jeopardy and that's what upset me the most when I was told you have cancer.
00:12:18.053 --> 00:12:23.853
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, yeah. I mean, whether or not the things that you were focused on were
00:12:23.853 --> 00:12:29.173
Kevin Lowe: quote unquote good or bad, I mean, yeah, it's a life change.
00:12:29.393 --> 00:12:31.513
Kevin Lowe: And that's not easy.
00:12:32.073 --> 00:12:36.893
Kevin Lowe: And I think especially when we're talking about something like alcohol,
00:12:37.533 --> 00:12:41.813
Kevin Lowe: which, you know, when we're talking about addiction and all that,
00:12:42.053 --> 00:12:45.733
Kevin Lowe: I mean, that's not an easy thing to hear.
00:12:46.273 --> 00:12:56.373
Kevin Lowe: What was the doctor telling you guys as far as treatment and long-term outlook on this type of cancer?
00:12:56.913 --> 00:13:00.853
Steve Garraty: Yeah, that was the hard part. This was, I guess, to back up,
00:13:00.933 --> 00:13:04.873
Steve Garraty: this was 1986 that I graduated high school and got this phone call.
00:13:05.093 --> 00:13:10.513
Steve Garraty: The surgeon was really just delivering the news of you have cancer and couldn't
00:13:10.513 --> 00:13:12.293
Steve Garraty: really answer any questions beyond that.
00:13:12.473 --> 00:13:16.433
Steve Garraty: He said, you'll need to go in and see an oncologist. And that probably took
00:13:16.433 --> 00:13:18.933
Steve Garraty: 7 to 10 days roughly to get in to see,
00:13:19.530 --> 00:13:22.570
Steve Garraty: the oncologist that we started my process with.
00:13:22.730 --> 00:13:26.570
Steve Garraty: But that was the hard part because, again, if you think back 1986,
00:13:27.130 --> 00:13:29.150
Steve Garraty: the internet really wasn't around.
00:13:29.410 --> 00:13:33.330
Steve Garraty: You had to go to the library to look things up and learn.
00:13:33.570 --> 00:13:36.990
Steve Garraty: And so we had all these questions. My parents had questions.
00:13:36.990 --> 00:13:40.550
Steve Garraty: I had questions. And we really didn't have any answers to them.
00:13:40.790 --> 00:13:44.090
Steve Garraty: And short of going to the library and trying to look up stuff,
00:13:44.270 --> 00:13:47.690
Steve Garraty: there were a lot of questions that weren't answered in the beginning.
00:13:47.690 --> 00:13:53.050
Steve Garraty: So we had to go to the oncologist and then even then it was all speculative.
00:13:53.650 --> 00:13:59.630
Steve Garraty: I had to go get x-rays and CAT scans to determine how much the cancer had spread.
00:14:00.550 --> 00:14:03.770
Steve Garraty: What I found out within a couple of weeks, Kevin, was that it spread to my,
00:14:03.890 --> 00:14:06.870
Steve Garraty: not only my neck, but my chest and my stomach.
00:14:07.170 --> 00:14:14.130
Steve Garraty: And so it was stage three, which meant chemotherapy was the treatment that they moved forward with.
00:14:14.350 --> 00:14:17.210
Steve Garraty: So I did about nine or 10 months of chemotherapy.
00:14:17.830 --> 00:14:20.570
Kevin Lowe: Wow. So what kind of cancer was it?
00:14:21.050 --> 00:14:26.430
Steve Garraty: It's called Hodgkin's, and it's probably most common in like 18 to 25-year-olds.
00:14:26.430 --> 00:14:30.590
Steve Garraty: That's where Hodgkin's happens the most, which, again, I was 18 at the time.
00:14:30.850 --> 00:14:32.930
Steve Garraty: But yeah, it's called Hodgkin's lymphoma.
00:14:33.270 --> 00:14:39.350
Kevin Lowe: Okay. And is that the one, am I getting it right, where there's Hodgkin's lymphoma
00:14:39.350 --> 00:14:42.950
Kevin Lowe: and then there's Hodgkin's non-lymphoma or something like that?
00:14:43.170 --> 00:14:44.990
Steve Garraty: Yes. I think you're spot on there.
00:14:45.730 --> 00:14:46.450
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Okay.
00:14:46.450 --> 00:14:50.150
Steve Garraty: Mine was in the lymph nodes, which made it Hodgkin's lymphoma.
00:14:50.957 --> 00:14:57.757
Kevin Lowe: Okay, okay. So now, treatment-wise, is that because I think of typically like
00:14:57.757 --> 00:15:00.297
Kevin Lowe: either chemotherapy or radiation?
00:15:01.117 --> 00:15:04.477
Steve Garraty: Yes. Again, this was at the time, this is a long time ago.
00:15:04.677 --> 00:15:08.697
Steve Garraty: They had told me, listen, if we do these tests and it's stage one or two,
00:15:08.897 --> 00:15:10.797
Steve Garraty: we'll probably treat it with radiation.
00:15:11.237 --> 00:15:16.737
Steve Garraty: If it's three or four, it's going to be chemotherapy, maybe a combo of chemotherapy and radiation.
00:15:17.397 --> 00:15:21.157
Steve Garraty: But that's how they kind of treated it. I think the more severe it was,
00:15:21.277 --> 00:15:24.737
Steve Garraty: the more likely you were to have chemotherapy as part of it.
00:15:24.877 --> 00:15:28.037
Steve Garraty: So I did not do radiation. I did the chemotherapy.
00:15:28.837 --> 00:15:34.217
Kevin Lowe: Okay. Okay. Wow. Well, before getting to the part about the chemotherapy,
00:15:34.617 --> 00:15:38.317
Kevin Lowe: the grapefruit-sized tumor,
00:15:39.097 --> 00:15:44.197
Kevin Lowe: that was the entire tumor was able to be successfully removed?
00:15:44.597 --> 00:15:47.817
Steve Garraty: Yes, they moved it out. There was still cancer in there, there's still cancer
00:15:47.817 --> 00:15:52.397
Steve Garraty: in the lymph nodes, but they took out a mass, so they took out a good part of
00:15:52.397 --> 00:15:56.817
Steve Garraty: it in the neck, and then obviously in the chest and stomach that it had to be,
00:15:56.997 --> 00:15:58.857
Steve Garraty: and there was still cancer in my neck.
00:15:59.217 --> 00:16:01.297
Steve Garraty: That's how they got it was with the chemotherapy.
00:16:01.977 --> 00:16:03.197
Kevin Lowe: Okay. Wow.
00:16:03.920 --> 00:16:11.820
Kevin Lowe: So with chemo, I mean, I think we all just envision horror stories of chemo.
00:16:12.020 --> 00:16:13.980
Kevin Lowe: How was that for you?
00:16:14.320 --> 00:16:17.620
Steve Garraty: It was a horror story. It was, yeah.
00:16:17.820 --> 00:16:21.480
Steve Garraty: So I went in on the first one and they said, you know, listen,
00:16:21.640 --> 00:16:25.760
Steve Garraty: some people don't get sick on the first one. And I did not.
00:16:25.980 --> 00:16:30.360
Steve Garraty: They basically put an IV into you and you sit there.
00:16:30.640 --> 00:16:34.460
Steve Garraty: It was typically about 45 minutes to an hour. you would sit there and the drugs
00:16:34.460 --> 00:16:37.200
Steve Garraty: would kind of slowly drip into your veins.
00:16:37.420 --> 00:16:40.780
Steve Garraty: And the first one I did fine. I went home, slept a little bit,
00:16:40.900 --> 00:16:44.660
Steve Garraty: and actually had a friend come over later that day and went out that evening,
00:16:44.660 --> 00:16:48.540
Steve Garraty: which was probably not a good thing to do, but went out that evening.
00:16:48.900 --> 00:16:54.280
Steve Garraty: And then, so I started having this, you know, at 18, you feel like you're invincible.
00:16:54.760 --> 00:16:58.060
Steve Garraty: And I was no exception. And so getting cancer was a shock.
00:16:58.600 --> 00:17:03.580
Steve Garraty: And then when I went in for the first session of chemo and didn't get sick,
00:17:03.700 --> 00:17:05.480
Steve Garraty: I was like, okay, this is going to be easy.
00:17:05.780 --> 00:17:07.940
Steve Garraty: You know, it's old people that get sick.
00:17:08.420 --> 00:17:11.640
Steve Garraty: And that changed on my second appointment.
00:17:11.820 --> 00:17:14.660
Steve Garraty: So my second appointment, kind of everything seemed the same.
00:17:14.820 --> 00:17:19.540
Steve Garraty: And about 10, 15 minutes in, I started, you know, projectile vomiting.
00:17:19.840 --> 00:17:25.760
Steve Garraty: And basically, it got worse each time after that, but it would be about 10 to.
00:17:27.137 --> 00:17:31.057
Steve Garraty: I'd come in, get the chemo in the morning. My parents would take me home,
00:17:31.057 --> 00:17:36.317
Steve Garraty: and I was usually hugging the toilet, vomiting, until there was nothing to come
00:17:36.317 --> 00:17:38.397
Steve Garraty: up, and then there was bile coming up.
00:17:38.517 --> 00:17:43.277
Steve Garraty: And so it was pretty, those days were pretty rough. I did that every two weeks.
00:17:43.657 --> 00:17:48.717
Steve Garraty: So every two weeks, I would go in and get this combination of drugs that would
00:17:48.717 --> 00:17:51.397
Steve Garraty: go into my system. And that first day was pretty horrible.
00:17:51.637 --> 00:17:55.737
Steve Garraty: Second day, I would feel nauseous. and then I'd go the next 12 days.
00:17:55.957 --> 00:17:59.777
Steve Garraty: Pretty much, you know, normal. I was taking classes at a community college.
00:17:59.977 --> 00:18:03.617
Steve Garraty: I stayed home, obviously, to get well again.
00:18:03.757 --> 00:18:08.517
Steve Garraty: I took classes and was even working part-time. But those two days that,
00:18:09.177 --> 00:18:13.297
Steve Garraty: you know, the day of and the day after, usually I was kind of out of commission.
00:18:13.817 --> 00:18:22.117
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, yeah, no. Wow, now, during this period of being on chemo, was there any...
00:18:23.140 --> 00:18:30.140
Kevin Lowe: Maybe specific low point, where maybe you just kind of felt like, I can't keep doing this?
00:18:30.740 --> 00:18:34.660
Steve Garraty: Yes. Well, there were multiple times I thought that, and I've written a book
00:18:34.660 --> 00:18:40.440
Steve Garraty: that I published in March, and the first chapter opens with the answer to your
00:18:40.440 --> 00:18:42.860
Steve Garraty: question, which was my rock bottom.
00:18:43.060 --> 00:18:47.580
Steve Garraty: So there was, towards the end, the problem with cancer and going through something
00:18:47.580 --> 00:18:49.720
Steve Garraty: like that, you don't know when the end is going to come.
00:18:49.840 --> 00:18:53.620
Steve Garraty: So I would keep going in for these sessions, and every couple of months,
00:18:53.620 --> 00:18:59.020
Steve Garraty: we would get new x-rays and CAT scans to see, is it working?
00:18:59.200 --> 00:19:00.320
Steve Garraty: Are the tumors shrinking?
00:19:01.160 --> 00:19:04.540
Steve Garraty: And eventually, so they never know when the end is going to be.
00:19:04.660 --> 00:19:08.800
Steve Garraty: They just keep doing that until there's no evidence of the cancer anymore.
00:19:09.100 --> 00:19:12.860
Steve Garraty: And so towards the end, although I didn't know it was the end,
00:19:13.140 --> 00:19:17.600
Steve Garraty: probably a couple sessions before I finished and was declared in remission,
00:19:17.780 --> 00:19:21.740
Steve Garraty: there was a time where my mom and I went in for another session of chemo,
00:19:22.380 --> 00:19:24.200
Steve Garraty: and I kind of had a breakdown.
00:19:24.300 --> 00:19:29.180
Steve Garraty: I call it a breakdown where I asked my mother to go inside the doctor's office
00:19:29.180 --> 00:19:31.720
Steve Garraty: and to give me a few minutes in the parking garage.
00:19:32.080 --> 00:19:36.400
Steve Garraty: And I just broke down. I didn't want to go in. I was bawling.
00:19:36.740 --> 00:19:41.420
Steve Garraty: I was praying, asking God to give me strength to go back in and do it again.
00:19:41.820 --> 00:19:47.540
Steve Garraty: But I just, I was spent, you know, at this point I was completely bald, had no hair left.
00:19:47.820 --> 00:19:52.180
Steve Garraty: I had a couple friends left that had kind of stuck by me.
00:19:52.580 --> 00:19:58.640
Steve Garraty: It was a lonely year. I was tired of how sick I got because each one got progressively worse.
00:19:59.080 --> 00:20:03.940
Steve Garraty: But yeah, the mental part of it, Kevin, it built to a point where I just didn't
00:20:03.940 --> 00:20:04.960
Steve Garraty: think I could do it again.
00:20:05.100 --> 00:20:07.500
Steve Garraty: And I spent about an hour in that parking garage.
00:20:08.040 --> 00:20:12.540
Steve Garraty: And my mother, God bless her, she was upstairs and just patiently waiting for
00:20:12.540 --> 00:20:14.840
Steve Garraty: me to kind of get my act together.
00:20:15.100 --> 00:20:17.700
Steve Garraty: But yeah, that was my rock bottom during that process.
00:20:18.900 --> 00:20:27.240
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Who during this time would you say that that you leaned on or did you?
00:20:27.400 --> 00:20:31.880
Kevin Lowe: I mean, you mentioned that you had had a couple of friends that kind of stayed with you.
00:20:32.140 --> 00:20:34.160
Kevin Lowe: I mean, I know some people kind
00:20:34.160 --> 00:20:39.660
Kevin Lowe: of handle the difficult stuff in life just internally and stay themselves.
00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:46.900
Kevin Lowe: Others need need somebody to lean on to cry with. Was there anybody that you
00:20:46.900 --> 00:20:49.140
Kevin Lowe: would say that was for you?
00:20:49.380 --> 00:20:52.720
Steve Garraty: There were seven people, my parents and my two siblings.
00:20:52.980 --> 00:20:56.820
Steve Garraty: So there's four family members, two friends from high school that I mentioned
00:20:56.820 --> 00:21:01.260
Steve Garraty: that were just unbelievable angels during the whole process.
00:21:01.460 --> 00:21:06.180
Steve Garraty: Took me to some treatments, took me to school, took my mind off of it,
00:21:06.320 --> 00:21:09.800
Steve Garraty: listened to my challenges and what I was experiencing. thing.
00:21:10.100 --> 00:21:15.340
Steve Garraty: And then the seventh was a, there was a nurse at the oncologist's office that
00:21:15.340 --> 00:21:19.580
Steve Garraty: just really went above and beyond her kind of duties.
00:21:19.800 --> 00:21:26.620
Steve Garraty: I mean, I would say we established a friendship during that time and she was just incredible.
00:21:26.620 --> 00:21:32.240
Steve Garraty: And I think she helped me quite a bit, especially on the days of my chemo and
00:21:32.240 --> 00:21:35.660
Steve Garraty: trying to get my mind off of it and just so supportive.
00:21:35.660 --> 00:21:39.460
Steve Garraty: She cleaned up my vomit each time, like she was unbelievable.
00:21:39.460 --> 00:21:43.560
Steve Garraty: And we talked outside of, you know, outside of my visits.
00:21:43.680 --> 00:21:47.740
Steve Garraty: So I would say those seven really helped me get through that year.
00:21:48.644 --> 00:21:55.564
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Wow. That's amazing. And I absolutely love that you just spoke about the
00:21:55.564 --> 00:21:58.324
Kevin Lowe: lady who worked at the doctor's office,
00:21:58.324 --> 00:22:03.964
Kevin Lowe: because I think so many times we put our doctors,
00:22:04.144 --> 00:22:06.564
Kevin Lowe: the nurses, they're kind of over in this one category.
00:22:06.564 --> 00:22:14.364
Kevin Lowe: But when that bridge can be formed of them being so compassionate and understanding
00:22:14.364 --> 00:22:20.084
Kevin Lowe: to form a relationship, I think that's kind of where the magic lies in health care.
00:22:20.084 --> 00:22:23.864
Steve Garraty: And I've tried to track her down. All I know is there, we ended up switching
00:22:23.864 --> 00:22:28.724
Steve Garraty: oncologists and that's, that's another chapter in the book, but the nurse,
00:22:28.984 --> 00:22:30.624
Steve Garraty: I just knew her first name.
00:22:30.784 --> 00:22:34.284
Steve Garraty: And when we switched doctors, you know, again, that was pre-cell phone.
00:22:34.444 --> 00:22:38.104
Steve Garraty: And unfortunately I didn't keep in touch with her, but yeah,
00:22:38.184 --> 00:22:41.444
Steve Garraty: I'd love to, I've tried to find her over the years so I could thank her,
00:22:41.564 --> 00:22:44.724
Steve Garraty: but I haven't been successful in doing so.
00:22:45.224 --> 00:22:50.984
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Well, you go through this, what was it?
00:22:51.084 --> 00:22:53.564
Kevin Lowe: Was it roughly a year of chemo?
00:22:53.764 --> 00:22:56.144
Steve Garraty: It was probably close to 10 months, I think.
00:22:56.764 --> 00:23:05.604
Kevin Lowe: Okay. So you go through 10 months of chemo, of this kind of year of pure and utter hell.
00:23:05.904 --> 00:23:09.624
Kevin Lowe: How do you begin at the end of treatment?
00:23:10.682 --> 00:23:16.222
Kevin Lowe: To try to transition back into quote unquote normal life.
00:23:16.502 --> 00:23:20.962
Kevin Lowe: I mean, I'm sitting there trying to think, I mean, the transition,
00:23:21.242 --> 00:23:26.442
Kevin Lowe: it can't be just flip on a light switch and all of a sudden everything's better. I feel great.
00:23:26.662 --> 00:23:29.862
Kevin Lowe: And just do I go back to partying and all that?
00:23:30.162 --> 00:23:32.222
Kevin Lowe: Like what happened for you?
00:23:32.842 --> 00:23:37.242
Steve Garraty: So it's a great question. And it was, yeah, it's not, not flip of a switch.
00:23:37.242 --> 00:23:42.202
Steve Garraty: And it definitely was a gradual transition to answer that question.
00:23:42.722 --> 00:23:48.922
Steve Garraty: That summer, I was just, probably the, well, first of all, the day the oncologist
00:23:48.922 --> 00:23:51.442
Steve Garraty: walked in, and again, you don't know when the end is coming.
00:23:51.622 --> 00:23:56.402
Steve Garraty: So I went in, had gotten some tests done, some CAT scans and x-rays,
00:23:56.462 --> 00:24:00.842
Steve Garraty: and I was going in for what I thought was another round of chemo.
00:24:01.082 --> 00:24:05.382
Steve Garraty: And the oncologist came in to review the results, which we had done a number
00:24:05.382 --> 00:24:07.262
Steve Garraty: of times, the results of the scans.
00:24:07.722 --> 00:24:12.062
Steve Garraty: And he came in and said, I've got great news for you. And so when he told me
00:24:12.062 --> 00:24:13.842
Steve Garraty: they've gotten all the cancer,
00:24:14.162 --> 00:24:19.222
Steve Garraty: I think that was to this day, and I've had kids and I've gotten married to this
00:24:19.222 --> 00:24:26.402
Steve Garraty: day, that ranks as probably the moment of gratitude that was at an all time high for me.
00:24:26.522 --> 00:24:33.382
Steve Garraty: I mean, I can't even put into words how grateful and how blessed and how overwhelmed
00:24:33.382 --> 00:24:36.842
Steve Garraty: with joy I was when I was told we've gotten it all and you're finished.
00:24:37.242 --> 00:24:41.262
Steve Garraty: But from there, I did head off to school in the fall.
00:24:41.462 --> 00:24:46.982
Steve Garraty: I did join a fraternity. I was a lot more. I knew that that lifestyle I had
00:24:46.982 --> 00:24:51.562
Steve Garraty: lived in high school, I needed to leave behind me. I think that took a lot.
00:24:51.957 --> 00:24:57.677
Steve Garraty: 10 months to chemo and time to reflect to decide that I can't go back to that
00:24:57.677 --> 00:25:00.157
Steve Garraty: lifestyle, nor did I want to go back to it.
00:25:00.377 --> 00:25:06.157
Steve Garraty: I also had read some things and learned that I believe that that partying and
00:25:06.157 --> 00:25:10.977
Steve Garraty: drinking and what I did from a stress and what I did to my body and my mind
00:25:10.977 --> 00:25:14.437
Steve Garraty: during that time probably led to me getting sick.
00:25:14.717 --> 00:25:19.197
Steve Garraty: And so I knew that I had to go, that I had to approach college differently than
00:25:19.197 --> 00:25:23.337
Steve Garraty: I had expected before cancer. But I did go off in the fall.
00:25:23.617 --> 00:25:28.457
Steve Garraty: I switched. I decided to go to a different college, went to the University of Georgia.
00:25:28.777 --> 00:25:34.477
Steve Garraty: And it was wild, Kevin, because three months after that year of hell,
00:25:34.697 --> 00:25:38.997
Steve Garraty: as I like to call it, I'm going to football games. I'm going to tailgates.
00:25:39.777 --> 00:25:45.417
Steve Garraty: I've got 100 friends in the fraternity that I quickly develop going out on dates,
00:25:45.437 --> 00:25:48.837
Steve Garraty: which there were no dates during the year I was bald and sickly.
00:25:49.057 --> 00:25:54.497
Steve Garraty: And so I just felt like I was, the amount of gratitude I think I had compared
00:25:54.497 --> 00:25:57.837
Steve Garraty: to the average student at the time was probably really high.
00:25:58.217 --> 00:26:02.817
Steve Garraty: But I think I did it more responsibly than I would have thanks to the cancer.
00:26:03.217 --> 00:26:06.377
Steve Garraty: So that's how I kind of started to approach it.
00:26:07.137 --> 00:26:11.817
Steve Garraty: I'd say there was some mental trauma of, I was always worried,
00:26:12.017 --> 00:26:16.597
Steve Garraty: typically when you're cured of cancer, you're in remission for five years.
00:26:16.737 --> 00:26:20.157
Steve Garraty: So the oncologist that said, hey, we got it all, we're done.
00:26:20.397 --> 00:26:23.477
Steve Garraty: For the next five years, we're going to monitor you closely.
00:26:23.857 --> 00:26:28.397
Steve Garraty: You're going to continue to get the scans. And if we don't find anything after
00:26:28.397 --> 00:26:30.577
Steve Garraty: five years, then you're cured.
00:26:31.017 --> 00:26:35.817
Steve Garraty: And I remember him saying the chances of getting cancer then are same as anybody else.
00:26:36.483 --> 00:26:40.323
Steve Garraty: And so that five years, obviously, I was, you know, in college during that time.
00:26:40.523 --> 00:26:44.323
Steve Garraty: And there were a couple of scares where I would have like a swollen lymph node or was sick.
00:26:44.703 --> 00:26:48.923
Steve Garraty: And my mind would go to places of, you know, oh, no, it's it's come back.
00:26:49.263 --> 00:26:51.883
Steve Garraty: So that was probably the hardest thing to deal with.
00:26:52.363 --> 00:26:55.683
Steve Garraty: But does that answer your question? I would say those are some of the ways that
00:26:55.683 --> 00:26:57.583
Steve Garraty: was affected my transition.
00:26:58.603 --> 00:27:06.023
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, yeah, 100 percent. And I think that little piece that you just spoke about, I think,
00:27:06.183 --> 00:27:14.303
Kevin Lowe: is probably the hardest thing to deal with is the fear of it coming back.
00:27:14.523 --> 00:27:18.683
Kevin Lowe: I know from my own perspective of having a brain tumor, you know,
00:27:18.843 --> 00:27:20.323
Kevin Lowe: my tumor was not cancerous.
00:27:21.243 --> 00:27:25.903
Kevin Lowe: But when they had removed it, they had to leave this tiny little piece.
00:27:25.903 --> 00:27:31.983
Kevin Lowe: And so I had to always keep going back for follow-up MRIs to check to be sure
00:27:31.983 --> 00:27:34.163
Kevin Lowe: that it wasn't regrowing.
00:27:34.423 --> 00:27:39.823
Kevin Lowe: And thank God it never started growing again.
00:27:39.983 --> 00:27:42.923
Kevin Lowe: Actually, the little piece that was left just died off.
00:27:43.383 --> 00:27:49.343
Kevin Lowe: But I know from that aspect what it can feel like, the fear,
00:27:49.483 --> 00:27:53.763
Kevin Lowe: the worry of, you know, that infamous question of what if?
00:27:53.903 --> 00:27:59.163
Kevin Lowe: What if it is coming back? And that can make it, I feel that can make it really
00:27:59.163 --> 00:28:03.463
Kevin Lowe: hard to sometimes really move on with life.
00:28:03.723 --> 00:28:07.763
Steve Garraty: Yeah, that definitely was the hardest part post-cancer for sure.
00:28:08.403 --> 00:28:10.323
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, yeah. Wow. So, yeah.
00:28:10.808 --> 00:28:17.348
Kevin Lowe: Where does life take you from there to lead you kind of in the direction that
00:28:17.348 --> 00:28:20.368
Kevin Lowe: took you to kind of where you are today all these years later?
00:28:20.948 --> 00:28:24.968
Steve Garraty: Yeah, so there was that first year in college, there was a pivotal thing that
00:28:24.968 --> 00:28:28.568
Steve Garraty: happened for me. And it was, believe it or not, it was a movie.
00:28:28.748 --> 00:28:34.028
Steve Garraty: So I went home for Christmas, my first Christmas after being cured of cancer.
00:28:34.088 --> 00:28:35.028
Steve Garraty: And I was going to college.
00:28:35.288 --> 00:28:39.208
Steve Garraty: I lived in Atlanta. I was going to college about an hour and a half from Atlanta.
00:28:39.208 --> 00:28:43.788
Steve Garraty: And when I was going home for break, one of my new friends in college had asked
00:28:43.788 --> 00:28:47.908
Steve Garraty: if I had ever seen the movie It's a Wonderful Life, and I had not.
00:28:48.268 --> 00:28:52.248
Steve Garraty: And so dating myself a little bit, I went to the local Blockbuster,
00:28:52.428 --> 00:28:55.788
Steve Garraty: and I rented this movie and took it home and watched it.
00:28:55.888 --> 00:28:58.188
Steve Garraty: And I was bawling watching the movie.
00:28:58.328 --> 00:29:02.588
Steve Garraty: For those of your listeners who haven't seen it, it's basically,
00:29:02.588 --> 00:29:07.508
Steve Garraty: I think it was back in the 30s or 40s the movie came out. But it was a gentleman
00:29:07.508 --> 00:29:12.928
Steve Garraty: who had, you know, a great family and had grown up in this town and wanted to get out of the town.
00:29:13.248 --> 00:29:16.608
Steve Garraty: And a number of things happen in his life that are big setbacks.
00:29:17.068 --> 00:29:21.608
Steve Garraty: And he reaches a point where he's wishing he was dead, had never been born.
00:29:21.968 --> 00:29:25.608
Steve Garraty: And this angel grants him that wish. And the second half of the movie,
00:29:25.768 --> 00:29:29.448
Steve Garraty: he's able to see what life would be like had he not been born.
00:29:29.448 --> 00:29:36.468
Steve Garraty: And for me, that movie, I always saw my cancer as the life before and the life after.
00:29:36.808 --> 00:29:42.168
Steve Garraty: And that movie really resonated with me. And so from that, I started,
00:29:42.588 --> 00:29:47.048
Steve Garraty: I watched it every Christmas multiple times, but it started changing the way
00:29:47.048 --> 00:29:49.568
Steve Garraty: I viewed my experience with cancer.
00:29:49.808 --> 00:29:54.468
Steve Garraty: And so it was an awful year and it was terrible and I would never want to go
00:29:54.468 --> 00:29:56.028
Steve Garraty: through it again or wish it on anybody.
00:29:56.918 --> 00:30:00.458
Steve Garraty: But I started to view it as, one, it put me on a different path,
00:30:00.678 --> 00:30:03.738
Steve Garraty: a better path, and I was headed down a bad path.
00:30:03.878 --> 00:30:09.638
Steve Garraty: But two, I started looking at some of the benefits or the values that I was
00:30:09.638 --> 00:30:13.498
Steve Garraty: starting to embrace because of my experience with cancer.
00:30:13.778 --> 00:30:18.278
Steve Garraty: And so it just really, I'd say perspective was the first thing that changed.
00:30:18.298 --> 00:30:24.358
Steve Garraty: And that movie helped frame that up for me and had me starting to analyze my
00:30:24.358 --> 00:30:27.558
Steve Garraty: year with cancer differently, if that makes sense.
00:30:28.598 --> 00:30:35.878
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, 100%. You know, isn't it always kind of crazy sometimes how we can have
00:30:35.878 --> 00:30:42.998
Kevin Lowe: such changes in our lives from the most unexpected places?
00:30:43.818 --> 00:30:48.638
Kevin Lowe: I mean, I know for myself, what a pivotal moment in my story happened from a
00:30:48.638 --> 00:30:51.158
Kevin Lowe: chapter in a book I was listening to.
00:30:51.158 --> 00:30:58.158
Kevin Lowe: For you, this movie, I think it's the powerful thing about life of when we're
00:30:58.158 --> 00:31:02.338
Kevin Lowe: ready to hear what we need to hear, we hear it from something.
00:31:02.798 --> 00:31:05.378
Kevin Lowe: And that's just really powerful.
00:31:05.798 --> 00:31:10.378
Steve Garraty: Yeah, I like how you said that. I felt like, you know, there was a reason that
00:31:10.378 --> 00:31:12.538
Steve Garraty: my friends suggested this movie to me.
00:31:12.838 --> 00:31:16.818
Steve Garraty: Most of my friends in college didn't know I had cancer. I didn't talk about
00:31:16.818 --> 00:31:20.738
Steve Garraty: it. but I felt like God was suggesting I watch this movie.
00:31:21.238 --> 00:31:26.578
Steve Garraty: It rocked me the first time I ever watched that movie and just started to reframe
00:31:26.578 --> 00:31:28.518
Steve Garraty: how I viewed the experience.
00:31:29.118 --> 00:31:30.538
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, absolutely.
00:31:31.505 --> 00:31:38.425
Kevin Lowe: So I guess what I would love to find out is the book that you have written.
00:31:39.265 --> 00:31:44.425
Kevin Lowe: When was the first inkling of an idea that you wanted to write a book?
00:31:44.725 --> 00:31:50.165
Steve Garraty: I joke, which is kind of true, but Kevin, I joke that it took me 37 years to write this book.
00:31:50.505 --> 00:31:54.185
Steve Garraty: When I was going through chemo, and like I said, it was a lonely year.
00:31:54.405 --> 00:31:57.845
Steve Garraty: I didn't have many people to lean on. I had a girlfriend through high school.
00:31:58.005 --> 00:32:00.845
Steve Garraty: We broke up pretty much right away when I got cancer.
00:32:01.505 --> 00:32:04.505
Steve Garraty: And so it was just a, it was a tough, lonely year.
00:32:04.685 --> 00:32:09.405
Steve Garraty: And so my parents, my mom specifically, had really encouraged me to write it,
00:32:09.585 --> 00:32:14.305
Steve Garraty: write in a journal so that it was a way of coping and kind of therapy for me.
00:32:14.585 --> 00:32:18.805
Steve Garraty: And so I filled up a pretty thick notebook with just, you know,
00:32:18.945 --> 00:32:22.905
Steve Garraty: random thoughts and experience what I was going through and what the chemo was
00:32:22.905 --> 00:32:25.845
Steve Garraty: like and what was going on inside my head.
00:32:25.965 --> 00:32:30.385
Steve Garraty: And so I did that during the course, pretty much most of the time I was going
00:32:30.385 --> 00:32:31.865
Steve Garraty: through cancer and I filled that up.
00:32:32.432 --> 00:32:35.632
Steve Garraty: And so that was the start of what today is the book.
00:32:35.812 --> 00:32:40.992
Steve Garraty: Went off to college, didn't want to think about cancer. I put that journal or
00:32:40.992 --> 00:32:42.632
Steve Garraty: the notebook, I should say, aside.
00:32:43.252 --> 00:32:46.912
Steve Garraty: And then I would say in my early to mid-20s after getting out,
00:32:47.072 --> 00:32:51.332
Steve Garraty: I took a writing course. And I don't know why I was a finance major,
00:32:51.492 --> 00:32:54.792
Steve Garraty: never really much of a writer or focused on that.
00:32:54.932 --> 00:33:00.832
Steve Garraty: But I took a writing course in the evening and pulled out that journal and started
00:33:00.832 --> 00:33:05.292
Steve Garraty: to think, I want to leave a story for my kids. I have two children.
00:33:05.632 --> 00:33:10.952
Steve Garraty: And two children, the oncologist had told me there was a 70% chance I would
00:33:10.952 --> 00:33:14.472
Steve Garraty: never have due to the chemo. So they were a blessing as well.
00:33:14.772 --> 00:33:18.112
Steve Garraty: But I wanted to leave them my story when they were little.
00:33:18.332 --> 00:33:22.052
Steve Garraty: So that was kind of the first time I started thinking about taking that journal
00:33:22.052 --> 00:33:24.272
Steve Garraty: and making it into a book.
00:33:24.392 --> 00:33:28.172
Steve Garraty: And this was a long time ago. My kids are now 25 and 28.
00:33:28.392 --> 00:33:31.692
Steve Garraty: But life just kept getting in the way. I'm in sales. I would travel,
00:33:31.992 --> 00:33:34.612
Steve Garraty: you know, kids sports, just all the things.
00:33:34.792 --> 00:33:37.232
Steve Garraty: Life kept getting in the way. And so I would pick up the book.
00:33:37.692 --> 00:33:42.052
Steve Garraty: I would write some. I'd put it back down. And I'm very thankful in hindsight
00:33:42.492 --> 00:33:46.532
Steve Garraty: that it took so long to write because the first book, the first half of the book.
00:33:47.133 --> 00:33:50.533
Steve Garraty: Is really what happened, why it happened, how it happened.
00:33:50.773 --> 00:33:54.833
Steve Garraty: It was really the story of the cancer and the partying and all of that.
00:33:55.033 --> 00:34:00.393
Steve Garraty: But the second half of the book is really because it took me so long to finish it and write it.
00:34:00.773 --> 00:34:05.073
Steve Garraty: The second half of the book is how cancer made me a better husband,
00:34:05.673 --> 00:34:08.513
Steve Garraty: father, friend, business leader.
00:34:08.693 --> 00:34:12.053
Steve Garraty: I've been in leadership a long time and how it affected my faith.
00:34:12.273 --> 00:34:16.933
Steve Garraty: I would say those kind of five areas of my life. And so had I finished this
00:34:16.933 --> 00:34:19.313
Steve Garraty: book in my 20s, it would be part one only.
00:34:19.593 --> 00:34:26.153
Steve Garraty: But because I have the perspective of four decades and how this year of my journey
00:34:26.153 --> 00:34:31.753
Steve Garraty: that involved fighting cancer, how it impacted my life is really part two.
00:34:32.093 --> 00:34:36.233
Steve Garraty: And so eventually I felt like the story would resonate with people,
00:34:36.433 --> 00:34:43.173
Steve Garraty: not just who had cancer, but who've been to grief or divorce or any major life setback.
00:34:43.313 --> 00:34:44.853
Steve Garraty: And that was maybe 10 years ago.
00:34:45.153 --> 00:34:49.753
Steve Garraty: And anyways, it took me a long time to finish it really just because life kept getting in the way.
00:34:49.873 --> 00:34:55.313
Steve Garraty: But it was a gradual process of going from writing a journal for therapy and
00:34:55.313 --> 00:34:59.033
Steve Garraty: dealing with cancer to having it being a book that I published.
00:34:59.453 --> 00:35:05.593
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, yeah, wow. Now, the title of the book is Greatfruit.
00:35:06.353 --> 00:35:10.533
Kevin Lowe: And I would love for you to unpack that title for me.
00:35:11.273 --> 00:35:16.713
Steve Garraty: Yeah. So I spent about six months. The book was done. I was going through editing.
00:35:17.093 --> 00:35:20.113
Steve Garraty: And I was struggling trying to come up with a name for the book.
00:35:20.173 --> 00:35:24.313
Steve Garraty: I was going to call it Why Me? I think you said what if earlier. Why me?
00:35:24.533 --> 00:35:28.713
Steve Garraty: You know, when bad things happen to us, I think a lot of times we say, why me?
00:35:29.093 --> 00:35:33.133
Steve Garraty: And so I was going to call it Why Me? The problem is there's a lot of books out there called Why Me?
00:35:33.493 --> 00:35:38.573
Steve Garraty: So I was struggling with what's a better name. And a friend of mine who I hadn't
00:35:38.573 --> 00:35:43.313
Steve Garraty: seen in 20-something years, we got together in Atlanta for drinks,
00:35:43.353 --> 00:35:45.293
Steve Garraty: and he's more of a marketing guru.
00:35:45.993 --> 00:35:50.513
Steve Garraty: And I was telling him about my book. He knew my story. And he said,
00:35:50.573 --> 00:35:54.313
Steve Garraty: hey, let me read it, and I'll come up with some titles for you.
00:35:54.453 --> 00:35:58.853
Steve Garraty: And so he did. He gave me a list of titles, and Greatfruit was one of them.
00:35:59.113 --> 00:36:05.613
Steve Garraty: But it's really a play on words, so it's great, G-R-E-A-T-F-R-U-I-T, one word.
00:36:05.613 --> 00:36:10.433
Steve Garraty: And it's really a play on words from they took a mass out the size of a grapefruit,
00:36:10.953 --> 00:36:16.333
Steve Garraty: and it ended up being a blessing and leading to a more fruitful life.
00:36:16.813 --> 00:36:22.853
Steve Garraty: And so he kind of combined that and those two themes in the book and came up
00:36:22.853 --> 00:36:24.473
Steve Garraty: with the name and I liked it a lot.
00:36:24.713 --> 00:36:28.913
Steve Garraty: And so, yeah, the book's called Greatfruit, How Cancer Led to Living a More Fruitful Life.
00:36:29.753 --> 00:36:36.813
Kevin Lowe: Wow, I love it. I absolutely love the play on words. I think that's such an
00:36:36.813 --> 00:36:39.273
Kevin Lowe: awesome idea. So catchy.
00:36:39.573 --> 00:36:47.493
Kevin Lowe: So I guess what I'm curious about is after such a long time,
00:36:48.373 --> 00:36:53.433
Kevin Lowe: from the time of, honestly, from you being diagnosed with cancer,
00:36:53.773 --> 00:37:00.853
Kevin Lowe: going through it, making a few entries in a journal, to the first idea of starting
00:37:00.853 --> 00:37:02.753
Kevin Lowe: a book, can end the long process.
00:37:03.707 --> 00:37:12.207
Kevin Lowe: What was it like for you to actually hold in your hands your published book?
00:37:13.027 --> 00:37:16.667
Steve Garraty: So it's funny you say that. So the book was published in March.
00:37:17.347 --> 00:37:23.507
Steve Garraty: And the first copy that I got from Amazon once I uploaded the book before it
00:37:23.507 --> 00:37:27.827
Steve Garraty: was available to the public, it's in my hand right now. I call it the OG.
00:37:28.107 --> 00:37:32.567
Steve Garraty: It's the original gangster of my books. But, yeah, I carry it with me everywhere.
00:37:32.727 --> 00:37:36.527
Steve Garraty: It's all beat up now. But it was unbelievable to hold that book.
00:37:36.707 --> 00:37:41.907
Steve Garraty: I think probably for your listeners, it's, you know, any major goal you've gone
00:37:41.907 --> 00:37:45.347
Steve Garraty: after in your life that took a lot of work and sweat and tears.
00:37:45.487 --> 00:37:48.587
Steve Garraty: When you finally accomplished that, whether it's, I don't know,
00:37:48.627 --> 00:37:52.827
Steve Garraty: a promotion at work or selling your business or, you know, whatever it is,
00:37:52.947 --> 00:37:57.947
Steve Garraty: it was very rewarding when it finally was published and available to the public.
00:37:58.087 --> 00:38:01.727
Steve Garraty: But holding it in my hands was like, wow, this is now a reality.
00:38:02.287 --> 00:38:06.787
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, that's amazing. Now, have your kids read the book?
00:38:07.167 --> 00:38:11.387
Steve Garraty: They have. They have. And I would say, you know, it was rewarding holding the
00:38:11.387 --> 00:38:15.507
Steve Garraty: book, but it was also a little scary, Kevin, because the book is very raw and
00:38:15.507 --> 00:38:17.367
Steve Garraty: I'm very vulnerable in there.
00:38:17.507 --> 00:38:21.627
Steve Garraty: There's a chapter in there that I debated whether I should put in or not.
00:38:21.767 --> 00:38:26.027
Steve Garraty: And so when my kids read it, they knew that they had heard, you know,
00:38:26.107 --> 00:38:29.127
Steve Garraty: that I had gotten into trouble in school and things of that nature.
00:38:29.127 --> 00:38:32.547
Steve Garraty: But when they both read it, they were like, wow, we knew you were bad.
00:38:32.707 --> 00:38:34.327
Steve Garraty: We didn't know you were that bad.
00:38:35.207 --> 00:38:41.367
Steve Garraty: But yeah, they both really enjoyed it. And, you know, I hope that part two,
00:38:41.527 --> 00:38:45.567
Steve Garraty: which is kind of the ways that it affected my life.
00:38:45.707 --> 00:38:49.947
Steve Garraty: I hope that they take some of those lessons and can learn those lessons without
00:38:49.947 --> 00:38:53.507
Steve Garraty: having to go through something like cancer, but that they can embrace things
00:38:53.507 --> 00:38:59.927
Steve Garraty: like gratitude and empathy and paying it forward and how they can be a better parent,
00:39:00.147 --> 00:39:02.727
Steve Garraty: a better spouse, how it can affect their faith.
00:39:03.401 --> 00:39:08.381
Steve Garraty: And so, yeah, my hope is that they kind of embrace some of those lessons and
00:39:08.381 --> 00:39:10.921
Steve Garraty: and live a more fruitful life themselves.
00:39:11.301 --> 00:39:13.901
Steve Garraty: But, yeah, they were a little shocked with some of the stuff in the book.
00:39:14.441 --> 00:39:20.541
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Yeah. I love it. That's that is too awesome. I think that's truly incredible.
00:39:20.941 --> 00:39:27.521
Kevin Lowe: And I mean, I give you a tremendous just round of applause for for finally doing
00:39:27.521 --> 00:39:34.261
Kevin Lowe: it, for for finally actually turning it into a book. I think it's truly amazing.
00:39:34.581 --> 00:39:41.561
Kevin Lowe: It's a personal goal of mine. One day that I will hope to accomplish.
00:39:41.861 --> 00:39:46.581
Kevin Lowe: And so I know how difficult it can be to do such a thing.
00:39:46.681 --> 00:39:51.421
Kevin Lowe: And so the fact that you have done it, I'm just like, that's absolutely amazing.
00:39:52.247 --> 00:39:57.167
Steve Garraty: Yeah, it's been an awesome journey. It's been fun. And I've met a lot of authors.
00:39:57.347 --> 00:40:01.287
Steve Garraty: Some have been mentors to me that are further along in the journey than I.
00:40:01.527 --> 00:40:05.767
Steve Garraty: And then I've met authors who are still trying to get their book out and I'm
00:40:05.767 --> 00:40:07.107
Steve Garraty: trying to be a mentor to them.
00:40:07.287 --> 00:40:12.207
Steve Garraty: So if you're ever working on that book and I can help you, I love sharing.
00:40:12.447 --> 00:40:16.367
Steve Garraty: And there's things I did right, things I did wrong and things I learned from
00:40:16.367 --> 00:40:20.087
Steve Garraty: in the process. But it's been fun. It's been very rewarding.
00:40:20.527 --> 00:40:25.947
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, I love it. Well, Steve, for the person who's interested in picking up
00:40:25.947 --> 00:40:29.467
Kevin Lowe: a copy of your book, where is the best place that they could find it?
00:40:30.047 --> 00:40:34.827
Steve Garraty: Online, pretty much any, you know, I'd say the major, Amazon owns about 70 or
00:40:34.827 --> 00:40:38.507
Steve Garraty: 80% of all book sales worldwide, but Amazon's one.
00:40:38.767 --> 00:40:41.587
Steve Garraty: If you're not a big fan of Amazon, you know, Barnes and Noble,
00:40:41.987 --> 00:40:44.187
Steve Garraty: any of the big online retailers.
00:40:44.607 --> 00:40:47.627
Steve Garraty: And, you know, again, it's Greatfruit, which is one word.
00:40:48.227 --> 00:40:51.507
Steve Garraty: And yeah, they can get it online. and have it shipped to them.
00:40:51.807 --> 00:40:54.987
Kevin Lowe: Okay, well, amazing. Well, I will be sure for anybody interested,
00:40:55.507 --> 00:40:57.627
Kevin Lowe: links are all in the episode show notes.
00:40:57.647 --> 00:41:01.147
Kevin Lowe: I'll be sure to drop links for easy access to your book.
00:41:01.287 --> 00:41:05.887
Kevin Lowe: I guess I would love just to end with one final question.
00:41:06.267 --> 00:41:10.907
Kevin Lowe: And through all that you've learned in life, all that you've been through,
00:41:11.467 --> 00:41:13.247
Kevin Lowe: what are you the most grateful for?
00:41:13.827 --> 00:41:18.447
Steve Garraty: I'm grateful that I got a second chance. I think I could save my kids.
00:41:18.447 --> 00:41:22.547
Steve Garraty: I could say my wife, I could say, there's a lot of things I could say,
00:41:22.687 --> 00:41:26.727
Steve Garraty: but none of that happens if I didn't get a second chance.
00:41:27.007 --> 00:41:30.507
Steve Garraty: I think I was headed on a path where I wouldn't have met my wife,
00:41:30.707 --> 00:41:32.387
Steve Garraty: which means I wouldn't have had my kids.
00:41:32.867 --> 00:41:38.047
Steve Garraty: I could have ended up in jail or worse. And so the fact that I was given a second
00:41:38.047 --> 00:41:43.447
Steve Garraty: chance in life is probably what I'm most grateful for because it led to everything
00:41:43.447 --> 00:41:44.707
Steve Garraty: from that point forward.
00:41:45.586 --> 00:41:48.466
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, yeah. I love it so much.
00:41:49.026 --> 00:41:55.346
Kevin Lowe: Steve, man, an absolute pleasure. I am so happy we got to make this work today.
00:41:55.626 --> 00:42:00.326
Kevin Lowe: It's been a real joy getting to have you on the podcast. So thank you so much
00:42:00.326 --> 00:42:02.066
Kevin Lowe: for taking the time out of your day to be here.
00:42:02.606 --> 00:42:04.886
Steve Garraty: Yeah, I loved it, Kevin. Thanks for having me on your show.
00:42:04.886 --> 00:42:08.066
Kevin Lowe: Absolutely absolutely for you listening
00:42:08.066 --> 00:42:11.286
Kevin Lowe: please be sure you check out today's show notes like
00:42:11.286 --> 00:42:14.626
Kevin Lowe: i said i will have links for easy access to steve's
00:42:14.626 --> 00:42:20.446
Kevin Lowe: book called Greatfruit please be sure to get yourself a copy if you were already
00:42:20.446 --> 00:42:24.726
Kevin Lowe: intrigued by the story you just heard you can bet the book is going to get you
00:42:24.726 --> 00:42:30.866
Kevin Lowe: even more excited so my friend check out these show notes and until next time
00:42:30.866 --> 00:42:33.506
Kevin Lowe: this of course is grit, grace, and inspiration.