NIAGARA ON THE LAKE, ON- "I feel pretty lucky about how everything turned out," said Steve Christie, while sitting on a couch in the den of his home, more than five months after being diagnosed with colorectal cancer.
Christie, 47, reigns as the Buffalo Bills career-scoring leader and was the team's most accomplished placekicker. He also played with three other NFL teams during his 15-year career.
This past summer, Christie noticed blood in his stools and eventually was convinced by his wife Kelly to have a doctor check it out.
During a colonoscopy in early July, Christie was found to have a four-inch tumor in his rectum.
"It was close to the prostate and close to the bladder, but it fortunately hadn't spread out," Christie said.
Within days, he would begin a five-week long regiment of chemotherapy and radiation treatments, which was followed by surgery at the Cleveland Clinic in November to remove the tumor.
Christie said he geared up for the surgery in much the same way he used to prepare himself to make a game winning kick.
"I got into that mode," he recalled, while remembering as well that the surgeon told him prior to the start of the procedure that the medical team would "huddle" before they began.
"So they did this huddle over me, and I thought to myself it was weird, because there's no yelling going on," Christie joked.
The surgery seems so far to have been a success. "Everything came back negative. There's no cancer, and while originally they thought I'd have to do another round of chemo, I don't," Christie said.
Christie has one more surgical procedure ahead of him in March, when doctors will reattach a portion of his lower digestive system, which will allow him to dispense with the ileostomy pouch he currently has to use for waste disposal.
Many of Christie's former teammates knew of his battle, including Jim Kelly who was undergoing his own bout with cancer.
Unlike Kelly, Christie kept his cancer less public. However, Christie is now sharing his story in the hope of helping others.
"A couple days after my surgery I realized that I do want people to know about what I've had to do because if all it takes is getting checked , and getting checked early to prevent everything that I had to do, then go ahead. Everybody out there should get a colonoscopy or whatever they might need..Get it done if you think something's wrong. In my own situation, I didn't think it was a big deal till I realized I needed to get checked. "
Click on the video player to watch our story from 2 on Your Side Reporter Dave McKinley and Photojournalist Bob Mancuso. Follow Dave on Twitter: @DaveMcKinley2
