My bizarre tongue symptom turned out to be stage 4 cancer
Then again, most people aren't Keith Giffney.
7 Most people wouldn't take on a Half Ironman after completing chemo and radiation therapy for stage 4 cancer. Then again — most people aren't Keith Giffney.
Courtesy of Keith G.
Giffney, 56, first noticed something rubbing against his tongue in November 2023.
While it wasn't painful, he figured he should get it checked out, and in January 2024, test results revealed he had cancer that had spread to the lymph nodes in his neck and upper chest, classifying it as stage 4.
It's a diagnosis that would make many of us feel anxious, distressed or despondent — but not Giffney.
'I had this weird peacefulness about me,' he told The Post.
'When I was diagnosed, I just felt like, you know what, I got this, God's got this. I'm gonna fight this.'
Giffney leaned on his family, his faith and his trust in the doctors at Northwestern Medicine — whom he described as on 'a different level' of care.
And, having already previously decided to do the Half Ironman — a triathlon that consists of a 1.2-mile swim, a 56-mile bike ride and a 13.1-mile run — he wasn't going to let a little thing like cancer get in his way.
7 Four years sober, Keith is no stranger to squashing vices.
Courtesy of Keith G.
His first step was to quit chewing tobacco — while the doctors told him his cancer was related to the HPV virus, not tobacco, it couldn't have possibly helped.
'The funny thing was — January 2023 — my New Year's resolution was to quit,' he said. 'Well, I think I waited 360 days into that year to finally quit.'
Four years sober, Giffney is no stranger to squashing vices, admitting that alcohol strained his relationship with his son.
'I did over 131 miles of swimming. I biked over 700 miles and I ran over 55.' Keith Giffney
While he did the half, his 22-year-old son completed the full Ironman, which consists of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run.
'It was part of us doing things and getting back and building that trust together with him and working with him, training with him,' he said.
'We have a great friendship and great relationship. And it has been wonderful.'
7 'We have a great friendship and great relationship. And it has been wonderful,' he said of training with his son.
Courtesy of Keith G.
Training for the marathon all of last summer was, to say the least, intense.
'I did over 131 miles of swimming,' he said. 'I biked over 700 miles and I ran over 55.'
He would train five or six days a week, despite undergoing 12 rounds of chemotherapy and 35 rounds of radiation at the same time.
'I would try to replicate a mini triathlon,' Giffney explained.
That meant swimming a couple of miles a day in Lake Geneva, Illinois — where he lives — as well as an ample amount of biking and running.
Thankfully, the chemo didn't hit him too hard.
7 'I did over 131 miles of swimming,' Giffney said. 'I biked over 700 miles and I ran over 55.'
Courtesy of Keith G.
'I could just tell that I was struggling initially after the chemo to maintain a certain level of speed — I was losing some of the strength in my legs,' he said. 'But I gained it back when I got done with chemo.'
The radiation, on the other hand, was a different story.
'I lost all the taste buds, I couldn't swallow,' he said.
Because he wasn't producing as much saliva, whenever he would try to swallow while running, he would end up choking instead.
'I also couldn't eat anything by the last few weeks of radiation — that was the worst,' he said.
Even then, he managed to put a positive spin on things.
'I needed to lose a few pounds when I was going into it to be lighter running, right?' he said.
7 'I was like, I'm not looking to beat anybody other than myself here,' he said.
Courtesy of Keith G.
Weeks before the big race, Giffney got good news: Doctors told him his cancer was gone and removed his chemo port.
Pretty soon, Sept. 7, 2024, rolled around — the day of the Half Ironman in Madison, Wisconsin. Despite describing himself as a 'pretty anxious person sometimes,' mostly due to his desire to succeed, Keith said he felt very 'at peace' that day.
'I was like, I'm not looking to beat anybody other than myself here,' he said.
That doesn't mean it was all smooth sailing, though.
7 Crossing the finish line with his friends and family members — especially his kids — cheering him on was a great feeling.
Courtesy of Keith G.
When Keith got out of the water after the swimming part of the marathon, he felt disoriented.
And once he got on his bike, his leg cramped up — bad.
'It wasn't just my legs. I couldn't even breathe,' he said. 'And then all of a sudden — it just went away.'
Crossing the finish line with his friends and family members — especially his kids — cheering him on was a great feeling.
7 'To me, it's always been about having a positive mental attitude,' he said.
Courtesy of Keith G.
'My whole goal was showing them how to handle adversity,' he said. 'I wanted to be a good role model for them.'
These days, Keith is doing great — and the doctors are optimistic his cancer will remain in remission.
He's training for two more events this summer — the Door County Triathlon in July 2025 and Chicago Triathlon in August 2025 — all with his signature upbeat approach.
'To me, it's always been about having a positive mental attitude,' he said. 'Go at it with an outlook that everything's going to be great.'
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Indianapolis Star
an hour ago
- Indianapolis Star
She's Indiana Fever doctor and Ironman: 'I've had injuries. I know how devastating that is'
INDIANAPOLIS -- Dr. Amy Corrigan's mornings, the ones that launch the days she calls "a little bit insane," start at the crack of dawn. By 5 a.m., she's sweating on a bike, in the pool or running. Once at her office in Carmel where she is a sports medicine physician, Corrigan has a full day of seeing patients but, on her lunch break, she is on the treadmill, weight training or running on the Monon Trail. After work, on some evenings, there might be a bike ride or another lift. Corrigan is a devoted, high-level athlete who travels the world to compete in Ironman competitions, where she's risen to the top in the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-milie marathon trifecta of physical exertion. She is an elite athlete who played three sports in high school and was a two-sport athlete in college -- volleyball and track and field -- who, along the way, has had her share of injuries. Being injured as an athlete is an emotional pain that cuts as deeply as the the physical, and it's frustrating, Corrigan says. Which is why she can relate so well to the athletes she calls her patients: The players of the Indiana Fever. Corrigan, 43, has been the Fever physician since 2021. She was there before the Caitlin Clark era of the WNBA and has been there through Clark's four separate muscle injuries this season, including the groin injury that has sidelined the Fever star for more than a month. She is treating Sydney Colson and Aari McDonald, who the team announced Aug. 8 will be out for the season after devastating injuries. Colson tore her left ACL and McDonald broke a bone in her foot. And while Corrigan cannot talk about specific injuries or treatment of the players, she can talk about the toll it takes on them. "I grew up from a little kid involved in sports. That has always been my passion. I don't know life without being an athlete. I've always competed," said Corrigan, who practices with Ascension St. Vincent in Carmel. "And with that, I've had injuries. I know how devastating that is." Even now, Corrigan is recovering from a shoulder injury and ensuing surgery that has put her out of Ironman competitions for the short term. "When I'm injured, I'm devastated and I'm grouchy. But then I laugh, because I'm like, 'Dr. Amy is logical, but athlete injured Amy is irrational and full of feelings,'" said Corrigan. "And my husband is always like, 'What would you tell your patients?' I'm like, 'I don't know. Right now, it's the end of the world.'" Of course, as she recovers, Corrigan knows it's not really the end of the world. She is still training hard and competing in gravel racing with plans to get back to Ironman competitions in 2026. And in addition to everything else Corrigan does, she is the lead physician for Marian University athletics. It's a crazy, hectic and chaotic life she lives, competing as an elite athlete while caring for elite athletes, but to Corrigan, it's absolutely perfect. "I can definitely relate to what the athletes are going through, their pressures, stress and frustration of injury," she said. "I've been there." Corrigan grew up in Charlotte, Michigan, in a modest family where sports ruled her world. Her dad owned a business in truck accessories and her mom was a bookeeper at the county health department. Corrigan was the youngest of their three children, with two older twin brothers. Early on, it was easy to see Corrigan would be a standout athlete as a 5-year-old playing on a basketball team full of boys. In high school, in the late 1990s when athletes weren't yet focusing on just one sport, Corrigan played volleyball, basketball and ran track and field. Her athletic prowess took her to Albion College in Michigan where she earned scholarships in volleyball and track. As she competed in college, Corrigan became interested in a medical career. She thought about physical therapy, becoming a physician's assistant or even a doctor. But when she graduated college, she still wasn't sure where to go with her post secondary education. She went instead to work for the Michigan State Police as a forensic scientist in toxicology for three years, where she decided medical school it would be. At the time, she didn't know primary care sports medicine existed. But when she started rotating with different specialists, she landed with a doctor in Grand Rapids who was a primary care sports medicine physician. "And, instantly, I knew," she said. "This is awesome. This is what I want to do." While going through medical school, Corrigan found another passion -- triathlons. With her running background in college and biking after college, Corrigan started training with a group of people at the gym. One day, they invited her to compete in a triathlon. Corrigan was intrigued, but there was one problem, that 2.4-mile swim. Corrigan could doggy paddle, but that was it. She'd never had a swim lesson in her life. Being Corrigan, she went to work to change that. Her roommate, a good swimmer, started coaching her. Corrigan watched YouTube channels and, basically, taught herself how to swim. She was good enough to enter her first triathlon, the Hawk Island Triathlon in Lansing, Michigan, during med school. "And I was hooked," she said. Corrigan then tried a sprint triahtlon, a shorter version of the original, and took second place. "And after that, I was like, 'I love this sport.'" But Corrigan didn't stop there. By her third year of medical school, Corrigan was competing in her first half Ironman, the Michigan Steelhead 70.3 in Benton Harbor -- literally half of a regulation Ironman, a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike ride and 13.1-mile run. During Corrigan's residency, she shocked her fellow students and teaching doctors with the decision to train to do a full Ironman. "And everyone, including our residence director, was like, 'You're never going to be able to do that during residency,'" said Corrigan. "And so, of course, I was like, 'Oh I'm going to do it. Yeah I am.' If you tell me I'm not going to do it, I'm totally going to do it." Corrigan's first Ironman was in Louisville during her third year of residency. It was unlike anything she had ever done. "You're obviously nervous when you start the race, and hopefully you're pretty well prepared, but it's kind of a wild day," she said. "You'll go for a moment and feel like, 'I'm on top of the world,' to the lowest of low point where you're like, 'I'm just going to stop. This is at the end. I just want to lay down here.'" It was exhilarating, Corrigan said. "The highs don't stay high, the lows don't stay low. I just keep moving forward," she said. "But typically, once I've made my mind up and declared it out loud that I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it." That persistence has put Corrigan at the top of the podium, finishing first in the Ironman Chattanooga. But lately, she has been sidelined. After competing in her last Ironman in October 2023, the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, she endured that dreaded injury -- a torn rotator cuff and bicep tendon in her right shoulder -- which stopped her swimming, which meant no triathlons. That's where the gravel racing has come in for Corrigan, who competed at the Dust Bowl last month. In June, Corrigan and her fellow bikers did a group ride with former Indiana Pacers star Reggie Miller. Of course, Corrigan is working her way back to the Ironman. She's started swimming again and is hoping to qualify and race the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Nice, France, in 2026. Corrigan's extreme athletic prowess is a typical talking point as she cares for her patients, which brings her back to the high-profile job she has in the WNBA, a job she says "was a little bit of luck." During Corrigan's medical fellowship, Dr. David Harsha was her director. Harsha also happened to be the Fever team physician, which gave her a taste of what that position was like. She loved it. After Harsha stepped down and then his successor left in 2021, Corrigan landed the post. As the Fever's primary care physician, covering the role with two orthopedic surgeons, Corey Kendall and Kosmas Kayes at OrthoIndy, Corrigan does all of the players' pre and postseason physicals. She is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week if any player gets sick or gets injured. Corrigan has been there with a front row seat to see the transformation of the WNBA into a sport people are watching, a game mainstream sports fans are taking interest in. "Many people I know started watching because of Caitlin Clark, like my husband. But now, his favorite players are actually other players that he never knew existed until he started watching," said Corrigan. "So I love it that (Clark) got people watching. "The last two years have been insane with the crowds coming out and the fan base." Corrigan laughs as she describes her own insane, crazy, busy life saying "I'm always running around." Her hair is usually wet, up in a bun, after jumping out of the shower after a workout before seeing patients or heading to a Fever game. Corrigan covers all home games and travels with the team for the post season. As the lead physician at Marian University, she attends and covers all football games, rugby matches and big cycling events. She is also over men and women's basketball and wrestling. Corrigan credits her husband, Greg Millman, as the person who keeps her life running smoothly. 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New York Post
20 hours ago
- New York Post
Can weed actually mess with your cancer treatment? New research could have ‘major implications'
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New York Post
2 days ago
- New York Post
New Yorker taking on snacking giant Blue Diamond over misbranding
A New York woman is roasting almond giant Blue Diamond, claiming in a new class-action lawsuit that its nuts are misbranded to fool people into thinking they're naturally smoked. Harlem's Leela O'Connor says shoppers are duped into thinking the nuts are roasted over a real wood fire, when in reality, they're just doused with liquid smoke. The almonds' packaging, 'emblazoned on a red banner, with orange edges, evocative of fire,' made her picture a smokehouse or the burning of hardwoods in nature, she claimed in her Manhattan Supreme Court filing against the company. Advertisement O'Connor, 48, felt cheated when the fine print revealed an ingredient called 'natural hickory smoke flavor,' she claimed. 3 The lawsuit cites RFK Jr.'s 'Make America Healthy Again' movement and the quest for 'real' foods. AP 'Natural hickory smoke flavor is another name for the 'quasi-toxic' additive, 'liquid smoke,' that results from 'somehow turning smoke into a liquid,'' she fumed in court papers. Advertisement She cited Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s 'Make America Healthy Again' movement as motivation for her legal claim. 'An increasing number of consumers seek to avoid 'fake foods,' which are based on highly processed and/or chemically manufactured substances,' O'Connor said in the litigation, referring to the Health Secretary's crusade against additives. The European Union voted last year to ban liquid smoke, an ingredient used in marinades, processed meats and even the McRib, after research from the European Food Safety Authority linked it to cancer. 3 The offending almonds. Blue Diamond Almonds Advertisement To add insult to injury, O'Connor said she paid more for the almonds, $4.19, than she would have, had she known they were not made in a smokehouse. 'These almonds have never seen the inside of a smokehouse,' insisted Long Island attorney Spencer Sheehan, who's filed the suit, which seeks unspecified damages. 3 Sheehan has been nicknamed the 'vanilla vigilante.' Spencer Sheehan/Facebook Sheehan, one of the country's most prolific consumer class-action lawyers, earned the nicknamed the 'vanilla vigilante' because he's gone after companies using fake vanilla flavoring in their food so many times. Advertisement In 2022, he reached a $2.6 million settlement with Blue Diamond in a proposed federal class action case against the company's misleading vanilla-flavored Almond Breeze milk. 'Blue Diamond has been cheating the public for a long time,' he told The Post. 'New Yorkers don't like fake things.' Last year, a similar class-action suit was filed in Illinois. 'We are disappointed that Mr. Sheehan has decided to pursue yet another case challenging the labeling of Blue Diamond's Smokehouse almonds,' Rachael Kessler, the company's outside counsel, told The Post.
