Chris’s Story: Finding Joy in the Fight

Chris Parente is a seven-time Emmy Award winning reporter, anchor and entertainment host. You can watch him weekdays from 4:30-9:00 a.m. co-anchoring “Daybreak” on Fox 31 in Denver, CO.  He also is chronicling his bladder cancer journey on his YouTube channel, “Sudden Urgency.”  This is Chris’s story:

In 2025, I was thinking about retirement. My husband and I were making plans, and I was looking forward to spending time in Italy and finally slowing down after years of working. Then, one Saturday morning, I went to the bathroom and saw blood in my urine.

Just like that, everything changed.

My sister is a nurse, so I called her immediately. She didn’t hesitate. “Go get checked out.”

At first, I hoped it was something simple, maybe a urinary tract infection. When those tests came back negative, I remember thinking, That doesn’t sound like good news. If it’s not a UTI, then what is it?

Within eight days, I had gone from feeling perfectly healthy to seeing specialists, having scans and learning there was a tumor in my bladder. My entire life changed in just over a week.

One thing I tell everyone now is this: never ignore blood in your urine, even if it stops. Mine only lasted a couple of days. If I had brushed it off because the bleeding went away, I don’t even want to think about where I’d be today.

A month after that first frightening morning, I underwent a TURBT (trans urethral resection of bladder tumor) to remove the tumor. Then came what was, for me, the hardest part of the entire journey: waiting for the pathology results. Those weeks were brutal.

Your mind goes everywhere. Is it early stage? Has it spread? How much is my life about to change? I felt like I was living in limbo, and not knowing almost broke me. My mind immediately jumped years into the future. Am I going to lose my bladder? Will I need a bag? How long do I have? What happens next? The truth is, your brain starts looking for answers it simply can’t provide.

When I finally sat in my doctor’s office waiting to hear the results, it felt like one of those scenes from an old television drama where the doctor walks in carrying the envelope that will change everything. Thankfully, my cancer was diagnosed as T1 high-grade non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. It was aggressive but it was still localized, which meant I had treatment options that didn’t involve removing my bladder.

Treatment started after the holidays. Like many bladder cancer patients, I quickly became familiar with catheters and cystoscopies. I’ve joked that after nearly 30 catheters, I deserved a punch card where the next one would be free. Sometimes humor is one of the best ways to get through difficult days.

My doctors used biomarker testing to help determine which treatment would give me the best chance of success, and I began intravesical chemotherapy with gemcitabine and docetaxel.

One of the unexpected gifts during treatment was the people I met along the way.

The same nurse administered every one of my treatments. Her name is Susanna, and over time she became one of my rocks. Those appointments are incredibly vulnerable moments. Having a familiar face, someone who knew me and genuinely cared about me, made every treatment a little less frightening.

Cancer also taught me something I never expected: you can’t do this alone.

I had no family history of cancer, so hearing the words “you have cancer” felt like being dropped into a foreign country where I didn’t speak the language. My husband became my greatest source of strength. My family and close friends helped ground me when my mind wanted to race ahead. I also found an oncology therapist who helped me process the fear and uncertainty in ways I couldn’t have managed on my own.

I’m a big believer in talking about what you’re going through. I know that’s not easy, especially for a lot of men. We’re not always taught to talk about the scary or deeply personal parts of life. But keeping it all inside only makes it heavier. Whether it’s a therapist, a friend, a faith leader or another bladder cancer survivor, find someone you can talk to. The more people you bring to your table, the less frightening this journey becomes.

If I could go back and give advice to the version of myself who had just been diagnosed, I’d tell him to slow down.

What has helped me most is learning to live one day at a time. For me, that lesson came through my recovery journey and the principles of the 12-step program. I learned to surrender the things I can’t control and focus on today instead of catastrophizing about tomorrow.

That doesn’t mean pretending cancer isn’t real. It means choosing not to let fear steal today while worrying about things that may never happen.

I don’t know exactly what the future holds. Bladder cancer may always be part of my life. But I’ve realized those two things can both be true: I can continue fighting cancer, and I can still choose joy.

I’m still learning how to do that every day. I haven’t perfected it. But I know it’s possible.

And for me, that’s what this journey is really about. It’s not just surviving bladder cancer. It’s finding a way to truly live while you’re fighting it.