Day 1
- Kevin Ashmos
- 12 minutes ago
- 2 min read
September 6th 2025
I was walking back from Neyland Stadium after working a 12 hour day bouncing from suites to the field and back making sure our corporate sponsors were having a good time as Tennessee beat East Tennessee St by 50. After the game we had a staff meeting to discuss any concerns and to celebrate getting through our first game day. My title is NIL Business Coordinator and I’m just starting my 4th month at a new job across the country from my home in Austin.
As I was walking past drunk college kids and Vol fans continuing their tailgate back to the parking garage 1/2 a mile away to get my car; go home and go to sleep. No more than 100 feet from the stadium I couldn’t catch my breath. For the next 30 min I would walk a block then sit down for 5 minutes to catch my breath. Now, at 37 years old I was in no way in “great shape” physically but this was different. I chalked it up to just a long day of being on my feet.
The next morning I woke up and my right leg was swollen and I felt off. I decided to go to urgent care as I thought maybe I was bit by a spider or something similar. The nurse drew blood and I’ll never forget her coming back into the room and saying “I’m not sure what is going on but you need to get to the ER immediately. So, still thinking this is a bug bite I drive to the closest emergency room to casually check in. Within an hour they have drawn blood and I’m in some side room IV’s in me and doctors and nurses panicking around me. Again, still confused about what is going on. After a multitude of x rays and scans I am put in a hospital bed and I remember it like yesterday, a doctor at a hospital I found on google maps in a brand new city, comes in and says “you have severe cirrhosis of the liver and there is no cure.”
“What the fuck did you just say?” He reiterated his diagnosis and I said “what is cirrhosis? How do you know that’s what it is after a couple hours? And when he explained it for the third time I broke down and asked “am I dying?!”. The doc said “in a way, yes, your liver has lost 90% of its ability to work and it’s irreversible”.
More to come…..
Song of that day
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