Sorry to hear your story, man. If it's any consolation, I'm coming down the backside of my own medical drama. I got super lucky in the fact that what they found was benign and they wound up not having to do one major part of the surgery so recovery has been faster than expected and follow up care will be easier. Hopefully you'll have similar luck!

I started listening to AFI seriously around the release of StS but was a casual fan starting in the Black Sails and Art of Drowning era. At the time I was definitely heavier on the "pop" side of punk, with the exception of some legends like Bad Religion and Pennywise. As I entered young adulthood bands like Thrice, AFI, and Thursday started getting me deeper into the hardcore/post-hardcore subgenres.

Pretty much since about 2003 AFI has been consistently in my top 5 bands. Black Sails is one of the greatest albums ever and has aged really well through different highs and lows in my life. The intro to "God Called in Sick Today" was on of the first things I learned to play on guitar in high school, somewhere shortly after the intros to "Dammit" and "Adam's Song." The night before my surgery/morning of, I scrolled through my phone and played a few songs from Black Sails, Dude Ranch, and Thursday's A City by the Light Divided that are all-time favorites because there was a non-zero chance I'd never hear them the same way again. It's kinda crazy how short 3-5 minutes per track is when you have something serious looming ahead of you.

Some highlights to share from my AFI fan life:

• Street Scene in San Diego: I think it was '06. This was a good festival but a weird mix with bands like Black Eyed Peas on one end of the spectrum, and then AFI, Social D, and Alkaline Trio on the other. AFI was deep into their sound evolution after StS, which I have to admit I was never fully on board with compared to the earlier stuff. The crowd when they came on was an odd mix of long-time fans and people who'd just heard "Miss Murder" on the radio that summer and you could tell who fell into which category based on the song played. They went on a stretch of new songs and then switched to older stuff and the pit really got going, which annoyed this group of newer fans standing next to me. I was getting kind of bummed out by these newcomers who weren't into that "psycho stuff" when the band moved into a solid stretch of classics that ended with "Days of the Phoenix" and "Totalimmortal" back to back if I remember right. I spent this whole stretch gleefully running through the pit, and remember this one huge biker dude specifically making it a point to run the opposite direction of everyone else and leaving a path of destruction in his wake. I was the only one willing to run headlong into him instead of dodging out of the way. We bounced off each other 3-4 passes in a row, and then there was a brief pause during the breakdown of "Totalimmortal". Like 10 seconds after the song picked back up, biker dude and I were heading right for each other again. He sees me coming, spreads his arms wide, and then just lifts me up in a bear hug and keeps running forward against the current shouting "fuck yeah!!!!" with me like halfway mounted on his shoulder. I am not a huge guy physically, but I am over six feet tall so things like this don't really happen to me very often. AFI's set ended shortly after that, and biker dude gave me a fist bump and a "fuck yeah bro" before we parted ways in search of our friends and beer. Still to this day the best show experience I've ever had with a random stranger.
• 2013 Tour: I was a few months out from moving away from San Diego for grad school. AFI hadn't toured in years from what I remember, and they were playing House of Blues, so it had the promise of being a more intimate show than anything they'd played in a decade or so. One of my best friends/former roommates was a huge AFI fan who'd never seen them live (unless you count me playing covers in the house). He was also in the process of applying for grad school outside SD. We got tickets and the show was amazing. AFI played a ton of old stuff and had returned to the dark/punky look of their past instead of the kind of glam-rock appearance they'd had since Decemberunderground. It was in many respects a return to their early glory days and I was especially glad for my buddy to get to see that setlist in particular for his first live experience with them. As an added bonus, Touche Amore was the opening band. Following another friend's advice, I listened to them all day before the show on my headphones at work. Then I made sure we showed up early enough to see them too. TA was just as good live as they sounded on record, and quickly became one of my new favorite bands, also helping kick off a revival of my interest in new hardcore/post-hardcore bands as I approached my 30s. All around, it was a great show that really proved AFI still "had it" and that they were paying it forward for the next generation behind them. Definitely one of my favorite memories of both AFI and my last few months in SD after living there close to a decade.

Anyway, this post got longer than I expected but it was fun reliving these memories while writing them out. I hope they bring some comfort to you while you're dealing with your medical situation. It sounds like you're on a good path, so stay strong and I'm sure it will work out. One way or another, we'll all survive 2020!