When he was 15 years old, what started as some back pain nearly turned into a nightmare while he was in his first year of Midget AAA.
"The physiotherapists thought it had to do with a disc because it looked like a herniated disc, but that was pretty rare for someone my age. I was in a lot of pain," remembered the forward, who spent last season with the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada. "I had trouble going to school, because it hurt to walk."
He underwent an MRI, which revealed a mass near his spinal cord in his lower back. In a matter of days, he was being looked after by a neurosurgeon at the Hopital Enfant-Jesus in Quebec City.
"He did some tests with a more precise MRI and they could see that it was in a canal where the cerebrospinal fluid flows," he explained. "The mass was so big that the fluid could no longer get through and it was pressing on my nerves, which was shooting pain down my leg."
Even if the word "tumor" was a little frightening at first, in the end, Alain could only hope for one thing: that the mass could be removed to alleviate the pain.
He went under the knife on February 14, 2013, and the procedure was not without its risks.
"Before the biopsy, we didn't know if it was cancerous or not, but in the end it was benign. It was still in a riskier section of the back, because the nerves were involved," recalled the Quebec City native. "The doctors couldn't promise me that I'd be able to continue playing hockey."
After realizing the operation was a success, Alain's doctors quickly reassured him that he'd be able to play like before.
"It wasn't easy, because I knew I wouldn't be able to play hockey for a while," he described. "I was in rehabilitation for four months, but now, I'm back to normal and there were no side-effects."
Often, you hear how trauma, accidents or illnesses can change one's perspective, and that was certainly the case with Alain.
"It's definitely stressful and it's something else to have to go through that at 15 years old. You see how sometimes, it doesn't take much for life to unravel. I realized it right then and there. My perspective on life hasn't totally changed, but I know that it can be so short and you really have to take advantage and at the moment, I'm doing that to the fullest," concluded the 20-year-old forward. "You have to savor it all, because you never know what could happen."
