Mark was diagnosed with Stage IV Rhabdomyosarcoma on December 12, 1990.. Doctors said he only had six months to live,
A brief note before I begin - today is the 29th anniversary of my bone marrow transplant performed at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (July 15, 1991).
My next several entries concern the hardships of what someone dealing with permanent side effects of treatment faces in trying to support themselves and a family.
While everyone who has survived cancer knows that life is radically different post-treatment, the mental acceptance of those changes is overlooked. Understanding that your body will respond to outside stimuli vastly different creates anxiety, which one might never recover. While lifestyle changes can cause depression due to the constraints forced upon survivors, physical changes caused by treatment is enormously traumatic.
Athletically, my body disappeared overnight. My ability to run fast, jump high, and watch the baseball fly off my bat, were gone. Due to months of bed rest, muscles in my legs atrophied, along with nerves dying. I'd rather not discuss other side effects, but when I stared into the mirror, I could no longer recognize the person I saw.
Radiation and chemotherapy saved my life, but they gave me another person that I never met before. Perhaps the most challenging effect of treatment is the chronic conditions that followed. A year after treatment, my intestines began to flare up. This led to an eventual diagnosis of Crohn's disease.
In the late 1990s, I noticed my right leg swelling. By 2003, I no longer could fit into shoes, and the diagnosis of lymphedema was the culprit. The combination of the two grew infinitely harder to manage, which made working consistently impossible.
My career at ESPN was something I was born to do. Despite the many accommodations the company made to assist my disability, I had to apply for federal disability in 2009.
Many of those issues make life drastically different. However, I don't have the luxury of ignoring them. While lymphedema can make fitting into shoes challenging and painful, it's child's play compared to the struggles thrown upon me by Crohn's disease.
My point in starting this specific post is to educate others on what post-cancer treatment can cause and how to prepare for it. Despite these issues, life doesn't feel sorry for you. No one else is coming to help pay your bills or provide a home for you, so coping and perseverance are two skills one needs to master.
God created each of us with unique abilities that only we can give the world. While that is a comforting thought, He might call on you to be an example to others who struggle with similar issues. Faith is vital in my life and is where I find my identity. I encourage others to find their identity in something that they can always look to for strength.
SURVIVORS NEED HELP
To help Mark, this blog and his efforts to support himself living with the permanent long-term side effects of treatment, visit his Patreon page.
I can always be reached by email (CKMagicSports@gmail or MEKelly@CKMagicSports.com). Please see the links below to follow me or contact me on social sites. I welcome (need) more followers and supporters. Please don't be shy about sharing your thoughts.
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