By Jim Kelley, Sportsnet.ca
I am not a cancer specialist, so I won’t pretend to be one.
I’m also not a psychologist, psychiatrist, or even an inspirational speaker so I won’t pretend to have any meaningful thing to say in those areas either.
I also won’t even begin to try and explain exactly what chronic myelogenous leukemia is and how it will impact both the life and career of Toronto Maple Leafs forward Jason Blake.
I am, however, one of those people who know a little something about life-changing illness and I believe that most people over the age of say, 35, are just like me. They either have dealt with, or know someone who has had to deal with a life threatening or life-changing illness.
And if you ask them, they will tell you that it isn’t easy. Most times it’s damn scary and, as anyone even remotely connected with one will tell you, on a daily basis it’s almost impossible to get out of your mind.
Blake, if he hasn’t come to that realization already, will soon come to understand that.
And that is what will make the rest of his days different. From this day forward Jason Blake’s life will be both more precious and more precarious and, most importantly, it will never, ever, be the same.
How he handles that will come to define him not just as an athlete, but as a husband, a father and a person.
He can believe what he has already said about the rare form of the blood disease being treatable. Truth be told, he has to believe it.
He can also believe it won’t impact on his ability to play hockey for the Maple Leafs at a very high level. He can also believe that he may not only be able to control the disease and it’s effects on him but that there may also some day be a cure.
From what we know and have been told so far, all of those things have the ring of truth about them.
But everything that’s being said and everything that Blake will want to believe is one thing. Reality is something else again.
And reality, from this day forward, for Blake, his family and his extended Maple Leafs family, is this: things are going to be different.
From this day forward, Blake will be on medication and anyone who tells you that doesn’t affect you is lying. Medication, all medication, has side effects and Blake will have to deal with that. It might not be that big a deal, not at the start at least, but both the medication and its effects are real and something that Blake will have to both accept and deal with. When and how he takes his medicine will matter. When and how it effects him will have to be accepted and dealt with. There is a very real chance that it will not work.
And that’s only the beginning. Blake will also have to face, and get past, the “Why me?” syndrome. Athletes are better than most with dealing with challenges, especially with challenges regarding their bodies. But there are negatives that comes with that kind of competitiveness and, generally, they hit athletes harder than most.
The idea that they are facing a challenge that they may not be able to control let alone overcome is not easy for someone used to having success. An athlete knows that if he needs more strength he has to work harder and the best ones, the mentally tough ones, usually win that battle. They know that in a physical sense and, to a certain degree that carries over in the form of developing a mental toughness, but this is different.
Developing mental toughness in sports comes about by facing challenges and overcoming them. It’s one thing to do it in regards playing a game. An athlete knows the rules, knows the parameters in which he or she has to work in and knows, for the most part, what the results will be if he or she is successful within those rules and parameters.
But it’s different with disease. When you have a disease, be it life threatening or just life altering, it’s a different challenge. When you have a disease, there are no rules. There are no guarantees that the medicines you are taking will work, or work for you. There is no certainty that if you follow the rules, do everything you are told and even get the best of doctors, medications and support, that the outcome you seek will be there for you.
It’s true that cancer, specifically this type of cancer, isn’t the death sentence it was in so many forms for so many years. It’s true that great strides have been made in research and development and treatment of this particular form, especially regards the quality of life one can expect, but no one can promise that those successes will hold true for you.
Blake will have to deal with that. In time, he will come to stop asking “why” and that will be an important first step, but it will be only that, a first step.
Because after that he will have to deal with the fact that even though he has come to grips with what has happened to him, he will still have to deal with what comes next. Even if it’s just taking a single pill at a specified time, he has to deal with taking that pill, the effect it might have on his body and the way he plays the game, the effect it will have if he misses taking one or takes it at the wrong time or in combination with something like the wrong food or drink or one of a seemingly endless combination of consequences for doing one or the other or both.
That’s a challenge for any person, but especially for one who has heretofore been gifted with superb physical health and a seemingly boundless supply of energy, enthusiasm and well being.
Jason Blake may well win his battle with CML. Doctors say that some 80 percent of people afflicted with the disease do, but that doesn’t mean it will happen for him.
How he deals with those changes will come to define not just his career, but also his life.
Be assured, it’s never as easy as they say.
