kaorder1999
06-03-2009, 09:48 AM
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*Coach Dying for Another Chance at Life*
Submitted by
Athlete/Student
Ferris High School
Ferris, TX
My heart aches as I watch my coach and mentor push himself up from the sofa in the living room and hurriedly shuffle down the hallway and into the bathroom. I hear him throw up, the toilet flush, and then a brief moment of running water. He methodically makes his way back to the living room and grimaces in pain as he slowly eases himself back into his position on the couch.
“Sorry about that,” Coach says, “I probably shouldn’t have eaten before you came today.”
I carefully note his features as he stares at me and forges a smile. I see the outline of the tube running out of his abdomen as it protrudes against his loosely fitting shirt. His 5’ 9’’ frame barely fills his clothes because his weight sits at 135 pounds and dropping. The yellow hue of his skin has considerably intensified from the last time I saw him two weeks ago. His skin is so yellow it almost seems to glow in the dimly lit room.
His eyes are worse.
The small, dark, round pupils float in banana-colored lakes, and they display his emotions of fatigue and sadness. Suddenly, the sadness changes to a brief flash of excitement. “I can feel it,” he says, “I’m going to get the call today.”
Ferris football coach and teacher Wayne Anthony, 29, did not receive the call telling him that there is a liver ready for him that day. Or the next day. Or any time over the ensuing two weeks. Anthony remains number one on the list to receive a liver for both Baylor Medical Center in Dallas and Baylor Medical Center All-Saints, and all he can do is wait. The wait does not bother him, however, because this is the second time in less than two years that he will have a liver transplant.
In 2007, Anthony, went to the emergency room because his ankle was extremely swollen. He knew it was not an ordinary ankle swelling because it wasn’t sprained and it caused him no pain. Anthony met with internal specialist, Dr. Daniel DeMarco, who classified the ankle swelling as an ascites, which is basically fluid buildup caused by a malfunctioning liver.
Dr. DeMarco also diagnosed Anthony with Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis, a liver disease with no cure. “I was shocked,” said Anthony, “because I went into the hospital thinking I only had a swollen ankle. I had no idea at all that anything was wrong with my liver.”
According to Post-Transplant Coordinator Angie Boatwright from Baylor Medical Center, Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC) is a hereditary disease that causes the bile ducts inside and outside of the liver to become inflamed and scarred. When this happens, bile builds up in the liver and causes it to harden and eventually prevents the liver from functioning. The only cure for this disease is a liver transplant when the symptoms worsen.
After being diagnosed with PSC, Anthony’s health problems rapidly snowballed. His weight ballooned from 175 pound to 215 pounds because of fluid accumulation in his body. Additionally, he started having extreme pain in his stomach and liver which forced him to take a leave from work and start taking painkillers. Anthony stopped taking the painkillers after a short period of time because they made him very tired, but even that made it worse.
“When I first came off of the painkillers, I started having seizures,” he remembers. “That was terrifying. I could see the people and the ambulance, but I did not really comprehend it. Then, I would start seizing again.”
Trips to the hospital became routine for Anthony because doctors needed to run more tests, and his liver was rapidly deteriorating. Also, he missed long periods of time at work because he could not last through a day of teaching and coaching. “The worst part for him was not being able to go to work,” his wife (fiancée at the time) Dana explains. “He loves working with the kids, and it devastated him to have to stay home and do nothing all day.”
As the days wore on, Anthony rose up the transplant list and began sacrificing many things for the sake of his health. After a coaching change at McKinney High School, Anthony took a job at Crandall High School to be closer to his home and family. He and Dana sold their apartment and lived with her parents for a while until they could find a cheaper house close to his work. They even postponed their marriage so he could enjoy it without worrying about being sick.
“I wanted to push the wedding back so Wayne could actually go on the honeymoon and have fun,” Dana recalls. “It was hard living for a while, but getting Wayne healthy was the most important thing.”
The hard times continued until October 2007. At a junior high football game one night, Anthony started to experience intense itching. “It was a horrible feeling,” he said. “My whole body itched terribly, and I actually had to leave the football game and go straight to the hospital because it was so bad.”
Further tests revealed the terrible condition that his liver was in, and he was moved up to number two on the liver transplant list. Now, all he could do is wait for the correct liver to become available. “The sad part about waiting for a liver is that someone has to die in order for you to live,” Anthony said. “You are praying that you get your liver as soon as possible, but the only answer to that prayer results in someone else dying.”
After being moved up to number two on the transplant list, Anthony did not have to wait long to receive the call that the hospital had a liver. On October 21, 2007, he underwent liver transplant surgery merely two weeks after his 28th birthday. All went well with the surgery, and he was back to work in time for track season, less than four months after the surgery.
Ferris athletic director Randy Barnes, who hired Anthony at Crandall and at Ferris High School (where he currently works), is in awe of Anthony’s strength and eagerness to return to work. “There is one word that defines Wayne--perseverance,” said Barnes. “He just had a liver transplant and he came back to coaching totally focused and with a great work ethic. It was eye opening.”
The young coach with the new liver hit a high in his life after the first transplant. He was finally healthy, so he married the always-positive Dana on June 7, 2008. Also, there was only a six percent chance that the PSC would cause any damage to the new liver. Therefore, as long as he stayed on his medication, which consisted of taking up to 30 different pills at a time multiple times ever day, he had a great chance of living a perfectly normal life.
Sadly, the small chance that the disease would affect the new liver won over the much higher chance of him being perfectly healthy. As Anthony started the school year in August 2008, PSC began to attack his liver again.
He fought through the pain and rarely missed a day of work, and he even attended the football two-a-days in the scorching Texas heat. Furthermore, he demonstrated pole vault drills during track season with a bile-draining tube coming out of his liver. The pain prevented him from showing many examples, but he fought through it to show up to school as much as possible.
“We all knew there were days when he shouldn’t have been out there coaching, but he came out and worked anyway,” said Barnes. “He did not feel good physically, but he overcame it with mental toughness because he loves sports and he loves the kids.”
Anthony attributes all of his mental toughness to God and Dana. Anthony prays frequently and reads the Bible, especially when times get hard for him. He believes everything happens for a reason and knows that God has a plan for him. “I keep my faith in God and just try to stay positive,” says Anthony. “I have read the book of Job at least ten times so I have no reason to complain. Things could always be worse.”
Dana also plays a very important role in keeping him positive. She understands the difficulty of her husband fighting for his life and makes sure he does not dwell on the negative things. “It’s hard for him because he wants to have kids and wants to go back to school to get his mind off of being sick,” comments Dana. “But I just constantly remind him to keep fighting and tell him that everything will work out very soon.”
Dana, only 25 years old, also salvages the couple financially. Since Anthony has run out of sick days at work, he loses his daily salary for every day that he misses. This leaves Dana as practically the sole source of income. Even after long days at work, Dana comes home and does household chores that her husband can no longer do.
“Dana is amazing. She is a fighter and never lets anything negative enter her mind,” said Wayne Anthony. “I lean on her as a crutch because she does everything. She pays the bills, mows the lawn because I can’t do it, and stays optimistic and happy the whole time.”
The emotional and financial adversities are slowly accumulating as Anthony waits for his second liver in less than two years. His daily salary is docked every day, and he is weaker than he has ever been. “My abdominal pains are so bad I can hardly stand up, and I throw up multiple times a day,” Anthony said. “Because I can’t keep any food down, I am getting no nourishment. My weight dropped from a normal 175 down to 135 in the last month.”
Financial obstacles also stare the young couple in the face. Dana estimates that the transplant alone will cost $400,000, not including hospital visits, medication, or bandages that must be specially ordered. “It is devastating to see Wayne have to go through this again,” Dana said. “He wants to have kids, travel, and live a normal life, but our biggest concern for the next few years will be trying to pay off at least some of the hospital bills. We may be paying medical bills for the rest of our life, but God will see us through it.”
Wayne Anthony still sits on the sofa waiting to receive the call for another chance at a good life. Meanwhile, his weight and paycheck plummet, medical bills constantly mount, and he makes frequent pilgrimages to the bathroom from the living room. It will be harder to find a liver this time because he needs a very small one to match his body from weight loss and buildup of scar tissue from the last transplant. He amasses all of his energy, with the help of God and Dana, to fight his disease and live on for another day of hopeful anticipation.
“I can feel it. I’m going to get the call today,” Wayne Anthony says, but then the sadness and fatigue settles back into his deep, yellow eyes. “Well at least I hope I get it. Soon.”
As I left Coach’s house, I realized that I probably learned more about life, character, perseverance, and humanity in those brief moments I had with him that day than in all my years in school.
*Coach Dying for Another Chance at Life*
Submitted by
Athlete/Student
Ferris High School
Ferris, TX
My heart aches as I watch my coach and mentor push himself up from the sofa in the living room and hurriedly shuffle down the hallway and into the bathroom. I hear him throw up, the toilet flush, and then a brief moment of running water. He methodically makes his way back to the living room and grimaces in pain as he slowly eases himself back into his position on the couch.
“Sorry about that,” Coach says, “I probably shouldn’t have eaten before you came today.”
I carefully note his features as he stares at me and forges a smile. I see the outline of the tube running out of his abdomen as it protrudes against his loosely fitting shirt. His 5’ 9’’ frame barely fills his clothes because his weight sits at 135 pounds and dropping. The yellow hue of his skin has considerably intensified from the last time I saw him two weeks ago. His skin is so yellow it almost seems to glow in the dimly lit room.
His eyes are worse.
The small, dark, round pupils float in banana-colored lakes, and they display his emotions of fatigue and sadness. Suddenly, the sadness changes to a brief flash of excitement. “I can feel it,” he says, “I’m going to get the call today.”
Ferris football coach and teacher Wayne Anthony, 29, did not receive the call telling him that there is a liver ready for him that day. Or the next day. Or any time over the ensuing two weeks. Anthony remains number one on the list to receive a liver for both Baylor Medical Center in Dallas and Baylor Medical Center All-Saints, and all he can do is wait. The wait does not bother him, however, because this is the second time in less than two years that he will have a liver transplant.
In 2007, Anthony, went to the emergency room because his ankle was extremely swollen. He knew it was not an ordinary ankle swelling because it wasn’t sprained and it caused him no pain. Anthony met with internal specialist, Dr. Daniel DeMarco, who classified the ankle swelling as an ascites, which is basically fluid buildup caused by a malfunctioning liver.
Dr. DeMarco also diagnosed Anthony with Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis, a liver disease with no cure. “I was shocked,” said Anthony, “because I went into the hospital thinking I only had a swollen ankle. I had no idea at all that anything was wrong with my liver.”
According to Post-Transplant Coordinator Angie Boatwright from Baylor Medical Center, Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC) is a hereditary disease that causes the bile ducts inside and outside of the liver to become inflamed and scarred. When this happens, bile builds up in the liver and causes it to harden and eventually prevents the liver from functioning. The only cure for this disease is a liver transplant when the symptoms worsen.
After being diagnosed with PSC, Anthony’s health problems rapidly snowballed. His weight ballooned from 175 pound to 215 pounds because of fluid accumulation in his body. Additionally, he started having extreme pain in his stomach and liver which forced him to take a leave from work and start taking painkillers. Anthony stopped taking the painkillers after a short period of time because they made him very tired, but even that made it worse.
“When I first came off of the painkillers, I started having seizures,” he remembers. “That was terrifying. I could see the people and the ambulance, but I did not really comprehend it. Then, I would start seizing again.”
Trips to the hospital became routine for Anthony because doctors needed to run more tests, and his liver was rapidly deteriorating. Also, he missed long periods of time at work because he could not last through a day of teaching and coaching. “The worst part for him was not being able to go to work,” his wife (fiancée at the time) Dana explains. “He loves working with the kids, and it devastated him to have to stay home and do nothing all day.”
As the days wore on, Anthony rose up the transplant list and began sacrificing many things for the sake of his health. After a coaching change at McKinney High School, Anthony took a job at Crandall High School to be closer to his home and family. He and Dana sold their apartment and lived with her parents for a while until they could find a cheaper house close to his work. They even postponed their marriage so he could enjoy it without worrying about being sick.
“I wanted to push the wedding back so Wayne could actually go on the honeymoon and have fun,” Dana recalls. “It was hard living for a while, but getting Wayne healthy was the most important thing.”
The hard times continued until October 2007. At a junior high football game one night, Anthony started to experience intense itching. “It was a horrible feeling,” he said. “My whole body itched terribly, and I actually had to leave the football game and go straight to the hospital because it was so bad.”
Further tests revealed the terrible condition that his liver was in, and he was moved up to number two on the liver transplant list. Now, all he could do is wait for the correct liver to become available. “The sad part about waiting for a liver is that someone has to die in order for you to live,” Anthony said. “You are praying that you get your liver as soon as possible, but the only answer to that prayer results in someone else dying.”
After being moved up to number two on the transplant list, Anthony did not have to wait long to receive the call that the hospital had a liver. On October 21, 2007, he underwent liver transplant surgery merely two weeks after his 28th birthday. All went well with the surgery, and he was back to work in time for track season, less than four months after the surgery.
Ferris athletic director Randy Barnes, who hired Anthony at Crandall and at Ferris High School (where he currently works), is in awe of Anthony’s strength and eagerness to return to work. “There is one word that defines Wayne--perseverance,” said Barnes. “He just had a liver transplant and he came back to coaching totally focused and with a great work ethic. It was eye opening.”
The young coach with the new liver hit a high in his life after the first transplant. He was finally healthy, so he married the always-positive Dana on June 7, 2008. Also, there was only a six percent chance that the PSC would cause any damage to the new liver. Therefore, as long as he stayed on his medication, which consisted of taking up to 30 different pills at a time multiple times ever day, he had a great chance of living a perfectly normal life.
Sadly, the small chance that the disease would affect the new liver won over the much higher chance of him being perfectly healthy. As Anthony started the school year in August 2008, PSC began to attack his liver again.
He fought through the pain and rarely missed a day of work, and he even attended the football two-a-days in the scorching Texas heat. Furthermore, he demonstrated pole vault drills during track season with a bile-draining tube coming out of his liver. The pain prevented him from showing many examples, but he fought through it to show up to school as much as possible.
“We all knew there were days when he shouldn’t have been out there coaching, but he came out and worked anyway,” said Barnes. “He did not feel good physically, but he overcame it with mental toughness because he loves sports and he loves the kids.”
Anthony attributes all of his mental toughness to God and Dana. Anthony prays frequently and reads the Bible, especially when times get hard for him. He believes everything happens for a reason and knows that God has a plan for him. “I keep my faith in God and just try to stay positive,” says Anthony. “I have read the book of Job at least ten times so I have no reason to complain. Things could always be worse.”
Dana also plays a very important role in keeping him positive. She understands the difficulty of her husband fighting for his life and makes sure he does not dwell on the negative things. “It’s hard for him because he wants to have kids and wants to go back to school to get his mind off of being sick,” comments Dana. “But I just constantly remind him to keep fighting and tell him that everything will work out very soon.”
Dana, only 25 years old, also salvages the couple financially. Since Anthony has run out of sick days at work, he loses his daily salary for every day that he misses. This leaves Dana as practically the sole source of income. Even after long days at work, Dana comes home and does household chores that her husband can no longer do.
“Dana is amazing. She is a fighter and never lets anything negative enter her mind,” said Wayne Anthony. “I lean on her as a crutch because she does everything. She pays the bills, mows the lawn because I can’t do it, and stays optimistic and happy the whole time.”
The emotional and financial adversities are slowly accumulating as Anthony waits for his second liver in less than two years. His daily salary is docked every day, and he is weaker than he has ever been. “My abdominal pains are so bad I can hardly stand up, and I throw up multiple times a day,” Anthony said. “Because I can’t keep any food down, I am getting no nourishment. My weight dropped from a normal 175 down to 135 in the last month.”
Financial obstacles also stare the young couple in the face. Dana estimates that the transplant alone will cost $400,000, not including hospital visits, medication, or bandages that must be specially ordered. “It is devastating to see Wayne have to go through this again,” Dana said. “He wants to have kids, travel, and live a normal life, but our biggest concern for the next few years will be trying to pay off at least some of the hospital bills. We may be paying medical bills for the rest of our life, but God will see us through it.”
Wayne Anthony still sits on the sofa waiting to receive the call for another chance at a good life. Meanwhile, his weight and paycheck plummet, medical bills constantly mount, and he makes frequent pilgrimages to the bathroom from the living room. It will be harder to find a liver this time because he needs a very small one to match his body from weight loss and buildup of scar tissue from the last transplant. He amasses all of his energy, with the help of God and Dana, to fight his disease and live on for another day of hopeful anticipation.
“I can feel it. I’m going to get the call today,” Wayne Anthony says, but then the sadness and fatigue settles back into his deep, yellow eyes. “Well at least I hope I get it. Soon.”
As I left Coach’s house, I realized that I probably learned more about life, character, perseverance, and humanity in those brief moments I had with him that day than in all my years in school.