Tennis has played a huge role in my life. It's given me some of my closest friends, paid for my university, given me work not to mention so many memories.....and most importantly it gave me Megan. My favorite childhood memories are of summers spent at the LethbridgeTennis Club- a small 6 court facility that was right down the alley from my house. The club was set across from Henderson Lake and in behind the baseball stadium that was the home of our LA (LethbridgeAlberta)Dodgers....beautiful setting. I'd get there early in the morning to play with the seniors, about 7am- and be there sometimes past midnight playing late night games under the lights with the club pro and his friends. I did that from the age of 10 till I moved to Vancouver at 15.....so much freedom. I can remember my mother screaming at me from across the park leading up to the courts to come home for lunch ...or bed depending on the time of day. When I arrived in Vancouver it wasn't long before I began to pal around with the other guys in my age group playing the local junior circuit. A group of us became close friends and travelled to all the tournaments together terrorizing the streets from here to Montreal. We all went on to get scholarships to play in the states. We stay in touch but everyone is spread out around the world Jesse in Louisiana, James C in Montreal, James G in New York, Justin in Australia. I'm really proud of these guys and miss not having them around.

University was a whole new experience and I savored every moment of it. I'd taken a year off after high school to write my SAT's and apply to universities. There are so many in the states and I was down to talking to two or three so I looked on the map and picked the furthest one from home where I knew it would be warm. This is where the dislike for tennis began - somewhere in that year off I'd lost my confidence on the court and it didn't help that the coach I had signed with quit a week before school started. I wasn't happy with my on court performance through out college but I loved practicing out in the sun and we had a blast travelling all over the southern states. I certainly enjoyed the benefits of being a student athlete in the states and exploited it to the maximum. I have many close friends from university and have reunited with team mates over the years although most now live back in there native lands. We had guys from Sweden, Argentina, France, Holland and two Canadians. My friend Jesse joined me at university my second year and it was really cool to have a close friend share that experience and he really helped me to stay on track with tennis and school. Jesse ended up staying down there to do his masters and married a sweet southern belle - they now have two beautiful girls.

I'm laying back at home listening to the Styx an album my buddy JJbrought over months ago...love it. JJ and his wife Cezanne just had their second child yesterday, a little girl ....congrats to them.

So I left off just having heard that it seemed my time had run out, I had to have another bone marrow biopsy to confirm what exactly the situation was. They are quite unpleasant especially when feeling unwell. They stick a large needle in to the top of your hip, deep into the core to extract a sliver of bone marrow that they can test to see what the cancer is doing. It takes all the docs strength to drive that thing in there and your breath away once there in. I've had so many over the years and they still get me clammy. It would be a week of me waiting for confirmation...i don't even remember my frame of mind anymore as i think i went numb. I finally get the call and would you believe there was a third option...just a viral infection,all was fine- just a set back. I love my doctor, he has kept me alive for all these years going above and beyond with me as he does with all his patients. I'd do anything for him but it also opened my eyes to the fact they don't have all the answers. This is new territory for them also. I was one of the youngest people in Canada to be diagnosed with this disease and it seems to be really aggressive and unpredictable with us young folk.

Over the next several months I continued recovering, rehabbing my body slowly starting with a few push ups once per week soon incorporating total body exercises with some light dumbbells I had at home. I did some light walking and around Christmas I started back at the gym doing what I could. I was determined to be strong and healthy again and I trained like my life depended on it...!!? I was so intense, never spoke to anyone and I remember getting emotional almost every workout. The problem was my body couldn't handle what I was doing to it so I was always getting sick and having to start over. It was trying to recover and accept the new bone marrow and I'm making it repair and grow muscle. I was young and learning moderation would take time and lots of trial and error. I would never be the same after the transplant, it took a piece of me but I have high expectations for myself and I'm never satisfied. Looking back I'd give anything to feel the way I did after that first transplant.

About six months post transplant I began working a few hours a week back coaching tennis which proved vital for me to get out and begin coming alive again. I assisted with the competitive junior groups back at the NSWC where I had been before. We had all the best juniors in the province which made it fun and I began hitting in with them. Even before I got sick I hadn't really played tennis with any focus in years, even during college I had lost my love for it and did what I could to keep my scholarship but nothing more. I was pretty rusty but focused on improving. I probably neglected the kids at times but it made me a better coach being so passionate about getting better and I could transfer that to them. It felt good interacting with the kids and I began really enjoying tennis again.
Posted by Chad Warren at 1:24 PM

As the summer of 2001 went on the more free i became- like I had detached from the world floating away like balloon boy. I hadn't a care in the world but riding my bike and when the next joint would be lit. Katharine and I took off to my favorite place in BC...Penticton for 3 or 4 days of even more chillen. We rented one of those semi detached cabins near SkaHa Lake and got into our routine; little breakfast , light workout, stroll to the beach puffing on a doob. Later on we hit up one of P town's many attractions....batting cages, go carts, beach bikes..love it all! Then out of the blue while laying onSkaha beach my phone rang and on the other end was the lady from the bone marrow transplant program telling me they had found a donor and I was to be admitted on Aug 8 to begin radiation, chemotherapy and my transplant would be Aug 15th. It's funny it never even crossed my mind that they might not find a donor which is the case for too many people. I don't think I was thinking period. In that moment everything changed again, I was thinking and going to have to deal with this-it's really happening...it wasn't a dream.

As much as I tried to continue the endless summer it wasn't the same. In a few short weeks I was about to get very sick, maybe even die. Those who have been through these sorts of things know what I'm talking about when I say they lay it all out for you. You have to do test after test, interviews with doctors feeding you every stat available. I suppose it's protocol but how many times do you need to tell someone the mortality rate of their procedure or disease. I know I'm sick just tell me about the people who survive and are living a normal life....THAT'S ALL ANYONE WANTS TO HEAR! I was scared, worried about Katharine and entering unknown territory.

In the morning just before I was admitted Katharine's dad and my friend Brian (also Jay's father) booked me a private flying lesson out in Ladner. I had spent a fair amount of time with Brian riding motorcycles all over the city and enjoyed being around him. Anyway there I was flying over the city in this tiny little plane...i'll never forget it but it was hard to fully enjoy it knowing in a few hours I was facing hell. Not more than an hour after we landed I walked through the doors of VGH where I was to spend the next month. I started by receiving total body radiation twice a day for three days...a strange experience cause the effects of that shit is irreversible. It alone reduced my lung capacity to 70% at best to this day. The next three days I received lethal dose chemotherapy which means they give you the max amount of chemo your body can handle without killing you. The combination brings all your counts to zero so you have no blood cells or immune system to fight the donor marrow. *Bone marrow is responsible for manufacturing our blood cells. The next day I had my transplant which is anticlimatic to say the least. I believe my donor is from somewhere in Europe but that's all i know. We were allowed to exchange letters a year after my transplant but then I never heard back...i'll try again one day but that's another story.

The transplant happened at midnight while Katharine and my mom played cards in the other room. A doctor and nurse monitored me while they hung what looked like a bag of blood (the donor bone marrow) as it dripped in over an hour through the hicman line they had inserted in my chest when I was admitted. They're a pain but necessary when receiving so many different meds because they have three lines. My stay in the hospital was a real challenge, I was new to this world not ever having stayed in hospital before. As days passed the chemo and radiation began to take their affects and i became weaker and weaker. The staff was amazing as was my support group but you have to dig deep and stay strong. I busted out of there in 31 days and spent the next several months going to and from the VGH BMT day clinic. I'd lost 30lbs and couldn't do a push up not to mention had no blood counts but I was so eager to ride a motorcycle on my first day out I borrowed Brian's harley and managed to ride it to the clinic that day for my treatment. The nurses/doctors weren't impressed but I was happy ripping down the highway at full throttle....now I was in control. Katharine was amazing through it all and we had a lot of support but all I needed was rest. There were some scares early on the most noteworthy happened about a month after I got out. I became unwell and my counts began crashing back down to zero. I got the call and my doc told me it was one of two things the transplant had failed or the cancer had come back either way I was done.........
Posted by Chad Warren at 6:01 PM


1 COMMENT:

1. 
   JustinNovember 2, 2009 at 1:08 PM
   You've got friends on the other side of the world following this daily and praying that you get better.
   
   We all appreciate that you are sharing your experience with us as we all care for you. Keep em coming and keep fighting!!
   
   J&K Downunder
   
   
   

My sister Jen and her husband Bill came to town with the kids this weekend for some Vancouver Halloween action. My niece Lauren is 8 and my nephew Ben is 6. I've been excited for them to come as I don't see them much since they live in Edmonton. I was feeling disappointed that they came all this way and I wouldn't get to see them but I rested up yesterday picked up some fireworks and Meg and I made our way over to the parentals where all were gathered for the evening festivities. A block away from my parents a whole street of houses put on a Halloween block party, it was very impressive with hundreds of people milling about trick or treating. My niece and nephew thought it was the greatest and maybe I did to. I then proceeded with my humble fireworks show which turned into a huge laugh as everyone stood on the back deck with me just below lighting these unpredictable mini cannons off. The area we were in is very small and these things are going off at eye level to the family who were in hysterics evertytime one went array sending us all scampering for cover. My mother was laughing so hard she tryed to go inside and walked straight into the closed sliding glass door head first and kept laughing hysterically...she is the greatest.

Unfortunately things turned quickly as soon as Meg and I got in the car to leave my heart began to beat out of control. I was still breathing ok but it was jumping out of my chest making me very uncomfortable. We made it home and I layed on the bed put the heart rate monitor on trying to relax in hopes it might settle. My heart rate was fluctuating between 145 to 200 beats per minute and it wasn't settling. We called 911 and off I went for the second time in three days bouncing around in the back of the ambulance answering the same fucking questions i've been answering for years. They got me in quick for which I'm grateful but for 2 hours my heart rate jumped around sometimes over 200 beats per minute never below 150. I couldn't lay down cause fluid in my body had been building surrounding my heart and lungs so I couldn't breathe. I sat on the edge of the gurney with my legs dangling trying to find comfort...it was so exhausting. I could hear the nurses and doctors discussing what to do while I guided them on my history as best I could. They seemed eager to shock my heart into a better rhythm but I didn't think it was safe so they tryed various meds to slow things down. Finally after four hours the meds began to settle things enough that I was more comfortable. I was so thirsty and they couldn't give me any fluids till things calmed down in case they had to use the "shock pads". Really I think they just wanted to try those things out cause that's all they kept talking about. Let's watch him fry cause i'm bored-I suppose if I worked there that would be entertaining. They did a good job and they finally brought me the best apple juice I've ever had and I could finally lay down.

They let me go this morning although my heart rate is still high at 120 but tomorrow I will be in touch with my doctor who will set up my new plan of action. Again I'm just happy to be home and around Megan. My situation is putting so much stress on her as my main caregiver so I will find away to make it easier. She does so much for me and I'm putting her through hell, I'm glad she is out enjoying the sunshine.
Posted by Chad Warren at 2:23 PM