Sunday, Jul. 17, 2011

A King's return

With his leukemia in remission, Middle Creek senior ready to play

Before Middle Creek's football players exited their home locker room last season, they would look over the doorway and tap a sign that read "Pray for Ray," in honor of Rashawn King, their teammate who was diagnosed with leukemia just months before.

King now jokes that the sign should read "Play for Ray." Or maybe "Play with Ray" because that's exactly what Middle Creek will do this fall.

In February, King learned that his cancer was in remission. In April, he was cleared to play football again. He has spent the summer practicing with the two varsity teams - the other being basketball - that the disease took him away from as a junior.

King tried to keep a positive mindset throughout his treatments, but the beginning stages wore that mindset thin.

His mother, Kathleen Merritt, said King was depressed after missing the fall semester of school and watching things that meant the most to him - being around friends, playing sports, going to school - get taken away.

"I really wanted to be out there with my teammates," King said. "It motivated me, but then it brought me down. I felt bad that I wasn't out there and capable of contributing to the team and helping them out."

Merritt has three children. The other two, ages 21 and 16, were born premature and had their own illnesses at early ages.

Rashawn was her healthy child, and then he had to face cancer at 17.

But King's words continued to amaze Merritt.

"Nothing good comes without a fight, mom," he would tell her.

He would often add, "Only I could go through this," as if he was taking on the disease so his family didn't have to.

But what surprised Merritt the most was hearing her son sit down and debate with his doctors at UNC Hospitals about what his quality of life and treatment options.

King wanted his normal teen life back. And that included playing sports again.

"Just getting my life back on track, doing things a normal teenager would do," King said. "I love sports. I've been playing them since I was little. It's a main factor in my life.

"(I) like being able to meet new people and do something that you love to do and perfecting it," he explained.

King had his portacath, a medical appliance installed beneath the skin that connects to a vein, removed a few months after his cancer went into remission. A portacath would have prevented him from playing sports, because of the complications involved if it was damaged.

King had never figured he would get the opportunity to play football again because he didn't think he would be in remission just eight months after his original diagnosis.

He asked for the portacath removed so he had plenty of time left to prepare for summer football workouts.

He has spent the summer getting back in shape.

'It can't be worse'

His cancer is in remission, but King is far from done with battling the disease.

Every day he takes about 24 pills as part of his treatment. The amount and type of medication changes every 85 days, but the daily routine is ingesting double-digit pills.

Also, for the next two and a half years, King will make a once-a-month trip to UNC Hospitals for chemotherapy, which often renders him unable to play athletics for the next 48 hours. But on some days, such as Thursday of last week, doctors cleared him to play immediately provided the chemo went well.

The doctors are only wary of a big blow damaging his organs - particularly his kidneys, which were in poor shape when he first started treatments.

King plays running back - a frequent target for big hits - and safety, where he would be asked to deliver the tackles.

But these hits are better than the lumps he has already taken.

"It can't be worse than what I've gone through," he told his mother.

"When he says stuff like that, what can you say?" she said.

'I'm totally terrified'

The moment Rashawn anxiously awaits is the same one his mother dreads.

He will be wearing a rib protector, but that won't ease Merritt's fears.

"I'm totally terrified. As far as I'm concerned, I'm not for sports, period, at this point. With any parent, if your child has been diagnosed with a form of cancer, you're not going to be for your child running around out there getting hit by another child," she said. "It was just something you just say, 'Hey, you're done with that,' so in my mind, he was done with that. But I'm for my child being happy."

King knows the risks with playing, but he doesn't think he will play much. He's fine with being able to be back on the team and and around his friends.

But Middle Creek football coach Sean Crocker says otherwise.

"The big question is how his body reacts to contact," Crocker said. "He was a starter before he got sick, so I don't see what would stop him from challenging for significant playing time if he's back close to 100 percent."

Merritt doesn't know whether to sit in the stands with her eyes closed or get as close to the field as possible.

She has imagined the worst scenario happening - Rashawn getting seriously injured.

"I mentally went there and said this can happen and that can happen," she said. "But I have a lot of belief in God and I believe that Ray is going to be fine. And I really believe that."

Some of that comes from what she's learned about her son since the first diagnosis.

King wants to graduate with honors this year and enroll at N.C. State. Merritt doesn't put anything past him.

"He is the most courageous young man that I could have been blessed with," Merritt said. "I'm an about to be 45-year-old woman and everything that he's been through - I don't know if I could have endured it (or) mentally wrapped my brain around it to handle it. I've learned that Ray has a lot of faith. I've learned that he does not give up."