Six and Out - Some Serious Cricket

Go James!

by Dinsa Sachan on November 20th, 2007

We were shocked to hear that our colleague James Edwards here at Sports Channel has been diagnosed with cancer. He writes about NFL and NBA.

Two weeks ago a doctor told me there is a mass the size of my fist in my abdomen. They call it non hodgkins Lymphoma.

Since then it has been nothing but cat scans, 11 vials of blood, 15 needle pokings, 2 hospitals, and 1 cancer center.

Tomorrow they do a PET Scan to see if it has spread and to guage it before the chemo begins to break it apart.

He’s a great, great blogger whom I really look up to (and aspire to beat in stats some day), and I am absolutely astounded to hear this development. He’s your fitness freak– yoga, whole grains and all, and you wouldn’t expect him to catch common cold even, but it’s happened to him.

He’s having a rough time, and I am so sorry for him.

Still in the hospital. They are monitoring my heart and it has settled down a lot. They are monitoring for tumorlicith (sp). This is where the good and bad cells can break down and crystalize and go into the kidneys and cause problems. Gave about 8 more vials of blood for that, fortunately through the port in my chest. The stats are at 19 needles, 2 stitches, one opertation and 20 vials of blood.

Oh, and two cat scans, two tummy drainings, three ultra sounds, and 1 Petscan.

Looks like may be out of work for 8 months. My immunity system will be too low to be in public. My legs and feet and well, private area, are very swollen.

Can’t even count the amount of medicine they are giving me.

Cancer is tough to beat, and we’ve just lost Polly Umrigar, the first Indian to score a double century, to the disease (lymph cancer to be exact). He was 80 and chronically ill. Richard D’ Souza from Trinidad and Tobago was another one who recently fell into its clutches. The great Malcolm Marshall died from colon cancer back in 1999.

I’m a tad obsessed with the disease, too. My sporting hero- Lance Armstrong- got testicular cancer. Two of my protagnists will die of cancer. To top all of that, my dad, uh, is an oncologist. I like to joke if I ever get cancer, Dad’s going to take care of things. But I know that doctors can’t always govern consequences. I have also come to understand, through years of observing cancer patients who visit my father, that most of them lose the battle mentally long before their bodies give up. Actually, it’s a big drag on your psyche.

James, you are going to be OK. You’ll be in my thoughts and prayers.

Tags: james edwards, squib kick, nba obsessed, cancer, cricket, polly umrigar, malcolm marshall, richard d’ souza, first indian to score double century, colon cancer, lymph cancer

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POSTED IN: Beyond Cricket, Cricket