Jason's Story

Story #1: "I Didn't Think it Could Happe"n to Me"
Story #2: "Fight for Life"

FIGHT FOR LIFE:
TEEN GOES ONE-ON-ONE WITH CANCER

Nice, quiet Jason Struble playing basketball next door - so simple and so forever, so easy to take for granted.

Struble, a senior, attends Lafayette High School. He sat at the dining room table in his home Sunday and looked out a bay window at a beautiful spring afternoon.

Inside, Jason cried softly.

Jason Struble has cancer.

''I was just a normal teen-ager. Into sports, doing well in school, lots of friends,'' Struble said. ''Now, I'm definitely not normal. This is not a normal lifestyle.

''What will I be like later? I just hope to be normal again.''

These were to be the days Struble cherishes for the rest of his life. Cruising with his buddies, making eyes at the girl across algebra class, planning a senior trip to Fort Lauderdale, prom and commencement and yippee-it's-over. And shooting hoops long after Mom called him to supper.

Instead, he only knows weeklong stays in the hospital, chemotherapy and five days of body-jolting nausea, lack of appetite and boring hour after hour TV. Life plays beyond his bay window, and Struble sits indoors with his nose weakly pressed to the glass. He fights the thought, but inevitably wonders if he ever will get to play at life again.

''I feel kind of isolated. Lonely. I feel kind of helpless,'' Struble said. ''I guess I'll have some more bad times in my life; everyone does. I don't think anything compares to this, though.''

Testicular cancer.

Jason's father, Tom Struble, said, ''I'm old enough that I remember when you would say 'cancer' and it was doom and gloom. You don't think anything can happen to your kids. You just assume nothing happens to you or your family. Bad things happen to everyone else.''

On Feb. 20, Lafayette's basketball team upset DeSmet. Jason didn't score a point, but he helped the team win from his backup center role.

That surprised many at Lafayette. Opting to concentrate on his grades, Struble didn't play his junior year. ''I haven't ever been that talented,'' he said. ''I just worked real hard.''

Struble regretted giving up basketball that year. So he set his mind on returning for his final season. He lifted weights and added 25 pounds. He spent more time on the driveway. He dedicated his efforts.

Struble's best friends are basketball players. He was playing, he was having fun, and he was feeling great physically.

The victory over DeSmet was achieved in the second-to-last regular-season game. The Lancers went to bed ecstatic that night, hopeful for the post season.

Struble didn't go to bed.

When he got home, he was short of breath and felt pain in his chest. He sat in an easy chair in the dining room all night. His mother, Doris, lay on a nearby couch. In the middle of the night, Jason screamed in pain.

''Mom,'' Jason said, ''something is drastically wrong with my body.''

Tom Struble said, ''The next day, his whole world was in a shambles.''

Struble visited his doctor, who noticed his enlarged right testicle and sent him immediately to Children's Hospital.

Struble was admitted that afternoon. Before long, a group of doctors stood at the foot of Jason's bed, with Tom and Doris standing at his side.

''They told me the truth, straight out,'' Struble said. ''They told me I had testicular cancer and then told me what they had to do to get rid of it. It hit kind of hard. The whole Wednesday was just a shock.''

Not only was the cancer swelling his right testicle, but tumors had also spread to his abdomen and lungs. With no time to waste, doctors removed the testicle that Thursday, and he underwent his first round of chemotherapy that Friday.

Chemotherapy - which kills the fastest-growing cells in the body, such as hair and cancer - is a combination of drugs administered to Struble through a catheter for five days. That is a considerably longer period than most cancer patients have to experience. Struble's dosage also is more intense; doctors figure his age and relatively good fitness will help him withstand it.

Five days of chemotherapy and three or four days of recovery in the hospital are a grind to Struble and his mother, who never leaves the hospital during his stay.

''To watch your child suffer like this . . . .,'' Doris Struble said. ''I tell him, 'You'll be a better person for this. This has to mean something positive further down the road.'

''As parents, you think you're in control, in charge. When your children are little and something hurts, you tended to it. With this type of thing, you're not in control. I did ask 'Why Jason?' at first. I'd ask that, then I would say, 'Why not?' There just aren't any answers, and it doesn't do any good looking for them.''

Doris Struble says she isn't a ''crier.'' She has been a rock of optimism for the last two months, helped by a tremendous outpouring of support from neighbors, friends from St. Mark's Presbyterian Church, coach Dave Porter and many others from Lafayette, and her co-workers in the Parkway School District. She said she couldn’t remember having had to cook a single meal since Feb. 20.

Tom Struble misses the opportunity his wife has of being by Jason's side all the time. But as a self-employed engineer, he knows his place is to be at work by day and paying the medical bills. For his part, he gets more emotional when talking about his son.

''That first week, I don't think Jason thought he was going to come out of the hospital. I think he really thought he was going to die,'' Tom said. He paused to wipe some tears. ''Jason's such a quiet fellow, at least around us. He hasn't said much about that.

''The daydream for me is five years from now, when no more cancer has popped back up.''

No one can guarantee that Struble will be cured; though doctors say the chances are good. This week, he is getting his third round of chemotherapy. After two weeks of recovery, he will have a fourth round, then surgery to check on the status of the tumors in his abdomen, then probably two more rounds of chemo. The cancer still could return.

Struble agonizes that he has dropped 25 pounds, robbing him of the year of weightlifting. His hair is gone. Only recently has he felt comfortable having his friends come by the house.

Struble has turned to God and his family often these weeks. He feels like a stronger person and values life much more than ever. When Struble returns to normal - getting his heavy appetite back, working again at a nursing home and a golf course, lifting weights in his basement, going to college at Bradley University - he won't be the same old Jason Struble. Not after all that he is going through.

He never will forget his fight.

''I think attitudes play a tremendously important role, although I wouldn't go so far as to say more important than medicine,'' said Dr. Mark Russo, a pediatrician working with Struble at Children's Hospital. ''Jason seems to have a very good attitude, though. He definitely has a major battle going on. But it's very stimulating to see someone so involved in their own fight.''

Doris Struble yearns for the day when the fight will be a faded memory.

When Jason is sick from the chemotherapy, he wants her to sit close and pat his back; she gladly will do so. When he feels somewhat better, ''he wants me to chill out and give him some space,'' she said.
''Jason was out by himself, dribbling the ball on the driveway the other day for the first time in a long time,'' Doris Struble said. ''It's funny, but I really feel good at those times.''

© 1990 St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Used by permission

Jason lost his battle with Testicular Cancer on May 1, 1992