Chris McCoy wasn’t anticipating balloons and an limitless stream of scholars and workers bursting by way of his workplace door when he returned to work at Reagan Highschool in late February.
He wasn’t anticipating the word his spouse, Alexis McCoy, the assistant athletics director for the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Faculties and the previous AD at Reagan, positioned on his desk the evening earlier than his first day again that reminded him to “take it straightforward.”
He wasn’t anticipating the exercise buses that pulled up in entrance of his home, honking their horns on that Friday afternoon in September, stuffed with all of the soccer gamers making as a lot noise as they may to indicate their help for him as he stepped outdoors to take all of it in.
And he definitely wasn’t anticipating to listen to his physician inform him he had acute lymphoblastic leukemia final August simply because the 2023 soccer season had kicked off and McCoy, the pinnacle junior varsity coach and assistant coach/operating backs for the varsity crew, would want to endure remedy that will preserve him out the remainder of the season.
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Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a most cancers of the blood and bone marrow. It creates too many lymphoblasts (immature white blood cells) within the blood and bone marrow.
It may well progress quickly and will be deadly inside months if undetected and left untreated.
“I went in for a routine checkup,” McCoy mentioned. “I didn’t have any signs. I wasn’t dropping any weight or something. Once they took my blood work, they noticed one thing that didn’t look proper and introduced me again in a few weeks later. Once I heard the phrase ‘leukemia,’ I used to be in denial, actually. The physician requested me a sequence of questions on how I used to be feeling and my reply to every thing was ‘no.’ It was stunning. It was irritating. And it was very upsetting.”
‘There’s a cussed a part of me I’ve all the time had once I was met with a problem’
McCoy had a standout profession as a operating again at Reynolds within the late Nineties. He went on to play at Wake Forest below Jim Caldwell. He was inducted into the Winston-Salem Forsyth Excessive College Sports activities Corridor of Fame in 2012.
“There have been occasions the place I needed to pull from my aggressive days as a participant,” McCoy mentioned. “There’s a cussed a part of me I’ve all the time had once I was met with a problem. My spouse may also let you know I’m very hard-headed and perhaps not even the very best affected person. The medical doctors advised me there could be some unhealthy days, some unhealthy hours, some unhealthy minutes and that I’d be praying for once I would get some good minutes. And at first, I simply didn’t imagine it. I didn’t really feel unhealthy. I used to be not experiencing any of the signs that my physician mentioned, and perhaps that was simply the mercy of God. I didn’t begin feeling unhealthy till I began getting the therapies.”
The therapies included eight rounds of chemotherapy and lumbar punctures into his backbone. Every spherical of remedy included a hospital keep. The primary one lasted 13 days and started on Sept. 11, 2023. Some hospital stays had been three or 4 days in size. Some fell within the center, relying on how McCoy was feeling and the way he responded to the remedy.
“I used to be getting chemo by way of an IV within the hospital and now I’ve a transportable chemo bag that’s plugged into my proper higher chest that I’ve to get modified out each 4 weeks,” McCoy mentioned. “However by far, the worst a part of it, at the least bodily, had been the spinal injections. With none of these, this entire journey would have been rather more tolerable. I hated these. That was virtually insufferable. There have been two of these for every cycle I needed to go to the hospital. Two days into every cycle, I obtained the primary one. Then six days later, I obtained the second. That was on prime of the chemo. They had been giving me the injections as a result of they mentioned the leukemia would possibly attempt to cover in my backbone or in my head. The place they had been injecting it, it traveled up and down my nervous system to verify issues weren’t mendacity dormant. If I didn’t take nausea drugs beforehand, I used to be throwing up inside an hour after I get them. But it surely took me about 4 injections to determine that out. To assist me cope with every thing, I developed a mindset of ‘Letting go and letting God.’”
When McCoy would keep on the hospital, he would ceaselessly stroll the halls on the ninth flooring of the most cancers ward at Novant Medical Middle and look into the rooms of the opposite sufferers.
“That was humbling as a result of I noticed folks in manner worse form than I used to be in,” McCoy mentioned.
Lacking Thursday and Friday nights on the sidelines at soccer video games was additionally robust for McCoy.
His son, Alonzo, is a freshman at Reagan this 12 months and McCoy was trying ahead to teaching him this season on the junior varsity crew.
“Thank goodness for NFHS (Nationwide Federation of Excessive Faculties) community so I might watch the video games from my room on the hospital each Thursday and Friday evening,” McCoy mentioned. “I wish to say a particular thanks to the nurses on 9 west who took care of me. I’m certain I drove them loopy, particularly on Thursday and Friday nights. They realized actually rapidly that I used to be going to yell and scream at my TV or my laptop computer I had with me whereas I used to be streaming the video games.”
‘If he had a low level, I by no means noticed it’
The McCoy household was getting adjusted to their new routine again in August. Alonzo was beginning highschool and enjoying soccer.
“And hastily, we obtained this analysis and we had been simply in shock,” Alexis McCoy mentioned. “It was gut-wrenching. Our first thought was, ‘this will’t be true.’ He was wholesome. He was displaying no indicators. He was nonetheless on the market doing soccer follow every single day in all that warmth. He was nonetheless working every single day, nonetheless being a dad. Nothing had modified. There was completely nothing displaying that one thing was mistaken. We had been in denial for fairly some time. We had been capable of plan it in order that he might coach Alonzo yet one more time after which Reagan had an open week. We determined we would have liked to get it began after that. Then the journey started, and it was a tough journey.”
Determining one other new routine final fall that now included journeys to the hospital whereas Chris was present process remedy grew to become one other new regular.
“We each needed to make sure we had been there for our son,” Alexis McCoy mentioned. “Between the hospital journeys, maintaining with my job, getting Alonzo the place he wanted to be, it was fairly a journey. A really arduous journey. Alonzo went throughout Chris’ first spherical of remedy and it was so much for him to absorb. Chris would name him each morning when he was within the hospital after which later when he obtained house from follow to see how every thing went that day. In a while, Alonzo began going to the hospital on Sundays and they’d watch the sport movie from that week, simply the 2 of them. Chris tried to maintain every thing as regular as he might. If he had a low level, I by no means noticed it.”
‘Simply since you’re not right here doesn’t imply you’re excused out of your teaching duties’
Josh McGee has been the pinnacle soccer coach at Reagan since 2011. He and McCoy have developed a deep friendship from their shared ardour. Each had been standout highschool gamers — McGee performed quarterback at West Forsyth —and each had profitable faculty careers. McGee nonetheless holds a number of passing data at Winston-Salem State.
“He advised me simply since you’re not right here, it doesn’t imply that you’re excused out of your teaching duties,” Chris McCoy mentioned with amusing.
“Properly, that sort of backfired on him. Josh obtained mad at me as a result of I’m watching the video games on TV and I’m texting him all through the sport. At halftime, he would inform me to cease texting him a lot as a result of I’m blowing up his cellphone in the course of the sport. It gave me the attitude of watching the sport from a distinct viewpoint versus being on the sideline coping with feelings. I used to be coping with my very own feelings and simply sitting again and seeing the sport a distinct manner, which was really useful. It actually helped take my thoughts off issues.”
Like Chris and Alexis, McGee mentioned that he was shocked when he realized about Chris’ analysis.
“You immediately go right into a supporter position,” McGee mentioned. “I let him know I’d be proper by his facet each step of the way in which. You consider Alexis and Alonzo and the way it will influence them and simply attempt to be as supportive and useful as potential. From what I learn about every thing he’s gone by way of, I feel it’s gone about in addition to may very well be anticipated. I attempted to speak to him every single day when he was present process his therapies. He had his ups and downs and I do know there have been components of it that he didn’t look ahead to, however he all the time saved a optimistic perspective in the direction of every thing. He’s a type of guys that even when it’s actually unhealthy, you in all probability wouldn’t comprehend it.”
McGee mentioned that having McCoy being concerned as a lot as he was capable of was a terrific profit to the college, the crew, and to McCoy.
“I feel him being as related as he may very well be from a distance definitely helped preserve his thoughts off what he was going by way of as a lot as he might,” McGee mentioned.
“What folks actually need to know is what a terrific steerage counselor he’s at Reagan Excessive College. The influence he makes on all the scholars, not simply the soccer gamers, every day is one thing that’s wanted in our colleges. Now, you stroll by the steerage workplace and also you see his door is open, that simply actually means so much.”
The black fingernails and toenails, a facet impact from the chemo, have since disappeared. There are not any extra lumbar puncture injections. The transportable chemo pack nonetheless stays, the one bodily reminder of the remedy.
Spring soccer follow and summer season exercises gave Chris McCoy and Alonzo a much-needed emotional enhance. It was the primary time Chris had been again on the sector since his analysis.
Listening to that Chris is in remission was a good looking factor for the McCoy household.
“It’s an enormous weight lifted off your shoulders, however you’re additionally cautious since you hear the tales on a regular basis about it coming again,” Alexis McCoy mentioned.
Throughout her husband’s battle, one in every of Alexis’ aunts died after present process a battle of her personal with acute myeloid leukemia.
“You don’t wish to let your guard down,” Alexis McCoy mentioned. “It can all the time be behind our minds that it would come again. With out the help of the Reagan group, it might have been a a lot totally different situation getting by way of this. They simply wrapped their arms round all of us. Alonzo performed three sports activities this 12 months and had all A’s and B’s. I feel it positively helped that he was at a faculty the place I was and the place his dad is and he knew he had help there if he ever wanted something.”
Chris McCoy mentioned that he’s simply grateful for all of the help and love that individuals have proven to him and his household.
“I’m a creature of behavior. All the time have been,” McCoy mentioned. “Simply getting plucked out of society like I used to be from my day by day routine, that’s what damage probably the most. However seeing all of the love and help we obtained by way of this, it’s actually simply overwhelming. Everybody right here, particularly all of Alonzo’s academics and coaches, did a terrific job of circling the wagons and ensuring he was taken care of. I owe a substantial amount of gratitude to these guys. And all through this journey, my spouse and Josh McGee have been with me each step of the way in which. They stood by me by way of thick and skinny and made one thing that was actually tough so much simpler. And there was nothing straightforward about it.”
