Luke Rogers Morganville NJ
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Luke Rogers, of Marlboro, New Jersey, has spent the last three years battling a rare form of childhood leukemia. But you can’t really tell. And that’s the way he likes it.
The high school freshman takes his classes at home on the computer because his immune system isn’t really strong enough to withstand all the germs in school. That leaves a lot of downtime. He spends it playing ice hockey, talking about ice hockey and thinking about ice hockey.
In October 2015, Luke was diagnosed with T-cell ALL, a chemo-resistant form of childhood leukemia with a high recurrence rate. Once the chemo treatments started, so did the side effects. Luke's body reacted to treatment by developing a severe case of tumor lysis syndrome- landing him in the pediatric ICU for five days. Ten days earlier, Luke had been playing travel ice hockey and grumbling about homework.
In the months that followed, Luke lost a lot of weight, a lot of hair and most of the joy and exuberance you would expect from an 11-year-old boy. At the one-year mark, he had spent more days in the hospital than out of the hospital. He was unable to walk on his own or do much of anything other than lay in bed. But all on his own, he hatched a plan.
Between diagnosis and the beginning of treatment, surgeons had implanted a port into his chest into which they would feed the chemo and other medicines and fluids. Because of the port, Luke was prohibited from playing contact sports. So he figured he needed to get rid of the port. Because what he really needed was ice hockey.
Luke’s parents were mystified. To their son, it wasn’t the fact that he couldn’t walk, had lost most of his muscle tone, he had no energy, couldn’t keep food down or even stay awake for much more than an hour. All of that wasn’t standing between him and hockey. To Luke, it was just the port in his chest.
On his own, Luke talked to his primary oncologist about getting the port out. This was kind of a big deal. The port is there for a reason: it can handle a lot more than a simple IV and putting these chemicals into the body comes with a risk of third degree burns if not administered properly. So Luke had to agree to withstand a lot of IVs and the threat of major side effects if he wanted to get his port out. For Luke it was a no-brainer.
While Luke and his doctor were onboard with the idea, the surgeon needed convincing. Why would a child less than 1/3 of the way through treatment get his port out? He had never seen such a thing. He just didn’t understand taking that risk. But Luke and his doctor had something in common: a passion for ice hockey. His doctor knew intuitively what it would mean for Luke’s battle with cancer if he got to skate again. So everybody persuaded the surgeon and the port came out.
Luke’s mom likes to say that as soon as he laced up his skates again, his hair sprouted, his muscles filled in and he regained the ability to walk on his own. It sounds like the kind of hyperbole that makes for good storytelling. But the thing is, it’s also true. Hockey gave him a reason to get out of bed, to struggle to walk, to fall and to get up again.
About eight months after getting his port out he was playing travel ice hockey again. Most of his teammates didn’t even know that he was only halfway through treatment for cancer.
Now Luke is counting down the days until his last chemo in February 2019. He will still have to make regular visits to the hospital and the Cancer Institute of New Jersey in the years to come. But Luke’s got big plans that don’t involve cancer: make a AA team, then triple-A, then juniors, then who knows?
If you have read this far, then you probably understand the healing properties of sports. Hockey made all the difference in Luke’s ability to fight cancer, and now it will be his reason for recovery.
Luke has it all planned out. He will “attend” a private online school because he needs a custom curriculum that includes everything he has missed since 6th grade, plus regular high school material. He will study and he will skate. He wants to skate several hours a day to get back to where he was before diagnosis.
Luke could use your help. His family is tapped out from paying for cancer and taking time off of work to care for him. Once he’s done with treatment Luke will start working at a nearby flower farm but that’s not going to cover it. He needs to find a way to finance school, private hockey sessions, clinics, camps and equipment.
Please consider helping Luke finance his dream of playing professional hockey or at least recovering enough to give it his best shot.
The high school freshman takes his classes at home on the computer because his immune system isn’t really strong enough to withstand all the germs in school. That leaves a lot of downtime. He spends it playing ice hockey, talking about ice hockey and thinking about ice hockey.
In October 2015, Luke was diagnosed with T-cell ALL, a chemo-resistant form of childhood leukemia with a high recurrence rate. Once the chemo treatments started, so did the side effects. Luke's body reacted to treatment by developing a severe case of tumor lysis syndrome- landing him in the pediatric ICU for five days. Ten days earlier, Luke had been playing travel ice hockey and grumbling about homework.
In the months that followed, Luke lost a lot of weight, a lot of hair and most of the joy and exuberance you would expect from an 11-year-old boy. At the one-year mark, he had spent more days in the hospital than out of the hospital. He was unable to walk on his own or do much of anything other than lay in bed. But all on his own, he hatched a plan.
Between diagnosis and the beginning of treatment, surgeons had implanted a port into his chest into which they would feed the chemo and other medicines and fluids. Because of the port, Luke was prohibited from playing contact sports. So he figured he needed to get rid of the port. Because what he really needed was ice hockey.
Luke’s parents were mystified. To their son, it wasn’t the fact that he couldn’t walk, had lost most of his muscle tone, he had no energy, couldn’t keep food down or even stay awake for much more than an hour. All of that wasn’t standing between him and hockey. To Luke, it was just the port in his chest.
On his own, Luke talked to his primary oncologist about getting the port out. This was kind of a big deal. The port is there for a reason: it can handle a lot more than a simple IV and putting these chemicals into the body comes with a risk of third degree burns if not administered properly. So Luke had to agree to withstand a lot of IVs and the threat of major side effects if he wanted to get his port out. For Luke it was a no-brainer.
While Luke and his doctor were onboard with the idea, the surgeon needed convincing. Why would a child less than 1/3 of the way through treatment get his port out? He had never seen such a thing. He just didn’t understand taking that risk. But Luke and his doctor had something in common: a passion for ice hockey. His doctor knew intuitively what it would mean for Luke’s battle with cancer if he got to skate again. So everybody persuaded the surgeon and the port came out.
Luke’s mom likes to say that as soon as he laced up his skates again, his hair sprouted, his muscles filled in and he regained the ability to walk on his own. It sounds like the kind of hyperbole that makes for good storytelling. But the thing is, it’s also true. Hockey gave him a reason to get out of bed, to struggle to walk, to fall and to get up again.
About eight months after getting his port out he was playing travel ice hockey again. Most of his teammates didn’t even know that he was only halfway through treatment for cancer.
Now Luke is counting down the days until his last chemo in February 2019. He will still have to make regular visits to the hospital and the Cancer Institute of New Jersey in the years to come. But Luke’s got big plans that don’t involve cancer: make a AA team, then triple-A, then juniors, then who knows?
If you have read this far, then you probably understand the healing properties of sports. Hockey made all the difference in Luke’s ability to fight cancer, and now it will be his reason for recovery.
Luke has it all planned out. He will “attend” a private online school because he needs a custom curriculum that includes everything he has missed since 6th grade, plus regular high school material. He will study and he will skate. He wants to skate several hours a day to get back to where he was before diagnosis.
Luke could use your help. His family is tapped out from paying for cancer and taking time off of work to care for him. Once he’s done with treatment Luke will start working at a nearby flower farm but that’s not going to cover it. He needs to find a way to finance school, private hockey sessions, clinics, camps and equipment.
Please consider helping Luke finance his dream of playing professional hockey or at least recovering enough to give it his best shot.
Organizer
Nancy Rogers
Organizer
Morganville, NJ
