Brian Clark-Basketball Official
Brian Clark has been officiating high school basketball for 20+years. He was diagnosed with colon cancer. Brian has been unable to work any games for the last two seasons. Those of us who know Brian personally know not being on the court has been tough. He is a dedicated official that worked as many games as he could giving back to a sport he loves.
As you can imagine, the cancer has taken a toll on him physically, emotionally and. financially. We as officials in Northeast Arkansas have decided to donate one nights games check to help Brian and his family during this difficult time. Brian and Laura 5 boys, Brady Clark, Jackson Imler, Michael Oldham, Brison Clark, Wilson Clark
below is Brian’s story
Brian was diagnosed in October of 2019 with stage 4 colon cancer. He has battled as hard as he could even though the odds were and still are stacked against him. He had very good results after the first cycle of chemo but wasn’t out of the woods yet. They began the second cycle of chemo when they discovered a growing mass on his thyroid last summer while being hospitalized in June for a blockage in the sigmoid colon. The mass in his colon had grown. They placed a stent in the colon and it helped. However, the mass on the thyroid had more than doubled in 3 months so they believed it to be cancer as well. He had to put his chemo regimen on hold after his October 20, 2020, chemo round to prepare his blood for surgery. He underwent a complete thyroidectomy on December 9, 2020. He anticipated going back on chemo within 2 weeks. His thyroid pathology came back that he in fact also had thyroid cancer. The cancer treating the colon was again placed on hold. Brian began having upper right quadrant pain, and was hospitalized for possible gall bladder removal. After a 7 days, they discovered, his gall bladder was fine but the tumor burden from the cancer had created a blockage in the liver. His cancer has progressed quickly and become more aggressive. They placed a drain in his upper right quadrant to relieve pressure on the liver and drain the bile to allow the liver to try to heal. He developed jaundice in this process. On day 11 he is released to go home, only to return within a few hours from severe nausea and vomiting. They discovered the mass has occluded the stent in the colon, and his stomach is very distended. He has been unable to use the restroom and keep food/drink down, so they placed an NG tube. On day 13 they removed the NG tube and he began with a liquid diet. He has tolerated this diet well to date. He has also had issues with his oxygen level staying up due to the pressure on the diaphragm from his bowels being backed up. The surgery team decided they needed to try to operate to give him a colostomy but knew it might not work and was risky. The surgeon determined his tumor and disease was too far advanced to operate. He began having some swelling in his legs and his heart rate was elevating, his hemoglobin was low but his liver was healing which made him a candidate for chemotherapy. The surgeon said the only option was chemo to prolong life and if it didn’t work, he may only have weeks left with us. The oncologist agreed that time was of the essence. On day 20 of the hospital stay, he has begun chemotherapy along with pain medication to keep him comfortable. He has also underwent a blood transfusion to help with the hemoglobin level.
Brian is a fighter. His will to live is an inspiration. He is in good spirits but anxious to get back to work and on the hardwood.