Hall of Fame quarterback talks about his second, more serious battle with cancer from his hospital room while surrounded by family. DeSean Jackson starts looking for a new team, and the King family experiences a significant loss.
NEW YORK Jim Kelly, 54, was lying propped up in a hospital bed on a high floor of Lenox Hill Hospital on Saturday afternoon. His head was back, his hair was tangled and matted, and he had antibiotics and painkillers pumping through his veins. He appeared worn out. As he rattled off his recent experiences, his daughter Erin, a freshman at Liberty University, held his hand. Along with his younger daughter Camryn (shown at the top of this post), father Joe, four brothers, and his wife stood at the foot of the bed, listening to everything he said.
His remarked, “Without my faith, there is no way I would be here.” “It has been quite the journey.” So much. The losses in the Super Bowl, the incredible career, my son’s illness at birth, being inducted into the Hall of Fame, his passing, two plates and ten screws in my back following a major operation, one plate and six screws in my neck following another procedure, a double hernia, the cancer, surgery on my jaw, the cancer returning, and now what I’m dealing with. However…
He gave Erin a look.
The tale of His second, more significant battle with cancer is intricate. But for better or worse, it involves toughness. And humor is too. He had a portion of his malignant upper jaw removed in June of last year, and a prosthesis consisting of six artificial teeth and bone was created and fitted into the surgical wound. To replace the skin lost on the roof of his mouth, they grafted a rectangle of skin from his upper left thigh. When removes the prosthetic, which functions like a huge retainer, he appears like an elderly man without his front teeth.
“Do you know His Swag?” Jill stated that it was Saturday afternoon. he declared, “I will never pull this out,” following his surgery. He didn’t want it to be how we perceived him.
That’s when he removed the device from his mouth, scowled, and started babbling like a nonsensical old geezer. The room erupted. He then reinserted his teeth.
“There are times when we understand his Swag better than JK,” Erin said.
Claims that “the average person wouldn’t have been able to take it.” “On some days, I’m not sure how I managed.” Gazing up to the Lord, I would declare, “I give.” Uncle. You understood me.
In the upcoming weeks, the family will need those times. Kelly starts a treatment schedule today, if his mild fever subsides by this morning. The regimen consists of chemotherapy on Monday and Tuesday, radiation on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and is intended to stop the cancer that is dangerously close to his head’s carotid artery. Even if the cancer that has traveled up his infraorbital nerve can be stopped, it is extremely dangerous to operate at this time because there is no assurance that all of the cancer will be located and removed.
Weeks could pass while he recovers from surgery before chemo or radiation can start, allowing the cancer to continue spreading into his brain if physicians operate and all of the malignancy is not removed. So, intense chemotherapy and radiation are required for a few weeks at this time. Dr. Peter Costantino, Kelly’s oncologist in New York, stated last week that Kelly’s illness is “very treatable and potentially curable.”
Kelly remarked, “If he’s saying it, I hope so.” All I know is that there’s a lot of work to be done to reduce the cancer. All I can do is hope it succeeds. It’s working if you hear that I’m going to have surgery. That is the objective. That operation won’t be simple, though.
It’s an intricate cancer. Instead of a single large tumor, his skull is filled with innumerable tiny ones. That’s most likely one of the main reasons the cancer was difficult to diagnose when it came back. Doctors believed Kelly’s headaches, which she described as “massive headaches and migraines,” might be caused by tooth issues that persisted following jaw surgery in June of last year.
In the months following the procedure, he underwent six root canals on the left side of his mouth. However, the discomfort and headaches persisted. Jill Kelly remarked, “The suffering turned into a gift.” Doctors might not have been as proactive in identifying the source of the pain if there had been none. Additionally, doctors noticed Kelly’s admission that his head hurt a lot because he has a history of hiding his suffering.
This winter, after a while, Jim Kelly realized something wasn’t right. Additionally, this month’s tests revealed more cancerous patches, several of which were traveling up the nerve that leads to his brain.
“I promise that an average person couldn’t have handled it,” he remarked. “On some days, I’m not sure how I managed.” I spent months complaining about my headaches, and for a long time I assumed it was just how the body healed after such a major surgery. Of course, it went beyond that. Gazing up to the Lord, I would declare, “I give.” Uncle. You understood me.
Nevertheless, this is just one more river to bridge now. We will continue to fight now that we know what it is. “No matter what I accomplished in life,” he said, gesturing to the packed family room, “I never did it alone.” Thus, we shall battle. Now it is in the hands of the Lord.
The support network makes him feel a bit bad sometimes. He observes people, some of whom are extremely critically ill, walking the corridors alone. The other day he told his brothers, “There’s a lady down the hall.” “Who goes see her? I never see anyone. I should deliver some of my flowers to her.
Dan Kelly interjected, “That includes the impact my mother had on all of us. Mom used to part with our winter jackets. “That kid needed it more,” she would remark. You guys will be alright.
Now, the Kelly family lives by that Christian teaching. At times, their message and convictions are so powerful that they resemble a gospel tent in the space.
Dan remarked, “All the fame Jim had in football.” “To be honest, I think that’s just a tool God is using to leverage his fame for something bigger. What did he intend to do? Jim is going through a lot of agony, more pain than most people could ever imagine, and we hate it. However, we are aware of the goal.
Jill remarked, “He might be a messenger of hope.”
You’re aware of it, Jim said.
“James has such a wonderful opportunity to be on the same playing field as everyone else, allowing people to see his struggles and relate to him. Everyone gains strength from it, Jill added.
Jim remarked, “You got that right.”
