{"id":22171,"date":"2026-03-11T12:31:35","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T12:31:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/uncategorized\/living-with-cancer-game-plan\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T06:13:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:13:41","slug":"living-with-cancer-game-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/positive-living\/health-and-wellness\/living-with-cancer\/living-with-cancer-game-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Living with Cancer: Game Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m a coach\u2014a high school golf and basketball coach. That means more than you might think. Coaching is a job. But it&#8217;s also an identity. To my players I&#8217;m a mentor, an encourager, a disciplinarian and a strategist all rolled into one. Most important, I&#8217;m an example. I show my kids how to win games and how to be people of faith and integrity.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s actually the part of my work I love best. My office is messy with papers, schedules, books, sports equipment and even a few awards, including my induction into the state&#8217;s Basketball Hall of Fame. But nothing means more than watching my players at graduation, seeing them transformed from nervous freshmen into responsible young adults, ready to step out into the world with confidence.<\/p>\n<p>Which is why, when it suddenly looked like I might lose my job\u2014might lose my life\u2014a couple of years ago, I didn&#8217;t know how to react. I had been coaching at Lutheran West High School for 38 years. When it came to my own health, though, I had no set game plan.<\/p>\n<p>It all started one Friday in the gym. I was 59, working out to keep up with my players and students. I was on the abdominal machine, doing sit-ups with weight resistance. <em>I bet I could increase that weight,<\/em> I thought, and added a few more pounds to my load. I did a crunch. <em>Ouch.<\/em> <em>Come on, Coach.<\/em> Another. Hot pain seared my lower abdomen. <em>What was going on?<\/em> <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/guideposts.org\/faith\/stories-of-faith\/a-coachs-victory\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><em>READ MORE: A COACH&#8217;S VICTORY<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I tried another, tentatively. The pain was so intense, I fell back, gasping. Embarrassed but determined, I finished the workout and staggered to work.<\/p>\n<p>I thought the pain would ease\u2014I just needed to get used to the new weight. But it lasted all that day. And the next. By Sunday, I knew something was wrong. My roommate Cindy drove me to the emergency room, where doctors told me my abdomen was so filled with fluid, they couldn&#8217;t make a diagnosis. &#8220;You need to see your gynecologist,&#8221; they told me. &#8220;Right away.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em>I&#8217;m fine,<\/em> I told myself the next day in the gynecologist&#8217;s waiting room. I pictured myself at the gym, on the court, taking camping trips I so loved in Ohio state parks. But the doctor immediately ordered several tests, including a blood test for ovarian cancer. <em>God, please, no<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Two days later I returned to the gynecologist for the results. The pain had gone away, and so had my worry. I was eager to get back on the ab machine.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Karen,&#8221; the doctor said, coming into the room with a strangely grave expression, &#8220;why don&#8217;t you sit down?&#8221; He opened a chart. &#8220;This particular cancer test scores results numerically. A score below 35 is normal. Yours is&#8230;&#8221; he paused, &#8220;900.&#8221; I looked at him.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Of course,&#8221; he continued quickly, &#8220;there&#8217;s always the chance of a false positive. We&#8217;ll have to operate to determine that. I&#8217;m sorry to have to deliver this news, though.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I sat stock-still. Me, in the hospital, under anesthesia? Cancer? I couldn&#8217;t quite picture it. My mind spun, thinking of my players, the upcoming season\u2014and then, weirdly, my office at school, scattered with trophies and plaques and papers. If I die, who will clean it?<\/p>\n<p>That night, I lay awake, still not comprehending\u2014not admitting\u2014the doctor&#8217;s words. My grandmother, my cousin and several others in my extended family had died of cancer. But I was so healthy. I&#8217;m an athlete! How can I be a coach if I have cancer? I tried to pray. <em>God,<\/em> I began, <em>oh, God&#8230;.<\/em> But no coherent prayer came.<\/p>\n<p>Come on, I thought. I prayed every day\u2014for my players, for our games, for people at church, for friends and family. But what was I supposed to pray for now? <em>I\u2019m not going to have cancer<\/em>, I finally decided. The doctor had said false positive, so that\u2019s what it was going to be.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/guideposts.org\/inspirational-stories\/a-champion-coach-with-faith-courage-commitment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em><strong>READ MORE: A CHAMPION COACH WITH FAITH, COURAGE AND COMMITTMENT<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Wheeling into the operating room, I felt oddly calm. My pastor and several close friends performed a healing and anointing service. My brothers, who had driven from Missouri, sat outside in a waiting room. <em>False positive<\/em>, I thought as the anesthesia kicked in.<\/p>\n<p>I came to in a recovery room. When I had stabilized, the surgeon came in and sat by my bedside to discuss the operation with me. \u201cI\u2019ve got some good news and some bad news,\u201d he said. \u201cWhich do you want to hear first?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe bad,\u201d I said. He took a breath.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOkay. We removed a nine-inch tumor from your abdomen.\u201d He paused to let that sink in. \u201cYou have clear cell carcinoma, the most aggressive kind of ovarian cancer. You need chemotherapy immediately\u2014six treatments three weeks apart.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Now, I know you teach at school. If everything goes well and you stay on schedule, the treatments should be completed by fall. Of course, you may not really feel like going back in to work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTell me the good,\u201d I said quietly.<\/p>\n<p>He brightened. \u201cYour cancer is only stage two. That means it hasn\u2019t spread to the lining of your abdomen or, from what we can tell, to the lymph nodes. If the chemotherapy treatments are successful, you could beat this thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Days later I left the hospital, still in a fog. The first chemotherapy treatment was scheduled right away\u2014for June 1, two days before graduation. \u201cYou\u2019ll probably have to miss that graduation,\u201d a nurse told me. <em>Oh, no, I won\u2019t<\/em>, I thought. I hadn\u2019t missed a single graduation in 38 years. Cancer was not going to change that. My students would see the same old Coach Wittrock.<\/p>\n<p>The treatment was pretty straightforward. Nurses hooked up an IV and dripped a combination of three cancer drugs, plus medicine to help with side effects, into my body. It took eight hours. I felt fine. <em>Miss graduation\u2014humph<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The next day, my legs and head throbbed. The day after, I awoke and crawled into the bathroom, sicker than I\u2019d ever felt. I could barely lift my head from the floor. \u201cCindy,\u201d I croaked, \u201cI need to call the school. I can\u2019t make it to graduation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So it went the rest of the summer. Every treatment left me weak and sick, wanting to close my eyes and give up. Nothing I did helped. There was no routine, no workout, no plan that could make me strong enough to withstand those chemo drugs. And they didn\u2019t even come with a guarantee! Cancer, even when apparently in remission, can come back without warning.<\/p>\n<p>Vulnerability without end. How was I supposed to cope with that? How was I supposed to live my life?<\/p>\n<p>One weekend, after I had recovered some from a round of treatment, I decided to get out of the city and do some camping. I needed fresh air, to clear my head, to surround myself with God\u2019s creation. Summer was advancing\u2014which meant school was drawing near. What would happen when I went back\u2014assuming I went back? I wasn\u2019t the same Coach Wittrock. I was thin, bald. I felt sick.<\/p>\n<p>What would students think? Would I be able to get on the court and coach like I had before? What kind of example would I set? The questions themselves exhausted me.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/guideposts.org\/inspiration\/inspirational-stories\/living-with-cancer-peak-performer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em><strong>READ MORE: PEAK PERFORMER<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I packed fishing gear, drove to my favorite state park and walked to a beautiful lake. I spent a day fishing and reading, listening to wind in the trees, watching the sky reflected in the rippling water. So serene. So whole. <em>God is good<\/em>, I thought to myself.<\/p>\n<p>Dusk fell and I went to bed in my motor home. Insects chirped. The lake lapped at the shore. Its rhythms lulled me to sleep and I found myself dreaming\u2014more vividly than I usually dream. I saw a white light, brilliant and strong, descend from somewhere above and wrap around me like a blanket. Somehow I knew it was angels. <em>Have they come to take me to heaven?<\/em> I wondered.<\/p>\n<p>But immediately I knew they hadn\u2019t. They hovered, clearer now, their shapes concrete and yet indistinct. And then they vanished. I woke with a start. It was dark. The lake had stilled. From somewhere, a voice came to my thoughts: <em>You will be healed.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The voice departed as quick as it came. But that word stayed with me. <em>Healed.<\/em> What did it mean? I thought of a verse from Exodus: \u201cStand firm and watch for the Lord\u2019s deliverance.\u201d God, I suddenly realized, was going to heal <em>all<\/em> of me. Not just my strong, athletic body, given back to me, as if nothing had happened. No, he would heal my spirit too. <\/p>\n<p><em>Trust in me<\/em>, the voice seemed to say. <em>I will never forsake you.<\/em> I sighed, peace settling over me like I hadn\u2019t felt in months. And I drifted back to sleep.<\/p>\n<p>I had more chemotherapy after that\u2014five more rounds, in fact. And I developed an allergic reaction to some of the medication, requiring two final sessions overnight at the hospital. But as the start of school approached, I grew more and more excited.<\/p>\n<p>I was not, I knew, the same Coach Wittrock. I was thinner, balder, weaker\u2014everything that I had feared. But none of that mattered. Dependence on God was my strength\u2014vulnerability, met with prayer and thanksgiving\u2014the example I could set for all of my students.<\/p>\n<p>I arrived the first day of school in a baseball cap. I knew I wasn\u2019t up to coaching full time, full strength, so I asked my assistant coach, a parent volunteer, to help. He was there with me as the students trickled in, gathering around, some of them staring surreptitiously, questions in their eyes.<\/p>\n<p>I explained about the cancer, told them I might miss some days here and there, might not be mixing it up with them as vigorously as I had before. They didn\u2019t seem to care.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re so proud of you, Coach!\u201d someone called out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah,\u201d said another. \u201cGreat hat too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet\u2019s practice!\u201d a few cried. And that\u2019s just what we did.<\/p>\n<p><em>Download your FREE ebook, <a href=\"http:\/\/guideposts.org\/free-ebooks\/true-inspirational-stories-9-real-life-stories-hope-and-faith\/download?int_source=Article&amp;int_medium=EndOfArticle&amp;int_campaign=TrueInspirationalStorieseBook\">True Inspirational Stories: 9 Real Life Stories of Hope &amp; Faith<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m a coach\u2014a high school golf and basketball coach. That means more than you might think. Coaching is a job. But it&#8217;s also an identity. To my players I&#8217;m a mentor, an encourager, a disciplinarian and a strategist all rolled into one. Most important, I&#8217;m an example. I show my kids how to win games [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[270],"tags":[250],"ppma_author":[943],"class_list":["post-22171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-living-with-cancer","tag-breast-cancer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Living with Cancer: Game Plan - Guideposts Articles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Living with Cancer: Game Plan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I&#8217;m a coach\u2014a high school golf and basketball coach. 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