Woodland junior loses her arm to cancer, not her desire to succeed
The phantom pain really is not much of a pain to MaryKate Hughes.
It is more of an annoyance, a sensation that her right arm is there, that it moves freely. Sometimes, she can feel her wrist rotate. Sometimes, her arm itches.
But the arm is not there. Doctors amputated the limb last spring in an effort to stop the spread of cancer.
Since then, there have been a lot of adjustments for Hughes, a Woodland High School junior.
“The cross-over move no longer works,” the junior varsity basketball player says with a laugh.
The art of dribbling a basketball from one hand to the other, then exploding past a defender toward the hoop is no longer a part of her game.
But the game remains a very big part of this 17-year-old.
“If I could play basketball, if I could adapt and still play it, if I could do that, I can do other things that are tough.
“I’m still me. I can still play.”
For real, too.
Hughes’ biggest fear coming into the season, when she tried out for the team, was that she was going to be given a pity spot on the roster.
“I didn’t want to be on the team because I’d been on the team before,” she said, noting her previous two seasons with the program. “I wanted to earn it. I wanted to deserve it.”
In one game earlier this season, Hughes scored six points for the junior varsity Beavers. In another game, she had six steals. Recently in practice, she made 12 consecutive free throws. She loves playing defense, especially in the press, making steals and starting the fast break with a long pass for a layup.
MaryKate is the third of Julie and Mark Hughes’ 10 children. The Dozen Hughes make for a built-in support system for any of life’s struggles. The family’s faith in God is No. 1 on the priority list. The Hughes love. They laugh. They dance.
And led by MaryKate, they remain positive, hopeful, and optimistic.
MaryKate was first diagnosed with synovial sarcoma in her right shoulder when she was 10 years old.
“From what I remember, I was kind of shocked,” she said. “We had heard of people getting cancer.”
“That one appointment was surreal,” Julie Hughes recalled.
It took nearly four months to get the diagnosis, and then it hit the family hard.
“We knew it was an ugly cancer. It was unpredictable,” Mark Hughes said.
Doctors advised limb salvage treatment. Surgery to rid MaryKate of the cancer left her right arm temporarily useless. The right-hander had to learn to use her left hand. By 2008, with the help of physical therapy, she had regained roughly 90 percent of the use of her right arm.
Basketball, even after her first surgery when she was 10, never left the equation. There was always a spot for her on a team.
By July 2008, before MaryKate’s sophomore year at Woodland, a follow-up scan revealed no tumors. The family thought she was all clear, but pain returned to the arm the following December.
“There were tough times,” MaryKate said. “For me, the worst part was waiting for people to get back to you. The worst part was not knowing what was going to happen next.”
Cancer returns
The cancer had returned.
“When it came back, it was a lot more aggressive than when she was 10,” Julie said.
“I wasn’t really surprised that it did come back. It did not seem out of the question,” MaryKate said, adding that she just had a feeling it would return one day.
Amputation was discussed seven years ago, as well. Now, it appeared to be the next step.
“She didn’t want to have a useless arm,” Julie recalled. “She was more interested in long-term survival instead of being freaked out about losing an arm.”
A second opinion in Houston, Texas, home of the MD Anderson Cancer Center, came to the same conclusion: Amputation was the best strategy. MaryKate would also have to go through two rounds of chemotherapy prior to the surgery.
She spent the rest of January playing basketball. For two games, she was allowed to dress — and play — for the varsity, to play alongside her sister, Jessica.
MaryKate had plenty of time to think of life without an arm. She did not bother with the negative, though.
“I kind of just took each day and was glad I had it for then,” she said. “I was happy for the time I did have it.”
MaryKate and her parents flew back to Houston for the surgery, scheduled for April 2. But at the last minute — MaryKate was already prepped for surgery — there was a delay and another possible setback. A scan found a spot on her chest wall. The doctor wanted to coordinate schedules with a thoracic surgeon to perform a procedure during the same time of the amputation. Surgery was rescheduled for April 8.
It turned out to be a blessing.
The family decided to visit San Antonio, to get away from Houston for a few days. The hotel staff in San Antonio learned of the reason for the family’s visit to Texas and provided limousine service for a day. The Hughes visited River Walk and The Alamo. They were given free tickets to Six Flags amusement park. And by the end of their stay, an anonymous Samaritan had paid for the room.
Back in Houston for surgery, the mysterious spot on the chest wall turned out to be non-cancerous, probably some scar tissue, Julie said. MaryKate’s arm and shoulder were gone.
“She never cried, the whole hospital stay,” Julie said.
There were moments when MaryKate would think about what she was missing. If she tried to do something with the arm that was no longer there, it would hit her that “it’s not coming back.”
Then she would snap back to reality.
“It usually doesn’t last long,” she said. “I look at everything that I still have, and that helps me get through that.”
True to MaryKate’s move-on-with-life attitude, she and her family attended the Viennese Ball, an annual dance in Vancouver, just 10 days after the amputation.
Getting back to basketball
Soon, she was preparing for her next challenge: Getting back on the basketball court. She attended a ball-handling camp, the only player there learning how to dribble only left-handed.
The camp had players of all ages.
“The bigger kids would look, but then they would look away because they did not know what to say,” MaryKate said. “Little kids have no problem. They just ask, ‘Where’s your arm?’”
In the past nine months, MaryKate has learned that the best way to make everyone feel comfortable is to make sure they know she is comfortable.
“Can you give me a hand?” is one of her favorite ice-breakers.
MaryKate was feeling better, and the latest scans showed no signs of cancer. It was time to get on with her life. And that meant basketball.
“The first day of tryouts, I was a little nervous,” she said.
Her teammates also were apprehensive.
“The first day or two, it was, ‘Don’t take it from the one-armed girl.’ They didn’t want to be the bully girls who stole it from the one-armed girl,” Hughes said. “Now, it’s like, ‘Get her.’ ”
Still, Julie Hughes was worried her daughter was taking on too much of a challenge. She even called Woodland varsity coach Glen Flanagan.
“Do I need to funnel her in another direction?” she asked the coach. “He said, ‘She’s doing great. She’s not only deserving a spot, she’s playing great.’”
Flanagan confirmed that reaction.
“I saw just another player who was working hard, being aggressive, taking it to the hole,” he said. “She wouldn’t go to her right, but the rest of our JV won’t go left.”
He also appreciated her humor.
“We were doing lay-up drills, left-handed, and then I told them to switch,” Flanagan recalled. “She said, ‘Coach, can I shoot left-handed?’ She broke the ice that first day. Everyone just broke out laughing.”
Still, MaryKate was not exactly sure of her ability. After all, she only knew the potential she had with two arms. She knew she was not performing as well as she did in previous seasons, with a full body.
Flanagan had to make it clear to MaryKate that she was good enough. The coach did not promise how many minutes she would play, but she was a member of the program.
“After he told me that, and I knew he actually meant it, I knew I had earned my spot,” MaryKate said.
“She gives us more than we give her,” Flanagan said. “The life lessons she gives us are invaluable.”
He remembered last year, when the cancer returned, MaryKate was still all about the team.
“She was in the hospital one day and at practice the next,” Flanagan said. “There was no woe-is-me, not a second of self-pity. There is no way a girl on our team can complain about anything with MaryKate right there, playing a game that she loves.”
Game is good to her
The game has been good to MaryKate, too. She has noticed that she has improved in several basketball skills.
“You don’t need arms for good defense,” she said.
Hughes also is seeing the floor better, making quicker decisions. It is out of necessity. As soon as she gets the ball — she catches a pass by pinning it to her body — she better know what she is going to do: pass, dribble, or shoot. If she holds the ball too long, a defender will be able to steal it.
“I’m still working on getting a quality shot off because it takes too long right now,” she said.
Just like any other basketball player, she is working on her skills, finding her weaknesses and trying to make them strengths.
It is all about the attitude.
At home, she is just MaryKate. She helps out around the house. She cooks. The family brags about her cookies.
A can opener can give her troubles, but for the most part, she can do all the things she used to do.
“She doesn’t ask for help or anything,” Julie said.
As far as MaryKate’s long-term prognosis, well, that is not in her control. Hughes has fought cancer two times in her young life. She does not know whether she will have to do it again.
In the meantime, she has her life to live.
After all, if she can play basketball with one arm, she can accomplish so much more.
That cross-over move is no longer an option.
Just about everything else in her life is possible.
