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Community rallies in support of Bryant
St. Joe Flyer baseball coach Greg Bryant has been battling non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He and his family say they are amazed at the financial and emotional support offered by the community during their difficult journey.
Purchase this photoIRONTON -- Life, like all good pitchers, throws us curves to keep us off balance.
Longtime St. Joe Flyer baseball coach Greg Bryant has spent a lifetime teaching area youth how to adjust in the batter's box. It took getting hit between the eyes with the equivalent of a 100-mph heater for him to take his own advice off the field.
Just last summer, Bryant was celebrating one of the greatest seasons in Flyer baseball history -- a fifth-place finish in the final Ohio Division IV state poll and coach of the year honors in the Southeast District. During the past three seasons, his team compiled a 45-18 record while earning three-straight sectional titles and two division runner-up finishes. Ten of his players were named to the All-Southeast District team and 12 were academic All-District. Two players, Caleb Blackburn and Ryan Waginger, were honored as All-State competitors.
His decades-long work on the diamond was beginning to bear a plentiful crop. Life was good.
Then, life wound up and delivered an errant fastball that Bryant just didn't see coming. It was a pitch that would forever change his outlook on living.
"I started feeling sick last February," Bryant recalled, mentioning that fatigue overcame him on most evenings. "Then, when baseball came around, I started having back pain. I thought it was from hitting baseballs or taking bus rides. I never thought it was something more than that."
What that "something" turned out to be was cancer -- non-Hodgkins B-cell lymphoma, a disease that gradually eliminates the body's white blood cells, the first line of defense against infection. "I went to the emergency room and to the doctor a few times and they thought it was arthritis," he said, adding that the cancer was so well concealed that he was diagnosed by several different doctors with a variety of ailments.
By June, Bryant, 37, was waking in the middle of the night covered in sweat. The pain in his back grew more severe, inducing periodic vomiting. By this time, he was convinced he had a kidney stone and made yet another trip to the emergency room.
"Every time he went to the doctor they never ran any major tests," his wife Lora said, adding that Greg's blood tests never showed any abnormalities. "This time we insisted that they run some different tests. That's when they found out it was lymphoma."
The pain in Bryant's back was caused by enlarging lymph nodes that were pressing against his spine. But that pain was nothing compared to what he and Lora were now facing. "My head spun," he said of the diagnosis. "It was a nightmare.":
While in the hospital for one of the chemotherapy treatments that have robbed Greg of his hair, fate came in the form of a nurse who entered to check his blood sugar. Lora questioned the nurse, who replied that Greg was diabetic. "No, he isn't," Lora corrected.
It turned out that the nurse was in the wrong room, but she decided to check Greg's sugar anyway. The results, induced by the feeding frenzies brought on by the steroids he had been prescribed, were off the charts. "My blood sugar level was 628," he said. "I was about to get out of the hospital. If they had let me out, I would have probably gone into a coma at home."
Adding to the shock the Bryants and their three high-school-age children were experiencing, another brushback pitch soon followed. Greg was layed off from his job and lost his insurance. The family relied on their faith in God and the help of the Catholic community to fulfill their basic needs.
Five different fundraisers were organized over the summer to benefit the Bryant family. Private and anonymous donors have also been numerous. "There's been so many individual donations," Greg said. "I couldn't begin to tell you how many."
Lora recalled opening the door to their Cliff Street home one morning to gather the Sunday paper. "When I picked it up, there was an envelope underneath," she recalled. "It had $400 dollars in it and a note that said, 'Thank you for being such an important part of the Catholic community.'"
More goodwill from their peers emerged when the Bryants attempted to pay their bills. Several times, they were told that their debt had been paid by somebody else. "I don't know what we would do without these people," Lora said, adding that several different friends and family members watch after their children while she and Greg are visiting the hospital.
"I wish I could go around and thank everyone personally for all they've done," Greg said of the many people who have helped his family through this crisis. "The anonymous people, I want them to know how much they helped us."
Lora reserved special praise for a higher power. "It's amazing when you look back and see all the times that God was right there with us," she said. "We've had so many close calls, but He's been there the whole time."
The Bryants forged a special relationship with Greg's cancer physician at Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital, Dr. Hayek. "We had people tell us we should go to one of the bigger cities for him to get treated," Lora said. "But we feel like Dr. Hayek has so much compassion for us. He is our friend." Greg added, "He takes the time to talk to you; not like a doctor but like a friend. From the beginning, we felt confident that he was going to get us through all of this. I can't say enough good things about him and all of the people at Bellefonte."
Clinging to their faith, family, friends and the encouragement of their special doctor, the Bryants are indeed in a position to once again have hope. Greg will go in for his sixth, and hopefully final, chemo treatment in October. If his lymph nodes stay the same size, the prognosis is that life for Greg Bryant can resume as normal.
"He spent all of his time in the hospital making line-ups and talking to people about his baseball team," Lora said, adding that Greg has been strong throughout his life-threatening experience. "He's been positive from the very beginning," she said.
Next spring, when Greg Bryant visits the pitcher's mound to talk strategy with his Flyers ace, a newfound life experience is bound to make its way into the pep talk. And it might just be himself he's pepping up.
"All these years, I've told my pitchers that they have to be mentally tough to get through tough situations," he said. "I had to kind of take my own advice this time."
