Bruin coach triumphs over cancer @supost.com

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Date: Thu, Dec 07, 2006, 08:00 AM

Sitting across from Kim Jagd in her office, you would never be able to guess what she has been through in the past nine months. The 14th-year women?s volleyball assistant coach is as upbeat and full of energy as ever. She is in very good physical shape. Her hair is still short, but it is beginning to grow back. Her biggest challenge right now is trying to help the Bruins advance to the Final Four. But just nine months ago, Jagd found out that she had something much more important to worry about than sports. The coach was diagnosed with stage I breast cancer in early March. Signs that something wasn?t right with Jagd came as early as the fall of 2005, during last year?s volleyball season. Jagd, who played volleyball for UCLA in the mid-1980s and has been active in sports since she can remember, began to feel aches and pains and was experiencing a kind of fatigue she had never felt before. She went to see doctors, who ran a variety of tests on her. Their conclusions were similar ? everything was just fine. ?My doctors said, ?Well, maybe you feel tired and your joints ache because you?ve beat your body up so bad over so many years,?? Jagd said. ??You?ve had six surgeries and you?re bound to start feeling aches and pains and not feeling so well.? I just kind of swallowed it and said, ?OK, that?s the way its going to be from now on.?? So life went on like normal for Jagd ? until one day in late February, when she discovered a lump on her breast. The next week was full of tests, and the forceful anxiety that came as a result. Jagd was fortunate to get an answer much more quickly than many women due to her being part of the UCLA system, but the faster pace also meant her emotions were intensified. ?The first visit was, ?It?s probably not cancer at somebody your age; it?s probably just something else,?? Jagd said. ?The next doctor was, ?I think this is a 50% chance you might have cancer.? The next call was ?100%, we got your biopsy back, you?ve got cancer.?? The minutes after that call presented Jagd with some of the most excruciatingly painful emotional moments she had ever experienced. ?I kind of went into my room and nobody knew where I was for a couple of hours, and I just ? I bawled. I cried nonstop for that whole evening and tried to absorb the whole thing.? Family Reaction The news of Jagd?s cancer struck a painful chord in her family. Jagd, her parents and her 17-year-old son Ryal were all living together, while daughter Nikki ? a freshman setter for Pacific University at the time ? was away at school. Jagd?s father has fought through five different forms of cancer and had his bladder removed just two months ago. And after investing so much time helping her husband over the past few years, Jagd?s mother now had to go through it all again with her daughter. ?It was really tough, especially to see my dad cry,? Jagd said. ?My mom wanted to take it on for me, my dad wanted to take it on for me. That?s how you feel as a parent. I can?t imagine ? I don?t ever want to be in that situation. But my parents had to go through that. Their daughter had cancer.? The family did receive very good news after Jagd went in for her lumpectomy. In addition to removing the lump from Jagd?s breast, the doctors also performed tests to see if the cancer had spread. To the relief of Jagd and her family, it had not. ?I?m so lucky,? Jagd said. ?I mean, it could?ve been something else. It could?ve been a horrible diagnosis.? Jagd decided to opt for chemotherapy at the advice of her doctors. She went through eight chemotherapy infusions before finally ending the treatment in September. Throughout her battle with cancer and chemotherapy, Jagd?s children have gone out of their way to show support for their mother. Ryal, a volleyball and football player at Palos Verde High School, wears the emblem ?Hope, Courage, Faith? on his football cleats and has gotten both his volleyball and football teams to wear pink wristbands in support of breast cancer awareness. He and his mother shaved each other?s heads as Jagd?s hair began to fall out. ?Kids at school now come to him to talk about their parents or siblings or people in their families that are sick,? Jagd said. ?He?s become the source of stability and the rock for his peer group as a result of this.? Nikki, who transferred from Pacific to play for UCLA this season, initially had to deal with the situation from afar. Although coping with her mother?s cancer while away from home was difficult, being back at home with her made things a lot easier and enabled her to give her full-fledged support. ?It was really hard at first, not having her here,? Jagd said. ?Having her here now is so great. It makes my little world complete, having everyone close by again.? The Ultimate Support Group More than anything else, Jagd needed a source of support and comfort while fighting the cancer. That?s why, despite all of the physical and mental duress she encountered on the road to recovery, Jagd hardly took any time off as a coach: She knew that her team was as good a support group as any could be. ?I knew that they would be there for me,? Jagd said. ?And they were in reality more so than I expected.? When Jagd first found out about her cancer, she couldn?t bear to tell the team, so she had coach Andy Banachowski do it while she was not present. ?Forty years in the coaching business, (and Banachowski has) had just about every situation except for this one,? Jagd said. ?He handled this just beautifully. He handled me; he handled the team well; he was gracious; he let me stay ? whatever I wanted to do.? Although the challenge was unique for Banachowski, he took it on with enthusiasm and a hopeful spirit. ?It?s been a tough situation for all of us,? Banachowski said. ?It?s just been a great educational experience for all of us to be involved and to see someone battle cancer and say that they?re a survivor.? Immediately after the announcement of Jagd?s cancer was made, she received an outpouring of support from her players, their families and the UCLA Athletic Department. Jagd received nonstop calls, text messages, e-mails and gifts throughout her chemotherapy, and all the support had an enormous impact on her. ?You should?ve seen my house the first week after my diagnosis,? Jagd said. ?There were flowers in every corner of my house. It was kind of crazy.? And while the team was able to have a positive impact on Jagd, her toughness and determination had even more of an inspiring effect on the team. ?She?s been very strong and open to talk about it,? senior middle blocker Nana Meriwether said. ?She?s educated us a lot about it. It?s been amazing to see her go through it and be so strong about it.? ?I think our team expected her to miss a lot more than she has,? senior libero Colby Lyman said. ?Just seeing her go through it all and just having a great attitude about everything has been incredible.? Lyman knew about the pain and suffering that breast cancer causes beforehand, from personal experience, as her mother had fought and survived breast cancer just a few years earlier. Lyman?s experience in dealing with a similar situation made her a leader on the team. She even took the time to call Nikki while Nikki was still playing for Pacific last year, to comfort her and teach her about breast cancer. ?It was really helpful to have Colby there,? Nikki said. ?She not only gave me encouragement, but she gave me facts (and assured me:) ?She will do better, she will get better.?? The End of the Road to Recovery After going through chemotherapy, Jagd endured seven weeks of radiation treatment, five days a week. The treatment is a painless procedure that takes about five minutes ? similar to an X-ray. Jagd?s radiation treatment ended in the middle of November. She now must take one pill of Tamoxifen ? a drug designed to prevent reoccurrence ? every day for five years. There is an estimated 97-98% chance that a relapse will not occur. ?I?m really lucky,? Jagd said. ?You hit the one-year mark, you?re in better shape. You hit the two-year mark, four year-mark, five-year mark; then that?s what you keep hoping for.? As the recovery process nears completion, Jagd has emerged as an inspiration to all who have come in contact with her throughout the past nine months. She has come out a much stronger person with a renewed sense of appreciation for all that life has to offer. ?Good mornings to people that you see every day are more important,? Jagd said. ?Living with my family, getting to see my parents every day ? I don?t think I took those things for granted, but they?re just more enlightened, more enhanced. Everything?s more important these days.? <a href='; target='_blank'>;