PICKLEBALL AS HEALING
I am so grateful for this game and how it marked the milestones of my recovery .
By Pete Wheelan
I ’ ve been a racquet sports person since childhood . First it was competitive doubles tennis in high school , and then platform tennis to help me get through long , cold Chicago winters during graduate school and my early professional years .
Then , well , “ life happened .” I got married , moved to northern California , bought a house , started a family , and navigated a career that — while tremendously fulfilling — required long hours and a lot of travel . Both tennis and paddle had become distant memories , and I thought maybe my days of competitive racquet sports were over .
And then pickleball came into my life . It started when my family began taking regular spring break trips to visit my parents at a retirement community in Florida . My mother introduced me to the game and , truth be told , she took quite a few points from me until I learned how the game was played . A few years later , we found courts in the Lake Tahoe area , and began to play up there a few days every summer .
Then COVID-19 hit . Local courts started popping up , and my business travel came to a halt . Both of our sons ( then 15 and 19 ) were still living with us , and playing pickleball as a “ family pod ” was one of the main ( safe ) diversions for us during the long days of spring and summer 2020 . I was hooked . Really hooked . I began taking it seriously , drilling regularly with a partner and attending several multi-day training camps . As 2021 rolled around , I was regularly playing with some of the top players in our county , and eager to begin entering tournaments . Then , in March 2021 , a routine blood test changed everything . It took a while for my doctors to figure out what was going on , but by mid-April the diagnosis was clear and daunting . I had a rare bone marrow cancer called myelodysplastic syndrome ( MDS ), which had already begun transitioning to acute myeloid leukemia ( AML ). It ’ s essentially a terminal diagnosis , except for one potential way out : a successful stem cell bone marrow transplant — a journey that is referred to as one of the most radical medical interventions that currently exists .
After the grim diagnosis , a whole lot of things subsequently broke my way — one of the top transplant centers in the country ( UC San Francisco ) happens to be 7 miles from my house , and both of my brothers turned out to be perfect donor matches
“ Pickleball truly became my therapy ,” says Pete Wheelan .
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