Oskar Lindblom's, recent Ewing's sarcoma diagnosis sent a shockwave through the hockey community, but especially through the locker room of the Philadelphia Flyers. Lindblom's condition is expected to keep him out of the Flyers' lineup for at least the remainder of this season, a tough blow for both the team and the player.
This story really resonates with Logan Pyett, who has also had the unfortunate experience of battling sarcoma.
Pyett signed a one-year deal to play for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, the Philadelphia Flyers' AHL affiliate, in 2015. During training camp, he complained of some discomfort in his leg, accompanied by a lump. It turned out to be a blood clot, caused by a tumor. Pyett was diagnosed with synovial sarcoma and forced out of the lineup for the entire season. He also missed the subsequent season.
Pyett is very much involved in the #OskarStrong movement.
“I don't remember being overwhelmed with fear or sadness at any time,” Pyett said. “It was kind of like, just a shock. You don't expect it to happen. You've got doctors talking to you and family is obviously worried. There was lots of support around. The Flyers organization and the team down in Lehigh, they were nothing but supportive. It's going to be similar for Oskar.”
The Flyers' medical staff located a tumor in an unspecified location on Lindblom's upper-body and he is expected to begin treatment as soon as this week. He will be battling the disease with the help of doctors at the University of Pennsylvania, like Pyett did, just four years ago.
“One of the first things they told me was it was a similar type of cancer as Mark Herzlich (a former linebacker for the New York Giants, who had Ewing's sarcoma like Lindblom),” Pyett said. “They had a couple examples of younger athletes who had been diagnosed with either the same or something similar to me and they came out of it fine. That was one of the things they first told me and that was reassuring. I never once was made to feel like anything was life threatening and I never felt that way myself. When it got time for surgery, I was a little more nervous about the surgery part because the tumor was wrapped around my vein and artery in my leg and what would come out with it. You hope that the vascular side of surgery goes well and you don't wake up missing a leg or something. That was the only time I had any fear but it wasn't overwhelming.”
The gravity of the situation really begins to show when you talk about the potential to awaken from surgery, missing a limb.
As Lindblom and Pyett have different types of sarcoma, we cannot compare the two directly, but Pyett hopes that Lindblom's diagnosis came as early as his own.
Pyett had to alter his diet, pretty substantially, at the request of his doctor. He now follows a strict plant-based diet, which, along with chemotherapy and surgery, has the 31-year-old in remission and enabled him to return to the game he loves. Pyett suited up for 10 games in the AHL last season for the Hershey Bears. He could have made his return to the game much sooner, but a second surgery to remove a blood clot in his leg was required. Following a short stint in Denmark this season, the defenseman finds himself back in California, hoping to find a new team, now that he has beaten cancer.
“Throughout the whole process I was told that this is just kind of a fluke, just kind of a rogue cell that mutates and all of a sudden you've got a lump in your body,” Pyett said. “Once they took it out, there's been no other cancer in my body.”
Although Pyett is no longer with the Flyers organization, he says ex- general manager Ron Hextall has kept in contact with him.
"They obviously stayed with me ‘til the end, staying updated,” Pyett said. “I had surgery done in Philly and then shortly after that I was gone. It was the offseason and I was on a one-year deal. After that there wasn't much going on (with recovery or treatment). I exchanged some messages with Mr. Hextall. My mom exchanged messages with him a bit. He treated us really well. The whole organization took great care of me. I can't speak highly enough about Ron and everybody in the management in both those teams, the Flyers and the Phantoms, for everything. They never pushed me to do anything and kept me comfortable and got me good care. It would have been a lot different had I not had that support. Oskar is definitely in good hands there."
“I wish I had a little bit more information about what his situation is. That would maybe make my advice a little different. Hopefully they caught it early. I don't know, I'm standing here today feeling fine and healthy. Chemo and the radiation stuff was OK. That stuff isn't fun. They're pumping a bunch of nasty crap into your body. I hope he doesn't have to deal with as much of that stuff as I did. Hopefully his diagnosis is (good and) they caught it quick.”
I think we all stand with Logan in wishing Lindblom a speedy recovery so he, too, can return to the game he loves so much.
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