A previous bout with anemia compelled one of the doctors to run a red blood cell count. Red blood cells (RBC) carry oxygen to all the body’s cells. They contain a protein called hemoglobin, which picks up oxygen in the lungs and delivers it to the tissues everywhere in your body. Sammy’s RBC was shockingly low at 3.9. The average Hemoglobin number for women is 12 to 16. Sammy recalled being awoken by her rattled athletic coach insisting that she head directly to the Emergency Room. She said, “I told him I had a physics test and I would stop there afterwards. His words shook me to my core. He said if I didn’t go immediately, he would pick me up and take me there himself.” She knew at that moment that something was seriously wrong but the devastation that lay ahead was yet to be unearthed. The next few hours in the ER were a massive blur; a dense fog filled with blood transfusions, tests, and anxious doctors dashing around comparing notes. Despite their best efforts, she was released the next day with no answers. “The not-knowing was overwhelming and soul crushing. I needed to know why this was happening to me,” Sammy explained. The shattering diagnosis came from the results of a colonoscopy and endoscopy, taken with the assumption that Celiac disease was wreaking havoc on Sammy’s body. When the words, “it’s cancer” escaped the lips of the doctor on call, it was as though the world collapsed under her feet. “I just remember crying the kind of tears that you can drown in.” The details of what came next were filled with elaborate medical jargon. In layman’s terms, Sammy was a 19 year old elite athlete with Stage 3 Colon Cancer and a tumor the size of a large fist. A mere two weeks after being diagnosed, she was in surgery to remove half her colon and ovary. Forced to give up the sport she devoted her life to, she adamantly refused to give up her education too. leadupforwomen.com
Sammy Leng and her husband, Marc.
After meeting her military husband, she decided to put her career on hold and moved to Germany in pursuit of her other dream, starting a family.
Sammy was required to drop out for a semester but was insistent on taking two summer classes and working part-time, even with an infusion pump intravenously injecting chemotherapy drugs into her bloodstream at all times. These exceptionally strong drugs not only take a physical and mental toll, but can also harm the cells in the patient’s bone marrow. To counteract this internal destruction, she was mandated to get incredibly painful injections in addition to chemotherapy. She refused to allow cancer to rob her of her aspirations and delineate
her path in life. So, she carefully hid the chemo pump in a cross body bag, wore high neck shirts to conceal the taping needle and tubing of the port, cut the stringy remains of her hair into a bob and went back to class with her head held high. Sammy kept her diagnosis a secret from fellow students because she didn’t want sympathy. She craved normalcy. We often don’t appreciate the luxury of the ordinary until the concept of routine no longer exists. With soccer off the table, Sammy transferred to Ohio State University and found beauty in life outside of the sport Lead Up for Women
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