Benny Looper had no idea he was sick.
He had no clue that a disease — multiple myeloma — was crawling through his bone marrow toward an outcome of pain, injury and possibly death if it wasn’t discovered and treated.
All Looper knew is that he felt great and even though he was moving toward his upper 50s, he saw no need to take a physical exam.
“We’re men. We’re macho,” said Looper, 59, the Seattle Mariners’ vice president for player personnel “I never took a physical.”
Then there was a shocking wakeup call in June, 2005.
Well-known scout Carroll Sembera, the man who urged the Mariners to acquire Freddy Garcia, Carlos Guillen and John Halama in the Randy Johnson trade with the Astros in 1998, collapsed and died at age 64.
“Men really need to get their physical exam,” Looper said. “I’ve been preaching that to our scouts ever since we lost Carroll.”
The following February, Looper got one himself at the Mariners’ spring training camp. It may have saved his life.
When blood test results came back, team doctor Mitch Storey noticed something that didn’t look right. Looper’s protein level was high.
They re-checked his blood again in August, and again in September, and the protein level remained high. Looper, who lives in Ada, Okla., in the offseason, saw an oncologist in nearby Norman, Okla., for more tests. Then he got another opinion at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
Every test and every opinion confirmed that he was afflicted with the early stages of multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells in the blood. He needed a stem cell transplant.
Treated, it’s one of the most survivable forms of cancer.
“If I hadn’t taken the physical and if I hadn’t had an observant doctor like Mitch to pick up on it, I’d probably have gotten to the point where I’d have broken a bone,” Looper said. “That’s usually how they discover it. I’m lucky that they discovered mine before there was any damage done.”
When doctors told Looper of the diagnosis in October, 2006, he called it one of the two lowest points of his battle with the disease.
“I would not believe what they were telling me,” he said. “There’s no cancer in my family. My grandfather had cancer in his 80s, but my mother and father are still alive.”
More than anything, Looper wrestled with the decision to tell his parents and his two kids.
“For me, this was a real private matter,” he said. “I didn’t tell people about it for a long time. I think that’s the worst thing a parent can hear. But the longer I thought about it, I realized they deserved to know. It took me about three months.
“You go through a lot of emotional ups and downs with this. There’s that first big hitch when you’re told, then you get to the point of hope, then you get to the point of believing that things happen for a reason. Of the cancers to have, this is one that gives you a good chance of living a number of years. Hope is a key issue.”
But there are some who don’t survive it.
One of Looper’s best friends, former major league pitcher and pitching coach Vern Ruhle, was diagnosed in 2006 but died of complications from the stem-cell transplant.
“He didn’t last a year,” Looper said. “His wife said he just didn’t respond to any of the treatments.”
Looper began taking medication last January, and between June 12 and Sept. 13 he checked into the Hutchinson Center every day for treatments.
There were the heavy doses of chemotherapy, which wiped out the bone marrow but also eliminated his immune system, then two weeks of injections to promote growth of his stem cells.
“I could feel it working,” Looper said. “I could feel my bones aching.”
One of the few patients allowed to leave the hospital in the evenings, Looper was comforted by his wife, Sandra, at their in-season home in Renton. She spent considerable time cleaning the catheter inserted in his neck and administering fluids.
The stem-cell transplant was done Aug. 13.
“They call that your new birthday,” Looper said.
After a summer away from baseball, he gradually moved back into his job after the transplant, including a trip to Arizona in October for meetings and to watch prospects in the Arizona Fall League, then the baseball winter meetings in early December at Nashville.
On Feb. 13, nearly two years from the date of the physical exam that exposed his illness, Looper will be six months from the transplant and he expects to feel 100 percent healthy.
“I was fortunate to be at the Hutch and I really appreciate all the doctors and nurses and the treatment and research they do there,” he said. “I’m fortunate to work for a company that says to me, ‘How can we help?’ rather than, ‘What can you do for us?’ The Mariners have been great.”
So were others around baseball.
Don Baylor, the former Mariners hitting coach, and Mel Stottlemyre, their new pitching coach, are both survivors of multiple myeloma. Both men told Looper what to expect and they encouraged him.
Looper hopes to do the same for others.
“I wouldn’t wish this on anyone,” he said, “but there are a couple of people I’ve gotten to know who went through this at the same time, and we talk regularly. They encourage me and I encourage them.”
Looper says he never feared death.
“Because of my faith, that’s not a problem for me,” he said. “We’re all terminal, it’s just a matter of when.”
This Christmas is more meaningful than any other for Looper because it allows him to truly thank his family and friends for their support.
“Lance Armstrong called his cancer a gift, and I said that for a while but I didn’t really believe it,” he said. “But after several months, I came to not only say it but believe it really has been a gift. This has changed me. It has made me appreciate a lot of things.
“I’ve called more old friends and tried to stay in contact better. Even though it’s an old cliché, it’s a good one — this will be a meaningful Christmas.”
Read Kirby Arnold’s blog on the Mariners at www.heraldnet.com.
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