Community Corner

16-Year-Old Minooka Student Asks, 'Am I Going to Live'

Alex Czuczuk has battled for nearly a year to beat his cancer. His family has racked up huge medical bills. And his supporters have organized an online fundraiser to help.

Ask him to name his favorite Blackhawks player, and immediately his eyes light up.

"Corey Crawford," said Alex Czuczuk of the goalie leading the Hawks' charge in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Czuczuk used to fancy himself as a pretty good goalie, too. He once stood tall between the nets himself in neighborhood street hockey shootouts with his Shorewood pals, the excitement of the action playing out like an OT battle at the UC.

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Now, he is learning to walk again on a left leg decimated by osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer. And he is contemplating the idea of having the leg amputated at some point down the road.

He is thinking a new prosthetic limb is his best chance to regain “normal” mobility and recapture those glory days on the playgrounds.

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Czuczuk, 16, first was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in September of 2012. He underwent limb salvage surgery at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago on Jan. 9.

At that time, doctors removed nine inches of his femur and replaced it with a titanium rod. They took out all of his left knee—except the patella—and replaced a bit of his chin with a rod and connected it to his new knee.

He was in a wheelchair for several months and missed a year of schooling, unable to keep pace with online courses during aggressive chemotherapy treatments. He has lost all of the hair of his head, has battled fever and painful mouth sores.

And he has received a number of blood transfusions. He has two more chemo treatments scheduled—one later this week and one next week.

Then, the hope is “he will be done” according to his mother, Jenan, who has taken a leave of absence from her teacher associate position at Minooka Junior High School to be with her son in his time of need. She said the family has racked up more than $1 million in hospital bills.

Her husband, Orest, works as a financial analyst with Exelon. Alex’s sister, Kirsten, 15, will be a sophomore in high school this fall. And, while going without a second income for an entire year, the family’s financial outlook has taken a beating worse than the stock market during the recession.

To help the Czuczuks make ends meet, Julie Ternes, Alex’s aunt, has organized an online fundraiser through YouCaring.com and the whole family will be selling lemonade from 3-8 p.m. Friday outside the Talty’s house in Oak Lawn, 11036 S. Tripp Ave.

Jenan grew up on Kathleen Lane and attended St. Catherine along with her six brothers and sisters. Julie still lives in the same Oak Lawn neighborhood.

“They need all the help they can get right now, and support from their community would be great,” Ternes said.

“She actually bumped into a friend who has three fundraisers a year because her mom passed away from breast cancer and then she was diagnosed with breast cancer and her sister was diagnosed with breast cancer—all working, able-bodied people with insurance,” Jenan Czuczuk said. “But they said, ‘It gets tough. It’s hard to keep up.’

“So, they put together a You Caring page and they have an actual benefit up on Bourbon Street (in Chicago’s Merrionette Park) twice a year. Julie (Ternes) mentioned it. She said, ‘I think we’re going to do it for you.’ At first I was like, ‘Oh, no, no, no.’ My husband said the same thing.

“Then, a couple of people called. They said, ‘You know what? We get where you’re coming from. We’ve been there. We understand. But you don’t want to lose your house. Don’t let cancer beat you.’ ”

Alex isn’t about to let cancer beat him.

He convinced his mother to let him try out for the Minooka football team after his freshman year in high school. She orginally balked because she was afraid he would get hurt. He was going to be a placekicker—only his knee started swelling. And he quickly was sent to the sidelines.

An initial X-Ray was clear. He started on physical therapy. Finally, he could not bear the pain any longer. Jenan pushed for an MRI. And eventually doctors discovered a tumor—the source of his cancer.

“This is where I really want to help people,” Jenan said. “If your kid comes home with a pain—anywhere—don’t blow it off and say, ‘Be a man, handle it.’ Get him in there and check it out.”

“Obviously, the first thought in my mind was, ‘Am I going to die?’ ” Alex Czuczuk said after learning he had cancer. “That was my first question to the doctor—I interrupted him in the middle of saying, ‘You have cancer—ostesarcoma.’ I said, ‘Am I going to live?’ He said, ‘Yes, for sure.’ That reassured me that I was going to be fine and that I was still going to be here.”

He has drawn strength and support from so many people rooting for his recovery, his well-being, including his aunt.

“Just a young boy, not yet able to drive, but Alex promised his parents he would fight, and that he would never lower his guard,” said Ternes, in telling his story on You Caring.com.

Now, Alex is weighing the pros and cons of what it means to “be here” with a bum leg or getting himself fitted with a prosthetic replacement, a notion that would require amputation of his left leg. He is going to take some time before making a final decision and will consult with specialists as well as friends and family.

“I was trying for kicker,” Czuczuk said of his attempt to play football at Minooka High School. “Obviously, I saw that it wouldn’t work with the leg. But I come inside sometimes after going out and playing street hockey with my friends and it’s upsetting. It gets me down.

“I want to get out there. I want to skate. I want to play goalie. But this leg is keeping me from doing that.”

“My husband and I both have said we will support him no matter what his decision is,” Jenan Czuczuk said. “We have talked with the doctors. They want to give him some time before he considers taking the leg off.

“But, the reality is, you’ve got a 16-year-old man here. He’s had to make decisions. He’s had to live through hell. And he’s come out stronger than some men I know.

“He’s got courage. He’s my son, of course I think he’s got courage, right? But even when you go to the hospital and I talk with the nurses and the doctors, they talk about how he’s matured. He’s man. And he’s handled this like a man, never complained, just shown his strength. It’s amazing.”




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