Hindsight tends to be laser sharp and Tanner Dusyk is an analytical sort, so naturally he looks back and wonders why all of the symptoms he suffered did not trigger an alert.
Signposts and signals everywhere -- the big adrenaline bursts, the sweats, the anxiety, the heart palpitations, the fatigue, the dizziness, the sluggishness, the difficulty recovering from a hard shift, the way he fell behind in the skating drills he once ruled. Not all of them at once, yet each often enough these last two or three years.
But Dusyk was young, strong and fit, a serial exerciser, a guy who watched his diet, a 22-year-old Division I hockey player on scholarship at UAA. Besides, sometimes the symptoms would subside. And maybe he didn't feel right because he didn't eat enough before a particular practice or game, or he wasn't properly hydrated, or he was short on sleep.
Also, at the core of hockey's culture are accountability and work ethic. You don't rationalize when things go poorly. You lean over, lose a little more nose skin to the grindstone and redouble your effort. You try harder.
"It takes a character individual to be an elite hockey player,'' Dusyk said. "Over my years of playing, I've learned to deal with stuff. As athletes, we don't like to make excuses, or give reasons things aren't going well for us.
"You don't ever think anything is wrong with you, so you work around it.''
But something was very wrong with Tanner Dusyk. His blood pressure was so far through the roof it was hovering above it.
Long story short: Blessed be a bum back. It's the reason Dusyk learned his elevated blood pressure stemmed from an exceedingly rare tumor in his abdomen, which was surgically removed last week.
Dusyk's appointment to have his occasionally wonky back examined a couple of months ago precipitated the discovery of pheochromocytoma, which caused his blood pressure to rise so dramatically -- "stratospheric,'' said UAA trainer Kevin Lechtenberg -- that he was at risk for stroke or heart attack.
"A lot of doctors told me being a young, athletic guy probably saved me life,'' Dusyk said.
Six days after surgery and two days after being released from Providence Alaska Medical Center, Dusyk spoke while watching his teammates practice at UAA's Wells Fargo Sports Complex one morning earlier this week. He looked good -- good and relieved and thankful.
Dusyk raved about his surgeon, Dr. Madhu Prasad -- "I can't say enough about how he eased my anxiety'' -- and said he and his family are grateful for the way doctors and university folks aided them in the most frightening moments of Dusyk's life.
"He was absolutely phenomenal, with amazing bedside manner, and put us at ease,'' Nicole Dusyk, Tanner's mom, said of Prasad. "And the school, the professors, the hockey team, the training staff -- wow. Hats off. They were so good to us.''
Dusyk has not played this season -- his tumor was discovered prior to season's start. He'll play again, he said, maybe late this season, maybe next season. For now, he's happy to be recovering.
"I feel awesome,'' Dusyk said. "It's such a weight off my shoulders after the last month and a half.''
Dusyk's odyssey began when Lechtenberg accompanied him to a doctor's appointment after Dusyk experienced some discomfort in his back. The pain wasn't unusual -- Dusyk has a history of back problems.
What was unusual was that when his blood pressure was checked as a routine part of the examination, the numbers were so off the charts medical personnel in the room figured the device used must have malfunctioned. But another device also reported a severely high reading -- 240 over 130, Dusyk recalls, when 115 over 75 would be considered excellent.
"Obviously, the doctors are concerned,'' Lechtenberg said. "I'm concerned, so naturally (Dusyk) gets concerned. You just don't see this stuff in young healthy people.''
Lechtenberg administered another check at the school and Dusyk's blood pressure remained elevated. Ditto for another check at the school's student health center. The next stop for Dusyk was the emergency room at Providence.
Dusyk was given medication to lower his blood pressure. The next step was diagnosing what prompted his elevated blood pressure. A series of tests and exams revealed the tumor.
Suddenly, all of those troubling signs made sense to Dusyk. He thought back to his junior hockey days a few years ago, when he used to slay teammates in skating drills but then slowly began to find himself buried by the same teammates in those drills.
"I was really scared,'' Dusyk said. "You're thinking about hockey -- every hockey player wants to get back on the ice as quick as he can -- but my focus quickly shifted to my health. The stress level was pretty insane for a while.''
Suddenly, UAA coach Matt Thomas understood why Dusyk as a freshman a year ago had briefly started strong but then increasingly "looked like he was gassed.''
Suddenly, it made sense to Nicole Dusyk why her son didn't seem to have his usual vitality last summer, and why he didn't look like his usual healthy self in photos from last summer.
Nicole and Tanner's stepfather, Brad Dusyk, came to Alaska from their home in Saskatchewan. So did Dusyk's father, Brad McGinnis, and his stepmother, Kim McGinnis.
Nicole set up shop for 38 days in the house Dusyk shares with teammates Hudson Friesen, Blake Leask and Blake Tatchell. She hung out with her son, accompanied him to medical appointments and cooked for him and his roomies. "Huddy, Leasker and Tatch – they feel like my own kids,'' she said.
Nicole tried to keep things light, knowing her son can be a deep thinker and serious. She recalls a hockey trip when Tanner was 8 and his teammates were enjoying their hotel's water slide so much that Tanner worried they wouldn't have enough energy for a game the next day.
Nicole is proud of the way her son, who has remained in three of his five classes through the ordeal, educated himself about his medical problem and vowed to battle through it.
"He was an absolute warrior through it all,'' she said. "He dug in and put his mind to it. Tanner is a very intense individual. From the time he was little, it was our job to lighten things up.
"He can be very serious. If you tell him to eat spinach for six weeks, he'll do it.''
Dusyk's surgery was initially scheduled two weeks ago and the entire UAA team and staff showed up when he checked into the hospital that morning, a gesture that floored Dusyk and his family. But his blood pressure still was too high and surgery was postponed.
Dusyk said he can't exercise for six weeks after surgery but can walk all he wants. When the six weeks are up, he will be ready to resume training. In the meantime, he's thankful for his health and thankful to be alive.
"You go from one day missing a week of practice to having your body shut down,'' Dusyk said. "It puts things in perspective in an awful hurry.
"I put hockey on the back burner. I'm going to get back to hockey. But the experience changes your perspective. You learn you took a lot of things for granted and it gives you a new appreciation for a lot of things, whether it's hockey or things outside of hockey.''
Come December, Dusyk plans to begin working out again. He's thrilled about the possibility of regaining the skating speed and endurance that earned him a Division I scholarship.
"The future is exciting,'' he said. "What am I going to feel like? Maybe I'll have that extra gear, and maybe I'll have it for longer.''
This column is the opinion of reporter Doyle Woody. Reach him at dwoody@alaskadispatch.com, check out his blog at adn.com/hockey-blog and follow him on Twitter at @JaromirBlagr
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