Bears’ Carlton battles cancer to standstill

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ORONO – Jesse Carlton was enjoying the sunshine on a Florida beach with his University of Maine baseball teammates last month when a young lady approached him. She couldn’t help noticing the dark red, 15-inch scar running down the length of Carlton’s torso and she asked him how he got it.

“Shark attack,” Carlton quipped, keeping a straight face, trying to find a bit of humor in dealing with the not-so-subtle reminder of his three years as a cancer survivor.

On Feb. 1, the 22-year-old Carlton underwent a six-hour surgery in Boston to remove what turned out to be a noncancerous growth from a lymph node near his spine. It was a byproduct of his bout with testicular cancer in 1999.

Undaunted, the junior captain was back on the baseball diamond March 8 as the Black Bears began the 2002 season.

“The first thing I said is, ‘Is there any way I can get this done at the end of the season?’ ” Carlton explained. “[The doctor] said, ‘If it was my body, I’d get it done as soon as possible.'”

Ever since the testicular cancer, Carlton has undergone tests every three months to monitor his health. In December, they revealed the presence of the tumor, which would require another surgery.

He hasn’t missed a beat. Carlton has played in 20 of UMaine’s 22 games this spring as a first baseman and designated hitter, batting .348 with a team-leading five home runs, and 14 RBIs.

“Through the entire process, he has been the person who puts everyone at ease,” said UMaine coach Paul Kostacopoulos. “I don’t think he ever thought he wasn’t going to come back and play. Talk about grace under pressure with a stressful thing; that’s how Jesse has handled it.”

Even after splitting open the site of the incision on a headfirst dive into home plate during a March 20 win at Furman – during which he hit two home runs – Carlton has refused to be kept out of the lineup.

“Jesse’s a real tough kid,” said UMaine senior Joe Drapeau of Biddeford, Carlton’s roommate.

“He just tries to live life as full as he can,” Drapeau said. “He goes out and plays hard. He doesn’t worry about tomorrow. He lives for today and he works very hard at what he does.”

Baseball has been the best medicine for Carlton, who brought his baseball talents to Orono from Chatham, Mass., in 1998. That December, he discovered a problem.

“I had a swollen testicle and, being a catcher, I probably just dismissed it,” Carlton said. “[Cancer’s] not what you’re thinking when you’re 18 years old, but I knew something was wrong, so I checked it out.”

It was a teratoma, a tumor, which had cancerous cells around it. Carlton had surgery in Bangor to remove the testicle Feb. 5, 1999 – 22 days shy of his 19th birthday.

“You think you’re invincible at that age, you know,” said Carlton, sounding more like a middle-aged father than a college student. “It was a pretty big shock.”

Since the cancerous cells potentially could break away and invade other parts of the body, Carlton’s treatment included an intensive regimen of chemotherapy. For three months, he underwent five, eight-hour sessions of chemo, rested for two weeks, then had another week of treatment.

Kay Carlton, Jesse’s mother, was with him every step of the way. He’s quick to point out how much he appreciated the support of his family, including father John and older sister Crystal, and friends during those difficult days.

“By the end of it I lost all my hair and I was sick, in bed, throwing up; everything you hear about,” said Carlton, who still served as the bullpen catcher for the Chatham A’s of the Cape Cod League when he felt well enough.

Finally, he couldn’t take the treatments any more. Carlton halted the chemotheraphy.

“He said, ‘This is killing me,'” Kay Carlton recalled. “He didn’t finish the chemo. He couldn’t function. He really made his own decisions there.”

Throughout the ordeal, Jesse discussed his situation with Anaheim Angels pitcher Scott Schoeneweis, who had spent summers with the Carltons while playing in the Cape League. Schoeneweis also is a survivor of testicular cancer.

The most potentially devastating news for Carlton came from his doctor, who told him he would have to give up baseball.

“It just made him dig down deeper,” Kay Carlton said.

“Baseball was definitely the thing that helped me going through chemotherapy,” Carlton said. “It was something to work for.”

He emerged from the ordeal realizing everything had changed. He became more spiritual and looked at life from a new perspective.

“I think it made me a lot better person,” Carlton said. “I don’t worry as much. I think I realize a little bit more what’s important: family, health.”

Carlton, who missed his entire freshman season because of the cancer, served mostly as a pinch hitter his sophomore year. Last season, coming off knee surgery, he broke into the lineup and started 16 games, batting .290 with 13 RBIs before suffering a hamstring tear that kept him sidelined.

“If you’re having a bad day and you think of Jesse, you’re not having that bad of a day [compared] with the stuff he’s dealt with in the past couple years,” said teammate Brett Ouellette. “Everybody on the team respects him because of how he’s dealt with it.”

Now that the cancer is gone, Carlton wants to put his ordeal behind him. He’ll likely continue to be tested periodically, but he is expected to remain cancer free.

“You have to have amazing resilience and character to get through all this stuff,” Kostacopoulos said. “No matter what setbacks he may encounter in life, he will not be defeated.”

Carlton’s philosophy for living is simple, and revolves around realistic short-term goals.

“I kind of take it day by day,” Carlton said. “I just want to have a successful season, get a chance to play for the conference championship and hopefully win it. It’s good to be back out there.”