BENTONVILLE — There were plenty of days in October when Mike Power wanted to do nothing but lie on his couch and cover himself in a blanket.
With excruciating body aches, constant nausea and having to make routine trips to the bathroom, Power, 34, simply had no energy for anything else.
On good days, he’d manage to play a video game, walk around his house or even fix himself a small bowl of soup.
But other days, lying on the couch — usually with extreme cold chills — was all Power could do.
“I don’t think I truly realized that chemotherapy was going to make me feel that way,” said Power, the boys track and field coach at Bentonville. “I can honestly say it was the worst experience of my life.
“But at the same time, I knew it was saving my life, so I was more than willing to do whatever it took to beat my cancer.”
Last January, Power began experiencing horrific back pains in the middle of the night, to the point it was keeping him up for several hours.
After a trip to the doctor and a few initial tests, nothing abnormal was discovered in his body. Doctors gave Power a cortisone shot in his lower back to help with the pain, which eventually subsided for a few months.
But late last summer, the pain returned, this time worse than before. “I think for a while I just learned to deal with the pain and I kind of got used to it,” said Power, who was born and raised in Melbourne, Australia. “But last August, it came back and it was really killing me. I knew something had to be wrong.”
Power returned to the doctor for more extensive tests in late August, including full-body scans and ultrasounds, which revealed he had a cancerous germ-cell tumor in his lower right abdomen the size of a baseball.
“They told me it was a cancerous tumor and that it probably meant I had testicular cancer,” Power said. “For a while we had a lot of questions because I didn’t know what it was. Regardless, I knew we had to start some kind of treatment as fast as possible.”
Power started his first weeklong chemotherapy treatment at Highlands Oncology in Bentonville on Oct. 6, which slowly took away his energy and made him feel constantly sick. He started his second weeklong treatment Oct. 25.
“Anybody who knows Mike knows how active he normally is,” said Jennifer Power, Mike’s wife. “It was really tough watching him go through it, lay on the couch and feel so horribly. But he always stayed strong and always had a positive attitude.”
While Power underwent his treatments, including taking 10 pills per day for a threemonth period, he took a leave of absence from teaching and coaching at Bentonville, where he’s also an assistant cross country coach.
Power said the toughest part wasn’t only dealing with the constant sickness and his lack of energy, but not feeling well enough to play with Lachlan, his 11-monthold boy.
However, to keep Power busy and his thoughts off the sickness, Jennifer Power suggested he post updates of his health on Facebook and keep a daily online blog. It’d also help friends and family members be informed of what he’s going through.
“In a lot of ways, that was my real therapy,” Power said. “Other than the support of Jennifer and our friends, I was able to keep my blog updated about everything I was going through on a daily basis.”
Quite The Athlete
Mike Power has never had problem staying motivated to beat his cancer.
Having been a successful distance runner for most of his life, Power said he’s pretended like his battle has been a long race.
Power competed at Arkansas from 1996-99, winning back-to-back Southeastern Conference cross country titles in 1998 and 1999. At the ’98 SEC Outdoor Championships, he won the 5,000 meters. At the ’99 SEC Indoor Championships, he won titles in the mile and the 3,000.
Power finished his Razorback career as a ninetime All-American and a fivetime SEC champion, all the while helping Arkansas earn a combined nine national championships.
Two years ago, Power even completed a lifelong dream by running in the Boston Marathon, one of the world’s most prestigious races.
Power finished the 26.2-mile marathon in 3 hours, 11.28 minutes. He was on pace to finish at around 2 1 /2 hours until he suffered a right-calf strain with about 7 miles left in the race.
“I’ve ran some really tough races in my life and this is just one more,” Power said, referring to his testicular cancer. “Right now, I feel like I’m getting close to the finish line and I’m hoping for a good time.”
Former Arkansas track coach John McDonnell, who has served as a mentor for Power, said he tried to give Power some recent motivation to maintain a positive outlook.
“In my opinion, it didn’t matter what kind of cancer he had because Mike Power was the type of guy that could beat it,” McDonnell said. “He’s always very positive, and if he has the right encouragement, he’ll give it 100 percent. It was a tragic thing to happen to him at such a young age, but all is well that ends well.
“Hopefully he’ll beat this.”
Remarkable Support
Throughout the last four months, while Power has battled his cancer with four weeklong treatments of chemotherapy, he and his wife have received constant support.
Not only did Power’s athletes at Bentonville wear the yellow “Livestrong” bracelets throughout the cross country season, members of his church provided homecooked meals.
Several teachers and co-workers at Bentonville donated their allotted sick days to Power, so he could have more time to stay home while undergoing his treatments.
One of the defining moments for Power came last fall when he began losing his hair because of the chemotherapy treatments. Instead of dwelling on the issue as a negative occasion, Power’s assistant coach, Todd Boddie, came to Power’s house with other friends and shaved his head.
“We made it a fun thing, something to kind of laugh about,” Boddie said. “I think it helped Mike feel good about the situation, that we were all there for him. It can be a tough ordeal, but I felt like it was something we could turn into a fun moment.”
Administrators and teachers at Bentonville helped raise money for Power, who’s had to deal with expensive medical bills since his treatments began.
The best news for Power, however, was when doctors told him Nov. 1 that the tumor in his abdomen had shrunk by more than half its size and that it no longer had any metabolic activity, meaning it was dead.
Power still has the grapesized tumor in his abdomen today, but is planning to have it surgically removed within the next two months to hopefully be cancer-free.
“To think where Mike was at one point and where he is today, it’s just amazing,” Jennifer Power said. “I’m so thankful that he’s here and that this was a great Christmas and New Year’s. It could have very easily gone the other way if his cancer had got worse.”
Power said the experience of having cancer and going through chemotherapy is something he’ll never forget, and something he hopes he doesn’t have to experience again.
However, the experience has given him a renewed look on life and has helped him realize how important it is to help others in need when they’re sick.
“I thought something like cancer would never affect me, but it still happened to me,” Power said. “People don’t realize how tough it can be, but it’s really tough. I’m just glad to be here today, to be healthy and to have a great outlook on the rest of my life.”