Hilt-Costello As Strong as Ever
by Bob Keisser, Long Beach Press-Telegram
February 22, 2004 One day you're a strong, vibrant 31-year-old athlete whose gentle grace is matched by a driven, competitive personality.
One day you're a energetic tennis coach who has turned a program that never enjoyed any real success into a winner that has climbed onto the national stage.
One day you're enjoying an extended honeymoon after a summer marriage and talking about a family.
And the next, you're introduced to the hideous world of cancer.
It is a testimonial to the spirit of 49ers women's tennis coach Jennifer Hilt-Costello that the latter hasn't dulled any of her aforementioned attributes. Less than a month after surgery to remove a tumor on an ovary the size of a five-month old fetus, she returned to her team and watched it sweep its biggest rivals, Fullerton and UC Irvine.
She cheered, inspired, smiled and laughed. In her tiny box of an office near the campus courts, she and her team briefly met after last Sunday's win over Irvine and acted nothing like a group of people confronted with cancer.
"It was a great weekend,' she said with a broad smile. Not exactly the kind of words one normally hears from cancer patients.
It is the nature of cancer that something so malignant can begin so benign.
Late last year, Hilt-Costello had some pain and bulging on the left side of her abdomen. Her doctor diagnosed it as a hernia. She had abdominal surgery when she was two years old, and the pain was directly under the incision. Her symptoms were typical of a hernia, too -- more painful at night, less bloating in the morning.
"It made sense,' she said. "The incision, being as active as I am, the muscles in that area never being that strong because of the surgery. I naively didn't think about cancer. At my age, that's the last thing you think about.'
The decision to have surgery to repair the hernia was hers to make depending on her time and pain. But when the bloating and pain continued into January, she went to see a new primary care physician, Dr. Marvin Zamost, who did a pelvic exam and determined it was more than a hernia.
She had an ultrasound. She was out of the office and on her way to practice when the doctor's office called and asked her to come back immediately. "That's when my heart dropped,' she said.
A second ultrasound confirmed there was a quick- growing mass on one ovary, about the size of two baseballs. She was referred to a specialist, Dr. Alexander Burnett at USC-Norris Medical Center, who concurred and scheduled her for surgery.
Since the tumor was quick- growing, there was hope that it was benign. But the day before surgery, Dr. Burnett conducted a second pelvic exam that indicated it had grown considerably in less than a week.
The surgery on January 27 discovered not only the large mass on one ovary but smaller masses on her other ovary and uterus. Its technical name is endometrial cancer, which starts in the uterus and can spread like wildfire.
In the waiting room, Hilt-Costello's family grew increasingly nervous as the two-hour surgery went into its third hour. "When the doctor didn't come out after three hours, we knew it was more than we imagined,' said her husband, John Costello, the former 49ers marketing director who now works for the CIF-Southern Section.
The doctor did a complete hysterectomy. After the surgery, Dr. Burnett did a second visual exam and ultrasound indicating there were no other masses and the surgery was a success. Subsequent fluid tests also were clean.
She will soon begin six rounds of preventative chemotherapy, and will be on a regular timetable of exams for the next two years.
The impact of something like cancer can be as hard on friends and family as it is the person involved. It hit the just- bonding team hard and in different ways. It cut deep for Kelly Chan and Lindsey Marvel, seniors who have become friends, and was numbing for the relative newcomers, which includes two imports, Australians Alanah Carroll and Nicole Bouffler, and five freshmen.
"The whole thing has been surreal,' said 49ers assistant coach Halle Cohen. "It was upsetting because we're more than just coaches, we're friends.
"At one time, we thought she might be out for the season, and we all felt it. But after the initial shock, we knew she was a fighter. The whole team handled it with a maturity you really can't imagine.'
Where Hilt-Costello and Cohen used to organize post- practice hitting for players in need of extra work, now it was the players staying on to help each other and taking charge of team workouts.
"I won't lie, it did affect all of us at first. It knocks you down,' said Kelly Chan. "We wanted to be there for her because she's always been there for us.
"There are a lot of coaches who leave teams where they are. You play but don't really get better. Jenny has always looked to make us better players. She and Halle put in so many hours after practice to make us better. I'm the player I am today because of their coaching.'
And her persistence. Less than a week after surgery, she returned to practice. By last week, she was feeding balls to her players. "We were all just blown away,' said Cohen.
"I'm proud of everything Jenny does,' said her husband. "But the way she's handled this has been nothing short of amazing.'
"It's a hard thing to tell anyone you're close to,' Hilt-Costello, who played collegiate tennis at UCLA, said. "I see the girls every day. They're a huge part of my life, and telling them was difficult. But I wanted to keep them in the loop. Even when there was bad news, I felt they needed to know.
"The support from everybody -- my mom (Sally), family, John, friends, team -- has been great. Honestly, it makes it so much easier to battle when so many people are thinking of you and sending you positive thoughts.'
That's easy to do when someone goes can go from a bleak diagnosis and surgery to practice in a matter of weeks. Sometimes courage isn't winning as much as staying in the game. |
