Senior stays positive while facing cancer
Photo Credit: Chad Uhl
Senior Scintila Capalla is surrounded by her cross country teammates wearing "We Love You Scintila" shirts at the home meet on the September 17th.
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Sydney Shepherd, Co-Editor-In-Chief
September 26, 2011
Filed under Profiles, Top Stories
“I found out that I had Osteo-Sarcoma, which is a type of bone cancer, around mid-July,” Scintila Cappalla said softly.
However, the trouble actually began last May when Capalla noticed a problem with her knee.
“I wasn’t sure why I was having problems with my knee because we were finishing up our track season, so workouts should have been easier,” said Capalla, “but they were getting harder.”
Her orthopedic doctor decided to put her through physical therapy for the month of June, but this did little to ease Capalla’s pain.
“At the beginning of July, I had an MRI and the next day I was told that they had found a bone tumor in my knee,” she recalled.
After this, Capalla was referred to an Dr. Howard Rosenthal, the only doctor in the region who performs orthopedic oncology surgery.
“They did a biopsy first to diagnose if the tumor was malignant or benign. After a few days, I found out that it [the tumor} was malignant.” she said. “That meant it was cancerous.”
Capalla described that day as “dramatic” and in hindsight, funny.
“It was sort of just a normal day for me and then they told me I had cancer. My immediate reaction was to think of a South Park episode that was similar to my circumstance,’” she said jokingly. “I chose to look at it in a somewhat humorous way because I didn’t want to feel sorry for myself.”
To combat the cancer, Capalla began taking chemo therapy treatments Aug. 2. Currently she has a two-week break to build up her immune system in preparation for getting her new knee during limb salvage surgery.
Capalla will then undergo 17 more weeks of chemo before her treatments end in April. She says she never gets a good night’s sleep after chemo treatments, but jokes with her friends that she “never has a bad hair day.”
But Capalla isn’t the only person affected by her illness.
According to Rob Marriott, girls cross country coach, Capalla’s illness has changed the team.
“Obviously, we all miss Scintila, but the entire team is pushing itself to do better in the wake of her absence,” Marriott said. “We are improving at a great rate.”
And though Capalla can’t run, “absence” isn’t necessarily the best word to use in describing her hiatus from the sport she has always been so passionate about.
“The team is never really without Scintila; she is a topic of conversation almost daily and we still see her when we swim in a few morning workouts,” Marriott said.
Capalla is so much in the thoughts of others that Basehor-Linwood cross country coach Jeff Venema surprised her with an army of T-shirts that sported a heart and the words “We love you Scintila” at the Bonner Invitational Saturday.
Under Venema’s direction, 480 shirts were sold at $5 each.
“We know Scintila from many competitions and when we heard about what the team was going through, we knew we had to do something,” said Venema “We wanted to show her our support.”
And her reaction? Marriott reported it as “pretty substantial” due to his team’s “sneaky” ways.
Capalla said she was in Marriott’s SUV talking to his wife when she decided to go visit some friends from other schools.
Although she said it took her awhile to catch on, she soon noticed that most of the runners were wearing the “We love you” shirts.
“I was completely surprised and very humbled and thankful for what they did for me and my family.”
she said.
As for her return to running, Capalla isn’t so sure.
“I don’t really see myself bearing complete weight with my new knee until January, but after that…” she says with a pause.
But her certainty only wavers when it comes to running.
“I hope that if I survive—which I’m sure I will—that I will be able to pay back my parents for their support,” she says confidently.
Her, parents though, are not the only source of support, and Capalla says her friends and teachers haven’t treated her any differently.
“Some of the guys I used to hang out with act awkward around me because of my condition but the people who know me well treat me the same. I think it’s because of my attitude. I have a good outlook because my tumor is small. It’s just cancerous.”
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