Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 13, 1995 TAG: 9505150006
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOANNE ANDERSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
Virginia Tech student Mike Sladki is going home for the summer with more than just his computer, clock radio and assorted paraphernalia. He's taking the deeply rooted respect of staff and faculty members who helped him through the darkest period of his 19-year life.
He's leaving these people with the inspiration that comes from seeing someone face life-threatening bone cancer with courage, strength and even a sense of humor.
Sladki arrived at Virginia Tech in the fall of 1993, an optimistic freshman with high SAT scores and a place in the university's honors program. A couple of months later, Cindi Douglas, a certified family nurse practitioner at Tech's Student Health Services, saw him for leg pain twice in a period of a few weeks.
Douglas ordered an X-ray on Sladki's second visit and noted a pathological fracture - a bone fracture with no known trauma.
"It was close to Thanksgiving," said Ann Sladki, Mike's mother. "Cindi could have simply told Michael to see his family doctor when he came home in a couple of weeks. Her decisive and timely action may well have made a difference."
Douglas referred Sladki to Dr. Marc Seigel, a local orthopedic surgeon, who advised him to go home to the Washington, D.C., area for more medical tests.
Although he now suspects that both Douglas and Seigel knew he had cancer, Sladki said, "it never crossed my mind."
Back home, Sladki was diagnosed as having bone cancer and began chemotherapy at Children's National Medical Center in Washington.
When word came back to Jack Dudley, director of the honors program, that Sladki had bone cancer and was being propelled into a series of chemotherapy sessions and surgery, he asked himself how Virginia Tech could respond to help an exceptionally bright civil engineering major.
Dudley immediately saw his mission - to keep Sladki mentally challenged with enough work, but not too much.
Sladki was determined not to allow the surgery and chemotherapy, which stretched through the winter and early spring in Washington, to keep him from finishing his fall classes.
When Ann Sladki conferred with Dudley about her son's workload, Dudley advised her to "let Mike take control; let him decide how much schoolwork he could do."
Sladki's mother called Dudley "the great overseer who kept a watchful and loving eye on Mike the whole time." Dudley, however, passed the credit on to the faculty. "Every professor coordinated a way to continue with the semester courses. It was as therapeutic as anything we could do," he said.
Sladki's courses were individually "converted" to correspondence classes for the remainder of the semester.
Patricia Amateis, chemistry professor, offered to let Sladki take an incomplete for her course, but he would have no part of it. He was determined to complete the course, so Amateis reworked her chemistry lecture class.
"Mike is an exceptional young man," said Mike Gregg, Sladki's engineering fundamentals instructor and first-year adviser. "I never could turn around assignments fast enough for him. All the impetus came from him, and the amount of effort I went to doesn't begin to compare with Mike's efforts."
In addition to modifying his honors calculus course for Sladki's off-site completion, Bud Brown of the mathematics department designed an independent-study geometry class for spring semester. "We started corresponding," Brown said. "I'd ask about his knee and tell him to say 'hi' to his parents."
One Friday morning, Sladki sent Brown an e-mail message saying he hadn't finished the most recent assignment because he was going to the last chemotherapy session before surgery.
He closed the message with "Are we having fun yet?'' Brown read it and wept. He sent a copy of Sladki's message to Dudley, who also cried.
Sladki completed and passed all his fall classes while undergoing chemotherapy. On March 11, 1994, he underwent surgery to remove part of his femur and tibia.
A rod was inserted from the top of the tibia almost to the hip bone. All his muscles and nerves were left intact, and he was fitted for a prosthetic device from mid-thigh to mid-calf. After six days in the hospital, Sladki was back online, sending assignments to Brown and pushing him for the answers.
One of Sladki's two goals was to return to Virginia Tech that fall, so Ann Sladki started making contacts to answer new questions. What if he couldn't walk far, or at all? Where would he live? How would he get to classes? What if he got tired? Who would be there to help him?
Pamela Winfrey in the office of residential and dining programs was able to secure a suite where Sladki wanted to live - on the second floor of Payne Hall.
There's an elevator near his room, but Sladki doesn't ride it. "I use the stairs because I can."
Virginia Reilly, assistant dean of students-disabled student services, assured Ann Sladki that she could make arrangements for a golf cart to transport Sladki to class. If a class met on a high floor with too many steps, the class could be moved. Likewise, if two classes scheduled consecutively were far apart, one could be relocated.
"We try very hard to reassure parents and make them feel comfortable while giving independence to the student," Reilly said.
Although Mike did not have to rely on those measures, it was comforting to know they exist.
As the semester ends, Sladki is planning to return next fall. Although no one can assure him that he is "cancer-free," Sladki says he feels fine. He walks on his own with his prosthesis, and is already looking forward to playing tennis.
In a three-page, single-spaced letter to Tech President Paul Torgerson, Ann Sladki wrote, "You are very fortunate to be surrounded by such a caring and concerned faculty. The love they showed my son is beyond words."
Sladki's second goal is to ski again. "The prosthetic device is not designed to twist," he said. "But it needs to be replaced every 15 years. In 14 years, you'll find me out West skiing!''
But come fall, you'll find Mike Sladki back in Payne Hall - computer, clock radio, optimism and all.
by CNB