Back on the court

High school junior Rakiah Grende has a simple wish: to finish out a season with the Bigfork Vikings basketball team. It’s not a particularly outlandish goal, but for the 17-year-old, it’s been an evasive one.

Her freshman year was marred by a torn plantar fascia, the ligament that links the heel bone with the toes, which was serious enough to put her on the sidelines for most of the season.

But the biggest blow came in Grende’s sophomore year.

The avid basketball player, who’d been shooting hoops since grade school, was noticing a drop-off in her performance — highly unusual for an athlete whose OCD tendencies resulted in an uncompromising work ethic. Grande attacked her workouts with unwavering discipline, which in turn carried over to her eating habits, to the point that for her, eating a Snickers was more punishment than pleasure.

She was, for all intents and purposes, the picture of health.

But something was wrong. Very wrong.

In January of 2017 she began feeling nauseous, and generally unwell. The sensations persisted, despite countless visits to the doctor. By early February, the seasoned athlete couldn’t keep up with her teammates. A simple flight of stairs would leave her winded.

Even stranger still was the inexplicable weight gain. Her diet hadn’t changed, but Grende was getting bigger.

Her mom, Jami, also the head coach of the Bigfork team, knew something wasn’t right. But doctors had told the pair that Grende was likely suffering from acid reflux and that there was no reason for her to miss any more school, no reason she couldn’t push on.

The breaking point came at a February game against Thompson Falls. Rakiah’s performance had slipped so noticeably that Jami told her daughter she had lost her starting spot. Rakiah didn’t seem to care.

“Right there, I thought that’s weird,” Jami said.

Before the bus departed, Jami retrieved a larger jersey for Rakiah, in hopes that she’d be more comfortable playing in a uniform with a little more give.

But Rakiah lasted mere minutes on the court before a pain on the right side of her stomach took over.

The next day, her father, Jason, took Rakiah to MedNorth Urgent Care.

“He called and he was crying on the phone,” Jami recalled. “He said ‘something’s not right, you’d better come in.’”

Doctors confirmed their worst suspicions: Growing inside the health-conscious, dedicated athlete was cancer.

“Cancer’s a really strong word,” Rakiah said. “It’s a super broad word, but a lot of people associate cancer with death. At that time, I was so naive, that was immediately what [I thought] of.”

“She did say, crying, am I going to die?” Jami recalled.

And what does a parent say to that?

More tests, scans and appointments revealed the culprit for Rakiah’s persistent pain: a particularly nasty variety of tumor called a teratoma, which the high schooler aptly described as “super, super gnarly.” Teratomas can be comprised of a variety of tissues and contain hair, eyes and even teeth.

Complicating matters further was the fact that the tumor, located on one of her ovaries, had exploded, leaving deposits of the cancerous mass throughout her abdomen, “like a spider had laid eggs,” Rakiah said.

She wanted it out, and badly.

The first step was to install a port, so doctors could administer chemotherapy directly without the trouble and pain of starting an IV each time. During the port insertion surgery they discovered another cause for concern: blood clots in her arm, lung and leg.

“She could have [gone] down on the floor in Thompson Falls …. and it could have killed her,” one of the doctors told them.

The tumor was causing the clots, its 12 pounds pressing down on one of her arteries.

Rakiah underwent chemotherapy and, eventually, surgery to remove the mass in late March.

By then, she was 96 centimeters around.

“She checked in at 162 [pounds] and checked out at 128,” Jami said.

They removed the behemoth tumor along with 8 pounds of fluid.

To do so, doctors sliced through muscle and nerves and shuffled around the teen’s organs. She was lighter and rid of the bulk of her cancer, but the recovery was excruciating. And to add insult to injury, she’d lost her long, flowing locks to the chemo.

Two weeks into chemo, Rakiah lost so much hair that she made the decision to shave off what remained.

“What mother ever plans … thinks about shaving their kid’s hair because they have cancer?” Jami said. “It’s awful. So we cried and we cried and we cried, and I threw away the towels that the hair fell into.”

As the weeks and later months wore on, Rakiah slowly began feeling more like her old self. Better yet, scans and blood work in December showed that her treatment had been effective.

But while she was physically healing, she couldn’t shake the what ifs: What if she wasn’t as good on the court post-cancer as she once was?

But in early July, she stepped up to play on a co-ed, 3 on 3 basketball tournament in Bigfork. Soon after, she began working out alongside another high school ball player. And this season, Rakiah is once again playing for Bigfork. Her hair may be shorter, but her drive remains.

“Our goal is to make it to the state tournament,” Jami said. “We’re 10 and 1.”

But for the 17-year-old, though she loves the sport dearly, there is more to life than basketball.

Though she once hoped to play college ball, Rakiah has set her sights on a different objective — one located within the esteemed halls of Annapolis.

“I really want to be accepted into the Naval Academy,” she said. “[It’s] super disciplined — I like things like that. Everybody is so unified and they all want to work hard equally.”

She’s planning to test the waters during a visit to the Academy this summer.

It’s all part of her future, one she doesn’t take for granted.

“Something like [cancer] really gives you a new perspective on everything,” Rakiah said. “Even life itself.”

Reporter Mackenzie Reiss may be reached at 758-4433 or mreiss@dailyinterlake.com.