109 percent. It’s the survival odds former LSU soccer goalkeeper Robyn DesOrmeaux gave herself when faced with a 10 percent chance of surviving five years. Two years ago today Robyn received news that a tumor in her lower back was malignant. After being diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, she scoffed at the 10 percent survival rate – instead creating her own odds. “I didn’t like that number. It’s not really a fun number to think about. So my jersey number was 99 so I decided to add that 10 to my jersey number to give me a little extra boost,” Robyn said. “I gave myself a 109 percent chance of survival.” Robyn faced a challenge greater than any previous opponent. She began her toughest match: the fight for her life. LOVE OF THE GAME Connie DesOrmeaux, Robyn’s mother, said she and her husband Steve knew Robyn was athletically gifted when she began playing multiple sports with intense “competitiveness and drive” at age 6. “We always wanted our children to have fun,” Connie said. “But for Robyn, it was always a lot more fun if they won.” Soccer soon became the sport above all others for the Carencro native. “I was just the most intrigued. I enjoyed it more than the other ones,” Robyn said. “It was more fun for me.” The honing of her skills opened multiple options for college. Recruiting offers came in from Oklahoma University, the University of Miami, the University of Texas in Austin and LSU. “When she chose LSU, we were happy for a lot of reasons,” Connie said. “It was close enough that if she needed us we could be there.” Former LSU soccer coach George Fotopoulos recruited and coached Robyn during her LSU career. He said Robyn was a “perfect match” for LSU. “She was already athletically and soccer-wise one of the top players in the South in her position,” said Fotopoulos, who currently owns a soccer club in California. “Very few players from Louisiana were reaching that type of height. We try to keep the best players in Louisiana home.” Beating the odds is nothing new for Robyn. As a freshman, she recovered from a potentially career-ending car accident. In 2002, she emerged as a clear leader for the LSU squad. “Robyn was phenomenal,” Fotopoulos said of her 2002 season. “She single-handedly at times brought the team to a level no one expected LSU to reach.” Fotopoulos said Robyn is one of the greatest LSU players to ever take the soccer field. “I’ve been coaching for 15 years, and a lot of special players have come across my life. She’s one of those players that will always be in my heart,” he said. “She epitomizes what student-athlete really stands for. She has the courage to fight on and off the field.” Even though she played only two full seasons, Robyn earned a spot in the record books as the second all time leader in school saves and shutouts. “I would be first if I had gotten to play,” Robyn joked. “I did the best I could with what I had. I cherish that. I really do.” But 2002 was the beginning of the pain that would eventually end her collegiate soccer career. “The first time I actually noticed it was in 2002 after the Thanksgiving sale. I was shopping with my mom. And I was like, ‘Man, my butt hurts.’ That’s the first time I can remember very distinctively that it was hurting,” Robyn said. “It got worse; then it got a little better. It got worse; then it got a little better. Then it just got worse.” Fotopoulos said Robyn’s strength and positive attitude masked the seriousness of the problem. “Nobody knew how bad it was because she was a great leader,” he said. “She didn’t want to make excuses.” DIAGNOSIS When the tumor was discovered in a Baton Rouge lab in November 2004, Robyn was told to call her parents before she saw the results. Connie, her husband Steve and their son David drove from their hometown of Carencro to hear the results. “All these things run through your mind on the drive up there,” Connie said. “[Cancer] never, never, never entered my mind in any way. You never expect to hear the word cancer and your child’s name in the same sentence, ever. You get blind-sided.” After biopsies and further scans in a New York state hospital, doctors determined that the cancer occupied about 70 percent of her pelvis and had spread by “spotting” up and down her spine. She decided to pursue treatment at M.D. Anderson in Houston to be closer to home. “I wasn’t given my survival rate until I got to M.D. Anderson. I knew the prognosis was pretty bad because we had narrowed it down to three different kinds of sarcomas [with] Ewing’s being the worst scenario out of the three,” Robyn said. “We knew we were up against something.” What she was up against would be a challenging task to keep her thoughts focused on recovery rather than the discouraging survival odds. “It was never an issue. I’ve always just been, ‘Let’s just fix it. Let’s just do what we’ve got to do to fix it,'” she said. “I’ve never dwelt on the fact that I might not see my next birthday.”
THE TOUGHEST MATCH After checking into M.D. Anderson in late 2004, Robyn began the first of 18 rounds of chemotherapy treatment. “Nausea isn’t even the word for it. The best way I could explain it is being the most hungover you’ve ever been in your entire life and getting beat up at the same time. It’s just the worst,” Robyn said. “You feel like there is no comfortable position, there’s nothing you can do about it and you know probably in a few seconds you’ll be throwing up again right after you finished. It’s such a vicious cycle.” Robyn said one of the most difficult challenges was the deterioration of her physical state. “You start to look sick, which was what I didn’t like. I didn’t want people to think I was sick. I lost the eye brows, I looked like an alien,” Robyn said. “I didn’t like that. I didn’t like looking sick.” But friends and family said it was Robyn’s positive outlook that kept her supporters optimistic. “Her fighting attitude gave us all what we needed to help her. If she had been anything other than the fighter that she was, it would have been more difficult,” Connie said. “How can you not fight this with the same intensity that she has?” One friend at her side was Suzi Drake, LSU alumna and former defender on the LSU soccer team. Drake was with Robyn the first time she experienced nausea from the chemotherapy. “No one could do it with any more grace than she did,” Drake said. During her time at M.D. Anderson, Robyn said the constant support from friends, family and the LSU community made her treatment easier. Her teammates organized a talent show to raise money for the Chase Bank donation trust fund established to help with treatment costs. Robyn said her teammates were “phenomenal” in their support, whether through visits, phone calls or e-mails. “[My teammates] would come visit me in the hospital and provide a little comic relief,” Robyn said. “As sick as I was, we were having wheelchair races down the hall at M.D. Anderson. Parts of it were kind of fun.” Robyn said thanks to the generosity of supporters, her family has yet to incur any out-of-pocket expenses. Purple bands, similar to Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong bracelets, were imprinted with “Strength, Hope and Courage” and sold to raise awareness. Words of encouragement even came from former LSU All-American defensive end and current Dallas Cowboys player Marcus Spears. Spears wore one of Robyn’s bracelets and tracked her progress on a Web site Connie created to keep supporters up-to-date on Robyn’s progress. “I read about her story,” Spears said. “I just felt a connection.” Spears and Robyn now speak on the phone regularly. “I don’t know if I ever spoke a word to him while we were both athletes here, but to have that LSU connection … It’s really given me the strength whenever I think I can’t go anymore, you have all these people nudging you that way, all you do is have to show up,” she said. “It’s made it so easy for me. At every treatment, I just have to show up. That’s all I have to do.” Connie echoed Robyn’s comments about the love shown from her “LSU family.” “I don’t know if they realize how much good they did. You know they say it takes a village to raise a child. It takes a community to get someone through cancer,” Connie said. “Support from LSU alumni all over the country was astounding, amazing, heart-warming. I will always have such a deep appreciation.” REMISSION Eighteen rounds of chemotherapy and 30 radiation treatments later, Robyn received news of her cancer’s remission on June 15. Although the tumor cannot be removed because of its dangerous spinal location, Robyn said as long as the cells are dormant, or inactive, she is considered to be in remission. “I didn’t have a thought in my mind that she wouldn’t end up in remission,” Drake said. She must undergo CT scans, MRIs and contrast tests every two months to check the status of the tumor. Once she passes the two year anniversary of remission, Robyn said the tests will not be as frequent. “Radiation works for months after,” she said. “We’re hoping that it’s continuing to work.” Her family and friends continue to anxiously wait for her updated results every two months. Her next tests will be run Tuesday at M.D. Anderson. “Obviously I’m excited for Robyn,” Fotopoulos said. “I know that this is a lifelong fight. If there’s anybody that has strength and courage to fight this for the rest of her life, it’s Robyn.” THE FUTURE Robyn can now be seen cruising the LSU campus on her purple-and-gold painted motorized scooter. “My brother bought it for me at a garage sale and painted it purple and gold. It’s hard for me to walk around and get around campus,” she said. “It’s been a fashion statement, if you will.” She’s taking 19 hours of classes in her quest to graduate in December. The heavy course load is a challenging departure from Robyn’s previous 12-hour semesters as a soccer player. “I’m a normal student again,” she said. “It’s different.” She said she misses the team camaraderie and competitive nature of the game she once gave everything for. “It’s tough, I miss it. I miss it more for the fact that I was kind of forced out of it in a way. It wasn’t a choice,” Robyn said. “You know, some people finish college soccer, and they’re ready to part with it. I wasn’t ready to part with it.” Robyn channels her energy into earning the necessary GPA to graduate with a general studies degree. While at M.D. Anderson, Robyn remained a full-time student to retain her insurance, sometimes earning Fs in courses that she could not complete through online correspondence. Although Robyn said she has not felt sick in a “long time,” the lingering effects of chemotherapy hamper her ability to study. “The residual effects of chemo to my brain mostly have been pretty bad. I have kind of trouble putting things together,” she said. “Going back to classes has been a big struggle.” She said she sometimes pauses while trying to formulate sentences because she gets “stuck on” words. “Chemo is a poison,” she said. “It kills all healthy cells as well as damaging cells.” To walk across the stage and receive her diploma on Dec. 21, Robyn needs 13 quality points, or at least four Bs and two As. “It’s really become crucial that I get a certain GPA to graduate,” she said. “It’s a lot of pressure, and it’s a lot of work.” Although a formidable task, her mother has no doubt that Robyn will once again achieve her goal. “She never lost sight of wanting to have a degree. The fact that she’s able to accomplish the goal that she set, under the circumstances she has to endure, I am so thrilled for her,” she said. “[Robyn] kept saying ‘I will finish. I will finish.'” After graduation Robyn will possibly attend film school to pursue her dream of making documentaries. She took a liking to the hobby after filming friends’ weddings and even editing a competitive Mike the Tiger cheerleading video for LSU. But Robyn has not ruled out the possibility of returning to soccer as a future coach. She is keeping her options open and her attitude positive. “I’m kind of just starting to live again,” she said. “So it’s kind of one day at a time.”
Listen as DesOrmeaux explains her ongoing battle with cancer.
Photos by Aaron Williams and from file.
—–Contact Amy Brittain at [email protected]