Breaking Benji: GJ's Andy Smith survives bout with brain tumor - The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel

Posted: 27 Feb 2021 11:15 PM PST

Andy Smith sat comfortably in the passenger seat of his parents' blue Toyota SUV, his head leaning back against the headrest with thoughts on how Jan. 12 would be spent simply relaxing at home after an unplanned trip to the Front Range.

Once the car pulled up to the house, however, he quickly noticed a crowd — neighbors, family, some of his old Grand Junction High School basketball teammates and even the GJHS Tigers' mascot — waiting outside with balloons and signs.

It was a triumphant welcome home party for a young man who had spent 50 nights away because of a brain tumor which, in jest, he dubbed "Benji." Those 50 nights were marked by challenges, concern and cameos by the all-time winningest coach in men's college basketball, but more on that later.

"A lot of those people were people who had inspired me," Smith said. "They were the ones that taught me how to be me. There were some really sentimental people from my high school experience that made me who I am with the way that I look at things. They were inspirational people for that part of the puzzle. I never thought I would end up needing that kind of support, but I'm definitely glad that I made the friends that I did and that they made friends with me and offer that support, still."

FROM HIGH SCHOOL TO THE HOSPITAL

Smith made his name on the court and on the gridiron for Grand Junction High School before graduating in 2020, playing three years of basketball and two years of football for the Tigers. In his senior year on the hardwood, he averaged 8.2 points and 4.6 rebounds. In his football career, he caught 21 passes for 212 yards and a touchdown.

After graduation, he enrolled at Colorado Mesa University, where he's majoring in counseling psychology with plans to minor in kinesiology. With his athletic days done, he wanted to pursue his interests in the medical field. However, his first semester halted around Thanksgiving.

"So it started with the fact that I was getting these headaches," Smith said. "They were often positional. For example, when I got out of my car or stood up from my seat in the lecture hall or sat down too fast, really just about any time that my head changed positions, I would have these intense headaches."

Because of his medical curiosity, his mind raced with what the cause of his headaches could be. Little did he know that he would soon get an inside glimpse at the medical world amid the most colossal challenge of his life.

"I thought, from the beginning, it was Occipital Neuralgia, but then I finally talked to my parents and said, 'I think I should actually go see a doctor at this point.' I had never had headaches that consistent for that long."

On Nov. 27, Smith was admitted to the emergency room at St. Mary's Medical Center, where an MRI confirmed that he had a tumor in his brain approximately four centimeters in diameter, about the size of a golf ball. Smith and his family took an emergency flight to Aurora, where he received treatment at the UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital and a surgery was scheduled.

FINDING THE FUN

In the most traumatic moments of his life, Smith's thoughts returned to his basketball days.

"One of my old basketball teammates reminded me of something I said to him," Smith recalled. "He told me that I'm not given the opportunity to choose the situation I'm in, but I choose to feel the way that I do. Before all of this, I didn't know that's what I would be using that advice for now, but I wasn't told to be in this position and I wasn't given the opportunity to not be in this position, but here I am. I can choose to be happy about it or choose not to be happy about it. I would rather choose to be happy about it."

Smith decided to have some fun with his treatment and recovery. One of his quirks is naming objects, often with the same first letter as the object itself, and he decided the situation needed some levity. He dubbed his brain tumor Benji.

There was no significance to the name. It just seemed like a Benji.

He's named other objects involved in his recovery. For instance, in February, he ditched Thomas the walker for Carlos the crutch.

After Benji was removed, Smith spent nearly two months at Children's Hospital Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, part of the same UCHealth complex in Aurora. He often received group therapy with young children.

"I thought that I was a cool kid and a hard worker, but those kids have got me beat, bar none," Smith said. "I was thoroughly impressed by the kids that were showing me up. They were all younger than me. A 9-year-old girl by the name of Riley, she was the hardest worker that I've ever met, by far. It made my day just to get to talk to her. That was a cool experience."

Another positive for Smith was that, because of his interest in joining the medical field some day, being a cancer patient gave him the kind of exclusive look that no class ever could.

"Getting to be part of the rehab on that extensive of a side of a recovery was pretty cool to be a part of," he said. "I also think it was a pretty big deal to meet a lot of the doctors and people I want to have a similar job to. Getting to actually meet those kinds of people and bounce a few questions off of them and see, from a patient's standpoint, what they want from their patients, it was kind of nice to be a part of that."

COACH K

If he didn't already have enough motivation to keep his spirits high, he also has one of the best coaches in sports history in his corner — Mike Krzyzewski.

Smith's always been a fan of the Duke Blue Devils, one of college basketball's Goliaths. Duke has been led since 1980 by "Coach K", winning five national championships and contending for many more. Krzyzewski has also coached the United States Men's National Team to three Olympic gold medals.

Smith's older sister, Casey, was determined to make Coach K aware of Andy's ordeal. She called every member of Duke's basketball staff five times a day and sent them all four emails a day, as well. As Andy put it, she was either going to get a restraining order or she was going to get Krzyzewski to talk to her brother.

Fortunately, it was the latter.

"When his sister, Casey, contacted me, I loved the fact that this was a sister taking care of her brother," Krzyzewski told The Daily Sentinel. "When I talked to her, you could feel the emotion and the love of an older sister for her brother. As good as that conversation was, my (first) conversation with Andy was spectacular. I called to try to give him support and I found him to be as positive a person as I've ever talked to, even in the face of this incredible adversity.

"I called to try to pick him up. To be quite frank with you, I think he picked me up more."

Smith and Krzyzewski have spoken multiple times, strengthening a bond that feels far closer than the 1,900 miles that separate the two.

"My calls to him since then are really like a friend to a friend," Krzyzewski said. "I'm anxious to eventually meet him personally and keep up our friendship. This kid is amazing. He's incredible. I probably got more out of the calls than he has. He's special. He's really special."

Smith has even received a sample of Coach K's legendary fiery, inspirational approach to his players, albeit with less fury and intensity.

"I actually got yelled at by Coach K," Smith said, chuckling. "It was because I hung up on my grandpa to talk to him. He said, 'Don't hang up on your grandpa.' It was awesome. He didn't really yell at me, but it was cool to be on the receiving end of a talking-to from Coach K. I was really excited just to talk to Coach K. I never thought that would happen."

On Dec. 22, the Smith family received the results of Andy's extended biopsy from the Mayo Clinic. While chemotherapy and radiation were going to be part of his life for a while — approximately 112 days — he has more than an 80% chance of never getting a medullblastoma tumor again.

After returning to the Western Slope, Smith underwent radiation for more than a month. Having completed radiation, he's on a break from medical therapy, with his chemotherapy sessions on the Front Range beginning March 12. He's immunocompromised, meaning he can much more easily become sick. In the era of the coronavirus, he has to be that much more careful to stay healthy. He's taking this semester off, hoping to resume classes at CMU in the fall.

He's starting to regain the energy to go for walks or work out with light weights to aid with rehabbing his body. He believes his fitness from high school sports is helping in his recovery efforts now.

"I know he's gaining some weight and he's out exercising a little bit now," Krzyzewski said. "Hopefully, when he goes back to Denver in a couple of weeks, the MRI will show that things are going in the right direction."

Smith recently celebrated his 19th birthday with his family and Valentine's Day with his girlfriend. At some points in late November through December, in his most vulnerable moments, he was afraid that he might not see either of those days.

Moving forward, he knows what he can live through.

"I'll get through it," Smith said. "I definitely think the times of me thinking I won't get through it are totally gone. I think I'm going to make it through this."

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