Football keeps coach going while fighting rare disease

ARVADA - By Thursday of most weeks, Scott Lindemann feels like he has been run over by a 300-pound lineman, but that does not keep him from showing up on game day to root on the Arvada Nighthawks.

Despite the pains and exhaustion that come with chemotherapy, which he undergoes every Monday, Coach Lindemann makes it a point to show up to practice hours after his injection. Days later, when his pain is most excruciating you will often find him on the sideline cheering on his team.

"You know this is really hard on your body and on your mind. You have to push yourself through some tough times," Lindemann said.

The former University of Colorado, Pomona and Arvada West coach says chemotherapy is much tougher than two-a-day practices athletes dread. He says he can feel the drugs coursing through his body.

"It's a really weird feeling. You know, it's sort of like acid going through to kill all the bad stuff... It's just real hard," Lindemann said.

While Scott battled colon cancer a few years ago, his chemotherapy treatments are actually to battle another opponent - Menetrier disease. The rare disorder causes a massive amount of mucous cells to grow in the lining of the stomach. Those cells cause large folds in the stomach.

"It's like a putting green," Scott explained. "Everybody else's stomach is like a really soft putting green. Mine is like a shag carpeting in there."

The disorder is extremely rare.

"I never heard of this and I have some friends that are doctors and they never even heard of it," Lindemann said.

Scott is the first person diagnosed with Menetrier disease in Colorado. By an amazing coincidence, Scott's doctor in Lafayette not only knew about the disease, but had been in touch with another doctor at Vanderbilt University who had started a clinical study of the disease and the use of chemotherapy to fight it.

"What Scott has isn't a cancer right now, but it certainly has the potential to turn into one, so we want to make sure to get control of it," explained Dr. Joseph Cassara with Kaiser Permanente.

Use of the drug for fighting Menetrier disease has not been approved by the FDA and it's quite costly at $1,500 a treatment. While that would be pricey for anyone, it is especially a hardship for the Lindemanns who are still trying to pay off the medical bill from their son's 11 brain surgeries and daughters' nearly deadly fight against meningitis and encephalitis two Christmases ago.

Plus, because of the disease and chemo treatments, Scott has been unable to keep working. Still, Scott and his family felt it was the best option.

"The alternative is you take out your whole stomach and cut your esophagus into a 'y', to try to slow everything down, but everything goes through you really fast. It's a really hard and fairly short life," Lindemann said.

So for roughly the length of a football season, Scott will continue to undergo the difficult treatments.

"It's a lot like football in a lot of ways. You've got to go through the grind," Lindemann said.

Lindemann says he hopes his battle against the disease will provide doctors with more knowledge, so they can help those who are diagnosed with it in the future.

"It makes you put it into perspective. God maybe gave me this disease so that we can get more information and help other people. He knows that our family can fight through this, so that other people don't have to struggle so much," he said.

"I don't know if there is a better example of a hero," said Scott Jones, the Arvada Nighthawks' head coach. "Somebody who in the morning goes and has what's a pretty brutal chemo treatment and then just a few hours later is out on the field coaching boys."

While that may not land Lindemann on the cover of Sports Illustrated, he and his doctor would be happy with another front page spread.

"Maybe, GI illustrated," Dr. Cassara said referring to gastro intestinal.

A group of friends are trying to help the Lindemanns. They've set up a 501 (c) 3 organization and a fundraising run in January to help pay off some of the medical bills. The runners will be taking part in the Rock and Roll Arizona Marathon and have raised $7,500 in pledges so far. If you would like more information about the fundraising effort, contact: Carolyn Gdowski.