Jim Kelly needs unexpected checkup after 'something came up'
The latest episode of Jim Kelly’s ongoing battle with cancer appears to have ended on a cliffhanger.
Once Kelly emerges with the results of a visit to his doctors, the next episode will begin either on a safe high note or with a terrifying new twist in the story.
Kelly told reporters he will travel to New York City for an “unexpected checkup” after “something came up” in his recovery from surgery that doctors hope fully removed the cancer from his jaw.
In the meantime, Kelly will be accepting the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance on Wednesday at the ESPY Awards in Los Angeles.
The visit to New York for more medical attention will come in the second week of August.
“Right now it’s just a checkup,” Kelly said Tuesday at his football clinic for children at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, according to ESPN. “It will be a checkup, but how long will I be there [until I] check out? We’ll see. I still have a mouth full of stitches. I’m sure they’re going to pull all of those out.
“My doctors are in New York. I’m not there every day. So I want to sure that everything is going on is going on for the right reasons. Just like everybody, if you go through a broken leg or something, you got to have checkups. If there is a little pain here [where] you think there shouldn’t be anything, you got to get it checked. Even though I’m blessed to have [the doctor] at [Erie County Medical Center] I go to in Buffalo look and make sure that things are going pretty good, it helps.”
Kelly’s tone suggested that the checkup is less about a major worry and more about erring on the side of caution, but when the caution is against a disease that can resurface at any moment, strike back with an unholy vengeance and kill its victim, even today’s minor issue is tomorrow’s cause for alarm.
Come September, Kelly will have permanent dentures inserted, allowing him to ditch a diet of soup for a return to honest-to-God real food, and it’s something Kelly has been looking forward to since that surgery in March.
“I’m not sure what’s going on,” Kelly said of what prompted his upcoming visit. “I have some things that I want to have looked at, and then we’ll go from there. I don’t know whether I’m going to be here for two days, four days or in and out. And then hopefully I pray when September has rolled around that I can finally bite into a piece of meat and not soup every day.”
In the meantime, Kelly is just focused on that ESPYs speech.
He plans to discuss what he calls the “four F’s” — faith, family, friends and fans — during his speech.
“I hope the words that I say come out right, that I’m able to inspire people never to give up,” Kelly said.
The award he’ll receive is named for former North Carolina State basketball coach Jim Valvano, who left an indelible mark on the world with his speech at the inaugural ESPYs in 1993 when he accepted the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.
His closing line — “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up” — was a powerful statement of perseverance in the face of overwhelming hardship. Valvano died of cancer less than two months later.
In 2014, Stuart Scott gave an inspirational speech of his own as he battled cancer.
Kelly will remind us of their strength and courage when he gives his speech Wednesday night.
And God willing, he’ll emerge from that checkup in August with words to the effect of “The doctors say everything’s normal.”
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