'Keep living life like normal': Sole Burner honorary survivor Eddie Stuczynski ready to share his story
NEENAH – Eddie Stuczynski didn’t realize how much he took life for granted until he no longer could.
In spring 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic began to grip the world, Stuczynski’s life was thrown upside down even more and in a way he never could have imagined.
The Neenah High School graduate and second-semester freshman at UW-Oshkosh was diagnosed with myxoid chondrosarcoma, a slow-growing bone cancer his doctors believe was in his body since before he was born.
“I had no anticipation I was going to find out I had cancer the second semester of my freshman year of college, as no one would, but it’s one of those things that until it happens you don’t really realize how much you take for granted when it comes to life,” said Stuczynski, who will turn 21 in July.
Stuczynski will serve as the honorary survivor Saturday for the 40th anniversary of the Sole Burner 5K Walk/Run to benefit the American Cancer Society at City Park in Appleton. The event, which includes a timed 5K run, a self-timed 5K walk and kids fun run, has raised over $7.4 million and had more than 170,000 participants since 1983.
It’s an event that’s always been close to Stuczynski’s heart, long before his cancer diagnosis. He has participated in the Sole Burner since childhood in support of a longtime family friend and a neighbor who battled cancer.
“It honestly is almost surreal. I never thought I was going to be even close to this kind of role, like who would obviously,” he said of being honorary survivor. “It was one of those things where I’ve always wanted to support the Sole Burner. I never thought I’d be able to support it in this kind of way though, and it really is humbling quite frankly.
“It makes me realize that — obviously I’m not the only one, I know that — but it makes me realize that I could be a big impact for others who are going through the same thing I am.”
‘Stop looking at me like that’
Stuczynski said the first signs something might be wrong was when he experienced tingling in his face and a few vision problems that were becoming more frequent and more intense.
He scheduled an appointment with a doctor, but with the pandemic ramping up it was rescheduled.
Then in April 2020, he was watching television with his mom and he glanced her way while still looking at the TV in front of him.
“When I did that, I remember her saying, ‘Stop looking at me like that. It’s creeping me out.’ Naturally, I was confused because I thought I was looking at her," he said. "But then we realized that my right eye was not moving to the right when I looked in that direction, which is known as a right-lateral palsy.”
With an upsurge in COVID-19 patients, a week went by before he was able to see the doctor. That was April 28. The next day he was sent for an MRI, and later that day received the cancer diagnosis.
Ten days after the MRI showed a mass the size of a medium-sized tangerine on or near his brain stem, Stuczynski underwent the first of what would eventually be three surgeries to open his skull and remove as much of the tumor as possible.
On May 8, 2020, he was on the table for the first of two craniotomies at ThedaCare Regional Medical Center in Neenah with Dr. Sumon Bhattacharjee. The second surgery was performed in August.
He was then referred to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, to undergo proton beam radiation therapy, a precise form of radiation that was necessary because the tumor’s calcified shell was pressing against his brain stem.
He underwent the third surgery at the Mayo Clinic, and doctors took a fat graft from his stomach and placed the graft between the tumor and his brain stem to protect his brain from excess radiation.
After the incision healed, he traveled back to Mayo Clinic during the week of Thanksgiving 2020 for the start of radiation treatment. He underwent 35 rounds of treatment spanning nearly two months, with his final treatment on Jan. 13, 2021.
‘So impactful on me’
Stuczynski, a music education major, is back in school with a goal to teach in middle school. His primary instrument is the saxophone, although he’s working on the flute as well. With the pandemic and then his cancer battle, he doesn’t expect to graduate until 2024 or 2025.
His return to music has been a work in progress because his motor skills aren’t what they used to be, and he’s struggled at times with his short-term memory.
He hasn’t lost his love for music, though, and has gained a greater appreciation for his talents. The ability to play and teach music is something he no longer takes for granted.
RELATED: Timber Rattlers pitcher Tyler Gillies back on the mound after two-year cancer battle
MORE: Troy Cullen steps down after 22 seasons as Kimberly girls basketball coach
“Once I couldn’t play for almost a year because of all my surgeries, it was amazing,” he said. “Not only how much I thought I wasn’t going to retain but I did, but also just like it felt so good to be able to pick up my horn and play again. It may not have been close to what it was a year before that, but I was able to do it still and that was so impactful on me.”
Stuczynski listens to “all kinds of music” and has 863 songs on his play list. As a saxophonist, he plays jazz and classical but leans a little more toward jazz.
“I love how much more I can take my artistry and make it more my own,” he said.
‘Keep on keeping on’
Stuczynski knows he isn’t in the clear with his cancer.
The treatments didn’t rid his brain entirely of the tumor, and he acknowledges it’s not a question of if his cancer will return but rather when this cancer or another form will come in its place.
He is following up with doctors every four months and said it will be quite some time before he doesn’t have to go for checkups as frequently.
“It’s a bone cancer, so it grows extremely slowly,” he said. “We won’t notice it comes back until it’s back. It’s just a matter of monitoring if it comes back — and more honestly when it comes back — it’s just a matter of being able to catch it as soon as possible and I won’t have to go through everything I went through again.”
When asked if it was difficult to think about the future or if he is scared about the uncertainty of what’s to come, Stuczynski said neither is true.
“I honestly don’t think of it that way, quite frankly,” he said. “Yeah, it’s going to come back. We know that. So I’m not going to sit there and count down the days until it might come back. I’m just going to keep living life like normal. That’s kind of been my whole motto going through all this is just a keep on keeping on kind of thing.”
Contact Mike Sherry at msherry@postcrescent.com. Follow him on Twitter @MikeSherry14.
SUPPORT LOCAL JOURNALISM: Our subscribers make this coverage possible. Click to see The Post-Crescent's special offers at postcrescent.com/subscribe and download our app on the App Store or Google Play.
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: UW-Oshkosh student and Neenah grad is Sole Burner honorary survivor
