There are GOOD things that happen in this life, today, and we never hear of them. I saw a replay of their game with Michigan. It was Senior Day, her brother walked her out on the field and sat and watched the game. Can you imagine the pride those parents had ............ WOW
Iowa City (AP) — Less than 48 hours after going through a lengthy medical procedure to save the life of her brother, Iowa senior pitcher Amanda Zust was back in the circle, trying to help the Hawkeye softball team.
“I asked her, ‘Do you want to play today?’ ” Iowa coach Gayle Blevins said. “Zusty did what everyone expected her to ... she played.”
Zust — who moved to 15-10 on the season with a win over Minnesota recently — never expected her senior season to be like this: ... Getting texts from her mother before games letting her know how her brother Robbie, a sophomore at Iowa, was doing in the hospital.
“As hard as things can get on the softball field, you have to realize what is going on outside of that,” Amanda said. “If you find yourself in a tough spot, it’s nothing compared to what other people are going through.
“We all want to win those games, and I compete as hard as I can, and that’s all I can do. That’s all (Robbie) can do, too.”
Robbie was diagnosed in January with ALL, or acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer of the white blood cells.
It is a cancer that can be fatal in as little as a few weeks if untreated. Robbie immediately started chemotherapy.
“It was shock,” Amanda said of hearing the news. “It’s one of those things that you don’t really know what you are going to feel like until you experience it. It was shock, and it was fear not knowing exactly what was going to happen.”
Robbie underwent nine weeks of chemotherapy in Des Moines and later had radiation treatment at the University of Iowa to kill the cancer. But to survive, Robbie needed a bone marrow transplant. His older sister, Sarah, 25, wasn’t a match, but Amanda was.
“We kind of joked about it in the beginning,” Amanda said. “I don’t like needles and my sister, she’s a nurse. So Robbie would tease that he knew I was going to be the donor from the very beginning.”
On April 22, Amanda went to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, and over about six hours, she had blood taken out of one arm, sent into a machine that took out stem cells, and then put back into her body in her other arm.
“I sat there doing that, I couldn’t imagine him going through everything he went through,” Amanda said. “All the procedures he went through, he acted like it was nothing. I looked at him for strength. I think he was what kept our family so strong.”
The next day Amanda left with the Hawkeyes for a Big Ten trip to Penn State, and the day after, she was back on the mound.
“Our hope was that we would be able to rest her that first day and give her another day to recover,” Blevins said. “That was our game plan. As it was, it didn’t turn out that way. The best laid plans don’t go the way you want them to go.”
While Amanda was traveling to State College, Pa., her stem cells were administered to Robbie. Since then they have checked his white blood cell count every day. For a week it remained at 0.1, but by the middle of this past week, it was at 6.8.
“It’s been increasing a lot in the last few days,” Amanda said. “He’s up more and talking like himself again.”
Amanda watched her brother battle cancer daily.
“He’s always been a skinny kid, but seeing him go through the process of being really sick and fragile,” Amanda said. “That type of thing is hard.”
“It’s the first thing we talk about every day,” Blevins said of her brother. “Today was a good day, or today he was sick. You know that’s in the back of her mind.
“She sits in the dugout between innings, it’s hard not to go where other concerns are. It’s difficult.”
Cathy Zust, Amanda’s mom, knows the sacrifices Amanda made during her final season at Iowa.
“I think she did a great job,” Cathy said. “It is a distraction, and I know she thinks about it all the time. She’s had her ups and downs but has hung in there tough and did it for him. He wouldn’t want her to quit.
“She goes out there and gets wins for him, too.”
Robbie came to the University of Iowa in part because his sister was there. The two are close in age and share a special bond as siblings.
Cathy sent pre-game texts for Amanda.
“I would tell her to do it for him,” Cathy said. “His thing was battle, attack, defeat. Fight for him and yourself and your team. Win the battle.”
At the moment, Robbie has won the battle. There is hope that he will be able to leave the hospital soon.
“We’ve got to get him eating and drinking, but he’s doing very well,” Cathy said. “We have several months to go yet, ... but I think he’s planning on going to her senior day.”
Amanda — who has worn a ROOTING FOR ROB bracelet all season — had her senior night in May when Iowa hosted Michigan at Pearl Field.
She may even have her brother in the stands on his road to recovery — a recovery she made possible.
“It was something that I’d do in a heartbeat,” Amanda said. “And over and over again if I had to.”
