INDEPENDENCE - Spring months are spent on the softball field in Julie Jack's world.

The Wartburg College student has played ball since elementary school and was a standout player for the Independence Mustangs. She spends winters working out indoors, and when the snow melts off the infield, Julie, 19, is always ready to get back in the game.

But this season, like her last high school game last spring, Julie is on the sidelines.

The day before her high school team was scheduled to play in a regional matchup that would determine who went to Fort Dodge for the state tournament, Julie was at the hospital for an ultrasound. Doctors determined she had a tumor on her adrenal gland.

"I was really sad to miss (the regional game), but I had my surgery just a few days later," she said.

Her doctor was certain he had removed the tumor and told her not to worry. They never even discussed the possibility that the tumor was cancerous until two weeks after the surgery, but even then her doctor told her not to worry. They would run more tests, but the likelihood of cancer was slim.

Just days before Jack was set to move into her Wartburg College dormitory, her doctors called back. She needed to meet with an oncologist. The tumor was actually an aggressive form of cancer. The family went for a second opinion at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where doctors told her the cancer had spread to her lungs. Adrenal cortical carcinoma affects just 1 in 2 million people.

"It was devastating. Julie was just a healthy kid. Sure, she had her share of colds and flu, but she was never hospitalized," said Julie's mother, Leasa Jack. "I thought they had her mixed up with something else. That's how shocked we were. They said they felt it had been growing for two years."

Doctors told the family that Julie was actually lucky, despite the diagnosis. Had the tumor been hit during practice or a game, it could have broken up inside her body "and then she wouldn't have had any hope at all," Leasa said.

"She must have had a ton of guardian angels looking out for her. Had the tumor broken up, it would have gone through her whole system and there would have been no way to get it all," she added.

Last fall Julie started an aggressive eight rounds of chemotherapy. The treatment forced her to move out of her dorm, though she continues to take classes online and keep in contact with professors to ensure she doesn't fall behind. But there is nothing she can do about the softball season she is missing this spring - and some days, that is what hurts most. In early March, Julie had high hopes of playing college ball, but her mom said that option seems more unlikely every day.

Julie weathered the first six rounds of chemotherapy well. Each round lasts about 21 days: Day 1 is four hours of chemo, days 2 and 3 are about 2 hours, then she is given another two and a half weeks to recuperate. Leasa said these last two rounds have been a little harder on her young daughter.

"It wipes me out for a week, but then I usually bounce back," Julie said.

She's even tried to keep up with softball workouts by training with her old high school team.

Lyle Hosch, the high school coach, said it has been hard watching one of his star athletes be pushed out of the game by such a serious disease.

"I've coached her since probably fourth grade, and I knew her before that. This has been a long haul for her," he said. "But she has the determination to get back. She is starting over from scratch with what she can and can't do, but I think she can get back to where she was in her junior year."

Despite what she has been through, Julie still manages to find the silver lining in her situation, even as she waits for the CT scan that will tell her if the chemotherapy did its job.

"At first it was really hard to accept, especially since I have always been really healthy and in shape," she said. "Now, I look at it and I know it could be so much worse. You hear all these stories about people my age who have to stay in the hospital for months while they are getting treatment. I'm lucky that it only takes me a week to recover and I get to do it at home. It could be a lot worse."

Contact Emily Christensen

at (319) 291-1570 or

emily.christensen@wcfcourier.com.