Salme’s Story: A Triumph In Defeat

As a registered nurse, Teena Salme knew more about the bone cancer that once threatened the life of her son, Luke, than most mothers would know.

Salme knew, for instance, that 68 percent of the children who contract the same type of cancer do not live more than five years.

That probably explains why she took the 57-51 loss Luke and his Willapa Valley teammates suffered in Wednesday’s first round of the boys State B basketball tournament in the Arena better that most of the Vikings fans seated around her.

The loss to Manson had not been a particularly memorable game for Luke, a 6-foot-3 senior forward, who had been held to 15 points - more than four below his average.

But it had been a game, nonetheless. Another, like the nearly 100 before it, that Luke Salme was not expected to play after his mother first felt the bump near his right shoulder while giving him a hug before a Fourth of July fun run in 1989.

The day after the tumor was discovered, Luke was taken to Seattle’s Children’s Hospital, where he underwent a battery of tests to determine whether the cancer had spread to his lungs.

“He was real lucky that it hadn’t,” Teena Salme explained.

But he probably didn’t feel so fortunate after undergoing two surgeries in the next 24 hours - one to remove the malignant tumor, the other to cut away some “suspicious cells” that remained after the first.

And he probably felt downright cursed after undergoing three more operations in next three years while learning to do such fundamental things as raising a fork and throwing a baseball with his left hand.

Because so much of the cancerous bone had been removed, Luke broke his arm shortly after his first operation. Additional surgery repaired the break with screws and a metal plate. Doctors operated again to repair a bent screw and later went in a fourth time to remove the plate.

“So we basically spent four summers at Children’s Hospital,” Teena Salme said. “But the good news is, there’s been no recurrence of the cancer. He’s been eight years without any more tumors.”

And in those eight years, Luke has regained the use of his right arm, even though it is noticeably - to his mother, at least - shorter than his left.

“He doesn’t think he has any limitations,” Teena Salme said. “But he does have some range-of-motion limitations, and if you look (his right arm) is quite a bit shorter. The tumor was right on the growth line and the arm hasn’t grown since he was 10.”

Teena Salme claims that if you watch her son closely, you will notice he grabs most of his rebounds with his left arm - the same one he has also favored while hauling in passes as a tight end on the Vikings football team.

Judging from the fact that Luke Salme has emerged as his team’s leading scorer and top rebounder, it’s a limitation only a mother - or a nurse who fully comprehends the magnitude of his recovery - might notice.

Notes

Republic boasts a team grade-point average of 3.57… . Reardan point guard Rhett Soliday is the son of Larry Soliday, who played on the 1966 Indians team that won the state title and finished 26-0… . Cameron Carstensen of Almira/Coulee-Hartline, expected to be one of his team’s top players until he shot himself in the foot hunting last fall, is serving as an assistant coach under Jim Wacker.

, DataTimes