Worst days of my life after tumour diagnosis, says ex-Toon ace Jose
I CAN’T GO DOWN STAIRS BY MYSELF NOW – ENRIQUE
FORMER Newcastle United defender Jose Enrique has revealed that his life has changed dramatically since a successful operation to remove a brain tumour.
The ex-Magpies left-back was diagnosed with a chordoma around the nerves behind his left eye last month, which he says affects just one in every million people – and which could have left him blind had it remained untreated.
The 32-year-old Spaniard, who is now an agent, was concerned he would be left blind after he began to lose his vision – and insists he was left fearing for his life after the shock diagnosis.
“I’m feeling OK, it depends on the day,” Enrique told Liverpool’s official website during an in-depth interview about his recovery process.
“Sometimes, because here [in Spain] the weather is nice for holidays but it’s not the best for what I have because I cannot do too much. It’s a little bit annoying, but I’m just getting better day by day.”
Although the operation was successful, Enrique still faces 35 sessions of radiotherapy and admits that he had faced the “worst days of his life” after falling ill while on a business trip in London to meet Brighton and Hove Albion manager Chris Hughton, who managed the Spaniard at St James’ Park. He has struggled to walk down stairs unaided, or even brush his teeth, since the surgery. “It was scary and, after I had the operation done, it was a very, very bad time in the hospital, [as] my partner and my family know,” Enrique added. “It’s been a very, very difficult time since. I was in the hospital for a week and it looks like very little [time], but in that week it was a nightmare because you realise a little bit how many people are ill in that moment. “It changes your life a bit, the way you think. After a week they sent me home but still with a lot of [issues]; I can’t go down stairs by myself, when I go to the toilet I can’t lift the lid, when I clean my teeth. “It’s silly things that in a normal life you do and you don’t realise how easy it is to do it until you can’t. “I couldn’t walk, if I do 10 or 15 minutes – it’s a little bit more than that now – it was like I had played two games in a row. “It was crazy, really, really tiring. I see the doctor [soon] and I’m still waiting on the dates for radiotherapy.” Last month, Enrique’s former Magpies teammate and close friend Jonas Gutierrez (inset left) – himself a cancer survivor – was among a host of Newcastle players to send messages of support to the Spaniard.
Newcastle fans have also voiced their support for Enrique across social media, while the club themselves tweeted last month: “You’re in our thoughts, @ Jesanchez3. We wish you a speedy recovery. #nufc.”
Recalling how the diagnosis came about, Enrique explained: “I was in England, I travelled with my brother because I’m an agent now, [as] my brother has been for a while. “We went to meet some clubs, and that night we were with Chris Hughton from Brighton having dinner in London. “I was at the dinner and I said to my brother, ‘I cannot see properly, the light is bothering me a lot, I don’t feel very well.’ “So, we finished the dinner, and the day after I started to see a little bit blurry. “My brother said, ‘Maybe you have a migraine or something.’ Because he had it the week before and it’s normal you feel that way. The day after my partner,
The solution was surgery, 100%, through the nose, and not to open my head or anything Jose Enrique
Amy, arrived in London because we were going to Paris with the family, [but] on Thursday when she arrived I started to see double.
“I couldn’t walk properly because I couldn’t see and I started to get a little bit scared because of it.
“So, we went to a hospital and, like every other person, waited there eight or nine hours to do all the tests and everything.
“They talked to St George’s Hospital in London, which is just for neurosurgery, and they wanted to see me.
“They did another test and a doctor came and said, ‘I don’t want to scare you – I know the word tumour everyone thinks cancer and it’s going to spread everywhere and you’re going to die, it’s not that.’ It was a tumour near the nerves of my left eye, and that’s why I wasn’t seeing properly.”
Enrique left United under something of a cloud in 2011 when he accused the club’s hierarchy of not being ambitious enough – but that is water under the bridge for supporters now, with thousands of them sending messages of goodwill to the defender.
He still has fond memories of Newcastle, and said during an interview with The Chronicle last year that his time at United was one of the best of his career.
Now he will continue the long road towards full recovery, undertaking radiotherapy, as well as rehabilitation, sessions over the coming months.
“It’s not normal, this type of tumour. Normally you have it on the back or the spine – it was more or less one person in a million could have this,” Enrique added.
“[The doctor] said it cannot spread, but it’s very aggressive and I could have had it since I was young or even since I was born.
“It wasn’t cancerous but it was in a place that is very dangerous because it has main arteries and veins just behind it.
“I went to get a second opinion in Valencia.
“I saw Dr Simal and he said exactly the same as the doctor in England, and it was a little bit of a relief that I wasn’t being diagnosed with two different things.
“The solution was surgery, 100%, through the nose, and not to open my head or anything.
“Before I got the operation, the doctor said to me, ‘Jose, I cannot promise you that you’re going to see like you used to see.’
“Being a 32-year-old, [when] they tell you that – that was not nice.”