Brian BOYLE

Devils veteran Brian Boyle — who was diagnosed with a form of leukemia in September and was back on the ice a month later — is enjoying a career year. Before the holidays, he sat down with The Post’s Steve Serby. y. Q: You called your wife Lauren after the original tests in September revealed that you u had an abnormally high number of white blood cells. A: I called her and said, “We gotta a go get this checked out, I think it might be Lyme disease,” not knowing what it was. Q; You thought it was Lyme disease? A: I was hoping. Q: Because most of the other alternatives were much worse. . A: It was like, “You have cancer, we just don’t know what kind,” basically. Q: What was going through your mind before you learned it was chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) — a form of blood and bone marrow cancer — that would be treatable? A: I was petrified. I just immediately thought of my kids and my wife. I kind of thought like this doesn’t seem fair. We’re a younger couple with young kids and ... are my kids even gonna remember me? Like, am I gonna die? Is that fair to them, growing up with no dad? What’s my wife gonna do? Q: What was the waiting period like before you learned exactly what it was? A: A couple of days — it felt like an eternity. Q: Do you remember the first conversation you had with your parents before you knew the diagnosis? A: I was trying to be sensitive to them. Because I couldn’t imagine my kid going through something like that. I said, “I feel good, I feel fine, so don’t worry,” just all that [is] bulls--t pretty much, to be honest with you (chuckle). Q: How upset or how nervous were your parents at that point? A: My mother [Judy] is remarkable ... unwavering faith. So you’d have to ask her, but speaking with her ... whatever, if it was five times in a day because I was nervous or scared, or anytime I needed some reassurance, she was unbelievable. My dad [Artie, a kidney and lung cancer survivor], he was the same. He knew, obviously firsthand, how brutal that first conversation is. But he was scared, he was definitely scared, too. He was on it, though, he was very proactive getting the prayers out, the word out. It was tough, because I don’t want them to worry, like they got enough to worry about. I didn’t want my wife to worry, and she obviously was very worried. We were trying to find positives, we found like our kids are so young that they won’t remember this. They’re not gonna be affected by this. It’s not gonna rock their world like it will ours. Q: Did youyou thinkthink during that agonizing period about what your father had endured? A: A hundred percent. I remembered looking at him when he was really sick, before they knew anything was wrong, and I didn’t look like that. I remember his skin color, and his weight, his energy level was crazy low. The color of my face was OK, I was just really, really tired at the time. I couldn’t figure out why I was so tired. And some motivation was gone — towards the end of the summer I was playing golf, and I remember not even caring if I finished the round or not — I’d play 36 [holes] a day if my wife would ever let me (chuckle). Q: Did you have trouble sleeping? A: Oh yeah. I had like an anvil on my chest the whole time. ... It felt like anxiety. Q: Did your father give you a pep talk? A: He just reminded me about we don’t know what the plan is, we don’t know what is gonna happen. Q: Describe the day you received the definitive diagnosis from Dr. Jennifer Reeder at Summit Medical Group. A: She said this is like a win, depending upon how you respond to treatment. You don’t have to do a bone marrow transplant, and the chemo and the radiation, which is a bear for a couple of years of your life, and you can hopefully get back to playing. That’s like a 180 from what we feared. It was a very positive day (laugh). It could have been an acute form where you had to ... and we’re not having this conversation right now. Q: The texts from your mother. A: Actually it’s on my other phone ... like Bible verses, and stories and factual things that have happened, even just in her life, and in our lives that we’ve seen ... the miracles that we’ve seen. I’ve said it many times: We’ve come out on the other side of this. ... Especially my wife and I, we’ve come out much, I think, better people. Our faith is even stronger, and I think that what we’ve kind of gone through the last couple of months — which is more than just me — has tested us, beyond anything we could have imagined.

So we’re going through this whole thing and a couple of weeks later, my son [Declan, 2¹/₂] has a huge growth on his chin. He has a tumor on his chin. It looks like it’s growing from the bone out. This was a couple of weeks after me. The reason I tell you this is because of the amount of prayers we’ve had, too. They were pretty concerned and pretty well convinced that he had Ewing’s Sarcoma. It ended up being what’s called an AVM, basically just bad wiring of blood vessels in his chin, going through the bone that he had since birth.

They thought it was a tumor that was starting in the bone. I wouldn’t be playing without the strength and support of my wife. ... My thing was a cakewalk compared to that. That’s my worst nightmare. That’s any parent’s worst nightmare. Q: Thankfully, it wasn’t a tumor. A: It’s going down. The doctor had tears in his eyes when he told me it wasn’t what he thought it was. Q: Declan’s personality? A: He’s got a huge personality (laugh). He’s a big kid, he’s got a huge vocabulary, and he’s pretty demanding of our attention. He’s wonderful, he’s so much fun. Q: He already likes hockey? A: We’ve got him on skates, he’s not there yet (laugh). He wants to stand on the bench and watch me shoot around. Q: Your daughter is 7 months old. A: She adores him. Big smile all the time. Q: You take two pills in the morning and two at night on an empty stomach. A: Gamedays are when it gets tricky. I try to eat as much as I can right after the game, then I gotta wait two hours, take the pills. It’s usually about 1:00, 1:15. Q: How much longer do you want to play? A: Till they kick me out. Q: Why did you sign with the Devils? A: No. 1, I really want to win. I’ve been close, and it’s really hard to do. I felt needed here, and I said if I’m needed there, I’m gonna play my best hockey. Q: At 33, are you a better hockey player than you were five years ago? A: Definitely. Q: Which was more heartbreaking, losing the 2014 Cup finals with the Rangers or the 2015 finals with the Lightning? A: ’14 was really tough ’cause there were three overtime games, and ’15 I thought we had control of the series. Q: Favorite Rangers memory? A: Celebrating when we beat Montreal [to reach the 2014 Cup finals]. Q: What was it like when your Rangers days ended? A: I didn’t hear much from ’em, so I just kind of thought they weren’t interested. I loved my time there. I think it worked out the way it was supposed to. Q: What do you think you learned about yourself following this ordeal? A: I’m a very lucky man. The amount of great people — and I don’t use that term lightly — in my life, and the amount of love that I get even on a daily basis is off the charts. You want to have a great career, and you want to make money for your family ... and then ... ’cause you think about your mortality when you get need like this. And I just look back at all the people in my life and friends and family that I have. And it’s remarkable the amount of wonderful people that I’ve been able to come across, and call friends.