Douglas grad preparing for life after cancer

Bailey Piper sits rubbing her bare head.

"Hopping in the shower, you don't have to shampoo or condition," she says. "But you get colder. People don't realize how much hair acts as insulation."

For someone who just finished 10 months of chemotherapy, Bailey looks good. The 18-year-old Douglas High graduate has color in her face, bright eyes, a soft, dimpled smile that fills the room with light. As for her hair, well, she's taking that in stride.

"I'm hoping it grows soon, but I've heard it can take up to a year," she says. "It may come back different, too. Maybe a different color. Before, it was straight as a pencil, but it may come back wavy and curly."

On Wednesday, Bailey visited The Record-Courier building along with her father Wes, future stepmother Danielle, and two of her sisters, Piper, 14, and Haley, 6.

With an ease uncommon in teenagers, Bailey talked about her struggle with osteosarcoma and the 10 months of treatment she received at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. She talked about her surgery in November, when doctors removed a large tumor from her knee, along with a good portion of bone. She pointed to the scar along the front of her leg and described the $40,000 cobalt-chrome-alloy pivot doctors placed inside the leg.

"It's still hard to put weight on it," she said. "Every once in a while, my leg will buckle and I'll tumble."

She talked about the months of chemotherapy, how the chemicals ravaged her body - kidney failure, bacterial meningitis, a stroke on Christmas Day that put her into a coma. She explained how 80 percent of osteosarcoma patients already have the cancer cells in their lungs by the time they're diagnosed. She recalled close friends she made during her treatment, especially three fellow patients who didn't make it through the year.

"There's guilt - that I'm moving on and that some are still stuck there," she said. "I felt joy coming out of this, but I couldn't tell my friends or their parents because it felt wrong."

Bailey's lungs are clear. Her last round of chemotherapy was on May 8. At the end of April, before the final treatment, she flew to Carson Valley for her senior prom. She made a quick trip back to Houston then returned in time for graduation.

"My goal was to keep life as normal as possible," she said. "I was only able to go to school three days this year, but I took a lot of classes online."

Bailey said staff members at the high school were instrumental in helping her attain the necessary credits.

"I actually finished everything before everyone else," she said. "I had about seven weeks total when I wasn't sick and when I could concentrate on school."

Bailey's story began last summer when, on a hiking trip around the East Fork of the Carson River, her knee began hurting. Then a junior in high school, Bailey loved to hike and camp and ride her horse Tye. She was also a member of FFA and had gone to state for floriculture.

But everything changed when her doctor traced the pain in her knee to osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer that affects children and young adults.

"We went online and searched for the best doctors in the world, and they were in Houston," recalled Wes Piper. "After we got the diagnosis, Bailey came to me and said, 'let's just do what it takes to get back home.'"

At the time, Wes was working at Walmart's distribution center in Reno.

"I went in and told them what was going on, and in two hours they had my transfer ready in the distribution center in Houston," he said. "They let me set my work schedule there, so that if I needed to take 10 days off, I could. They just told me to take care of my daughter."

Wes' health insurance also helped. His out-of-pocket maximum for the year was $10,000, which paled in comparison to their $700,000 hospital bill.

"When it's your first time facing something like that, you think you're the only ones," he said. "But then you find a lot of people dealing with the same thing, and people come out of the woodwork to help. There's more good people out there than you think."

By August 2008, Bailey had moved into the Ronald McDonald House in Houston. From there she made frequent trips to MD Anderson where an outpatient chemotherapy service allowed her to avoid hospitalization most of the time.

"Chemo wipes out your immune system," she said. "I'd get an infusion then go back and sleep for a week."

While Wes stayed near Bailey's bedside, Danielle remained in Nevada taking care of the younger kids. They were able to visit periodically, and together the family found a fresh store of courage. They kept their spirits high through the worst of it, through the complications and close-calls, even through a hurricane that pounded Houston while Bailey was in chemo.

"Psychologists probably have a better chance of picking out survivors than medical doctors," Wes said. "Attitude plays a huge role. We had to stay positive, even when we were dragging her in there, even when some days we had to carry her."

Bailey has dim memories of the bad moments, but clear memories of the things that kept her going. Concerts with the Ronald McDonald House. Wheelchair races. A trip to the zoo.

"I knew the whole time that it wasn't going to beat me, that I'd come out of it," she said.

Now, back in Douglas County, the endless days of sleep are over.

"I'm getting up at 6:30 in the morning because there is so much I want to do," she said.

Her plans this summer are to hang out with friends, camp, swim and bike. The latter activities were recommended by doctors in hopes they would strengthen her knee.

"I can't do anything that's high-impact," she said.

Bailey knows the healing process isn't over. Every three months, she has to return to Texas for a check-up. Regular check-ups will last for two years and less frequent ones for five years. Going back and forth to Houston would be difficult if Bailey weren't moving there this winter.

"I got a scholarship for pediatric oncology research at the University of Houston," she said. "A philanthropist, a cancer survivor who's on the board of the Ronald McDonald House in Houston, is paying for me. Every year, he chooses 10 kids to put through the university."

Bailey plans to major in biology and chemistry then go to medical school. Her ultimate desire is to research cancer with the same doctors and scientists who helped her.

"I want to do as much as possible to spread treatment," she said. "Not everyone can get to Houston. There needs to be a center somewhere on the West Coast."

Bailey is already fighting for her cause. She's lent her name to a blood drive scheduled for 1 to 6 p.m. Tuesday at the CVIC Hall in Minden. As someone who's received multiple transfusions, she was more than willing to help when representatives from United Blood Services told her there was a shortage.

"I think they're down about 50 to 60 units," she said.

Although ambitious, Bailey's not taking anything for granted.

"I appreciate things a lot more," she said. "When I went back to school for a couple days, I noticed all this useless drama. People need to get over that stuff. My outlook has been changed for the better."

Wes said it was impossible not to be changed by the experience.

"She was dipped down in the cave of death and pulled out," he said. "She beat the odds."

"I am the odds," Bailey added, smiling.