Roman Reigns and Leukemia: What You Need to Know
Feb 26, 2019 16:40:28 GMT -5
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Post by flame3169118 on Feb 26, 2019 16:40:28 GMT -5
It used to be conspiracy theories centered around John F. Kennedy’s assassination or maybe the lunar landing. Once you got into anything involving space and aliens, people who truly believed were marginalized or ostracized. Not in 2019, when you probably have neighbors or family members who think the Earth is flat, vaccinations cause autism or lizard people are working with MS-13 to topple democracy.
From its beginnings, pro wrestling’s all but courted conspiracy theorists. And guessing where the veil of secrecy hangs between what’s real and what’s scripted has become an even bigger part of the pastime’s appeal in the internet age. The Montreal Screwjob, the incident which helped kill kayfabe and kick off the so-called ‘Reality’ Era, is still the subject of “work or shoot?” debates more than two decades after it occurred.
So it’s not terribly surprising there are folks reacting to Roman Reigns’ announcement on the Feb. 25 Raw that his leukemia is in remission with questions.
But in case you can’t shake your doubts, or just have questions about the disease one of the biggest names in modern wrestling is living with, a charity from the United Kingdom
Take it away, Leukaemia Care:
“Firstly, incredible news about Roman Reigns. Relapse is a scary reality for all leukaemia patients. Either fear of your cancer returning or having to face treatment for relapse. It’s great to hear some positive news from a leukaemia patient. The tweets we are seeing mainly centre around the idea of what a cancer patient should look like.
”How can he have hair?”
”How can he have not lost weight?”
”Why doesn’t he look like a cancer patient?”
We're going to weigh in here with some leukaemia information. We feel like we know a little bit and the Vince gif is appropriate
— Leukaemia Care (@leukaemiacareuk) February 26, 2019
Back to basics. Leukaemia is a cancer. It affects people of all ages. There are four main types of cancer: ALL, AML, CLL and CML. However, there are other types and subtypes. LEUKAEMIA IS COMPLICATED! The different types are key. Acute leukaemias are aggressive and need aggressive treatment to save a patient. Chronic leukaemias are incurable but treatable. DON’T FORGET - We do not KNOW what type of leukaemia he has. Therefore, NONE of us are in a position to question his treatment, how he should look etc.
The first question - How can he have hair?
Treatment for leukaemia may cause hair loss. It may cause hair thinning. It may cause no hair loss at all. Leukaemia can make you lose weight. Leukaemia can also make you gain weight. There is no one way that leukaemia SHOULD look.
A key example of this is huge WWE fan and patient advocate @kristhescript who has lived with a chronic leukaemia for the past decade. Does he look like a leukaemia patient to you?
Their website leukemiacare.org.uk is full of stories of leukaemia patients - if you have ten minutes, it might be worth having a read...
A final few thoughts on the psychological impact of leukaemia. Living with or beyond a leukaemia diagnosis is scary. The fear of relapse is always there. Think before you tweet. We’re more than happy to answer any questions you have about leukaemia/leukemia or point you in the right direction of other information. Don’t be shy, there is no such thing as a silly question. Remember, everything in life isn’t a work.”
As someone who immediately wondered if a four month timeframe from announcing the start of treatment for a relapse of leukemia to announcing remission and a return to wrestling wasn’t ridiculously fast, that thread was helpful to me. So was a follow up blog post by Kris Griffin. You can find his entire essay “Roman Reigns & Me vs Leukaemia” at is full of stories of leukaemia patients - if you have ten minutes, it might be worth having a read...
A final few thoughts on the psychological impact of leukaemia. Living with or beyond a leukaemia diagnosis is scary. The fear of relapse is always there. Think before you tweet. We’re more than happy to answer any questions you have about leukaemia/leukemia or point you in the right direction of other information. Don’t be shy, there is no such thing as a silly question. Remember, everything in life isn’t a work.”
As someone who immediately wondered if a four month timeframe from announcing the start of treatment for a relapse of leukemia to announcing remission and a return to wrestling wasn’t ridiculously fast, that thread was helpful to me. So was a follow up blog post by Kris Griffin. You can find his entire essay “Roman Reigns & Me vs Leukaemia” at accesscmldrugs.wordpress.com/…/roman-reigns-me-vs-…/ but these are the paragraphs I found most illuminating:
“Some wrestling fans think this is a work. Just to bring you inside the business a little, a work is an act that manipulates an audience in order to elicit a desired response. This is not a work. And my first feeling toward the people who were saying this was to scoop them up, slam them down on the canvas and cover them for the 1-2-3.
But I won’t. You see, there’s a fundamental flaw in all of this, Roman’s remission appears to be too good to be true. Looking great with all of his hair, five months after diagnosis doesn’t fit in with the traditional narrative of a blood cancer patient. Cancer doesn’t work like that, does it?
Actually, yes, some blood cancers do. I’ve had a similar type of blood cancer to Roman called chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) for 11 years now. I take a small white tablet every morning called a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) and it puts my leukaemia back in its box on a molecular level. I’ve had bad days where I’ve felt tired or a bit sick but I’ve carried on. I work full time in education and haven’t taken a day off sick through anything related to the leukaemia. It took me about 9 months to reach a haematological level of remission, in that my blood looked OK. It took 6 years to get to a molecular level of remission and now my leukaemia is pretty much undetectable. I’ve never lost my hair and I’ve never had traditional chemotherapy.
You see where I’m going with this? Roman is an elite athlete and it might surprise you that I’m not. We’ve both fought our leukaemia in our own way and in our own timeframe. But there is one thing that I guarantee will annoy any leukaemia patient who is in remission, that’s someone saying, “well, you don’t look sick!” Right now, that’s happening online. Can’t we celebrate Roman looking great and happy or would we prefer him hooked up to a drip, pushed out in a wheelchair? That’s our traditional view and if our traditional view has been upended, it isn’t a lie.”
From its beginnings, pro wrestling’s all but courted conspiracy theorists. And guessing where the veil of secrecy hangs between what’s real and what’s scripted has become an even bigger part of the pastime’s appeal in the internet age. The Montreal Screwjob, the incident which helped kill kayfabe and kick off the so-called ‘Reality’ Era, is still the subject of “work or shoot?” debates more than two decades after it occurred.
So it’s not terribly surprising there are folks reacting to Roman Reigns’ announcement on the Feb. 25 Raw that his leukemia is in remission with questions.
But in case you can’t shake your doubts, or just have questions about the disease one of the biggest names in modern wrestling is living with, a charity from the United Kingdom
Take it away, Leukaemia Care:
“Firstly, incredible news about Roman Reigns. Relapse is a scary reality for all leukaemia patients. Either fear of your cancer returning or having to face treatment for relapse. It’s great to hear some positive news from a leukaemia patient. The tweets we are seeing mainly centre around the idea of what a cancer patient should look like.
”How can he have hair?”
”How can he have not lost weight?”
”Why doesn’t he look like a cancer patient?”
We're going to weigh in here with some leukaemia information. We feel like we know a little bit and the Vince gif is appropriate
— Leukaemia Care (@leukaemiacareuk) February 26, 2019
Back to basics. Leukaemia is a cancer. It affects people of all ages. There are four main types of cancer: ALL, AML, CLL and CML. However, there are other types and subtypes. LEUKAEMIA IS COMPLICATED! The different types are key. Acute leukaemias are aggressive and need aggressive treatment to save a patient. Chronic leukaemias are incurable but treatable. DON’T FORGET - We do not KNOW what type of leukaemia he has. Therefore, NONE of us are in a position to question his treatment, how he should look etc.
The first question - How can he have hair?
Treatment for leukaemia may cause hair loss. It may cause hair thinning. It may cause no hair loss at all. Leukaemia can make you lose weight. Leukaemia can also make you gain weight. There is no one way that leukaemia SHOULD look.
A key example of this is huge WWE fan and patient advocate @kristhescript who has lived with a chronic leukaemia for the past decade. Does he look like a leukaemia patient to you?
Their website leukemiacare.org.uk is full of stories of leukaemia patients - if you have ten minutes, it might be worth having a read...
A final few thoughts on the psychological impact of leukaemia. Living with or beyond a leukaemia diagnosis is scary. The fear of relapse is always there. Think before you tweet. We’re more than happy to answer any questions you have about leukaemia/leukemia or point you in the right direction of other information. Don’t be shy, there is no such thing as a silly question. Remember, everything in life isn’t a work.”
As someone who immediately wondered if a four month timeframe from announcing the start of treatment for a relapse of leukemia to announcing remission and a return to wrestling wasn’t ridiculously fast, that thread was helpful to me. So was a follow up blog post by Kris Griffin. You can find his entire essay “Roman Reigns & Me vs Leukaemia” at is full of stories of leukaemia patients - if you have ten minutes, it might be worth having a read...
A final few thoughts on the psychological impact of leukaemia. Living with or beyond a leukaemia diagnosis is scary. The fear of relapse is always there. Think before you tweet. We’re more than happy to answer any questions you have about leukaemia/leukemia or point you in the right direction of other information. Don’t be shy, there is no such thing as a silly question. Remember, everything in life isn’t a work.”
As someone who immediately wondered if a four month timeframe from announcing the start of treatment for a relapse of leukemia to announcing remission and a return to wrestling wasn’t ridiculously fast, that thread was helpful to me. So was a follow up blog post by Kris Griffin. You can find his entire essay “Roman Reigns & Me vs Leukaemia” at accesscmldrugs.wordpress.com/…/roman-reigns-me-vs-…/ but these are the paragraphs I found most illuminating:
“Some wrestling fans think this is a work. Just to bring you inside the business a little, a work is an act that manipulates an audience in order to elicit a desired response. This is not a work. And my first feeling toward the people who were saying this was to scoop them up, slam them down on the canvas and cover them for the 1-2-3.
But I won’t. You see, there’s a fundamental flaw in all of this, Roman’s remission appears to be too good to be true. Looking great with all of his hair, five months after diagnosis doesn’t fit in with the traditional narrative of a blood cancer patient. Cancer doesn’t work like that, does it?
Actually, yes, some blood cancers do. I’ve had a similar type of blood cancer to Roman called chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) for 11 years now. I take a small white tablet every morning called a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) and it puts my leukaemia back in its box on a molecular level. I’ve had bad days where I’ve felt tired or a bit sick but I’ve carried on. I work full time in education and haven’t taken a day off sick through anything related to the leukaemia. It took me about 9 months to reach a haematological level of remission, in that my blood looked OK. It took 6 years to get to a molecular level of remission and now my leukaemia is pretty much undetectable. I’ve never lost my hair and I’ve never had traditional chemotherapy.
You see where I’m going with this? Roman is an elite athlete and it might surprise you that I’m not. We’ve both fought our leukaemia in our own way and in our own timeframe. But there is one thing that I guarantee will annoy any leukaemia patient who is in remission, that’s someone saying, “well, you don’t look sick!” Right now, that’s happening online. Can’t we celebrate Roman looking great and happy or would we prefer him hooked up to a drip, pushed out in a wheelchair? That’s our traditional view and if our traditional view has been upended, it isn’t a lie.”
