Rod Poteete, the retired teacher and baseball coach for the Pahrump Valley Trojans, just can’t get a break health-wise.
Right after retiring after 35 years of service in 2009 he suffered a bad case of appendicitis with major complications and ended up in the hospital for 13 months. Since then he has been in and out of the hospital.
In September he was back in for the amputation of his toes due to an infection and other complications. The surgery had him hobbling around in a wheelchair.
The latest complication was some sort of mass in his abdomen appeared. He entered the hospital on Nov. 26 and was released on Dec. 14. He said he felt he was blessed for not having to spend another Christmas in the hospital.
“I had some kind of mass from all my previous surgeries,” he said. “They said it was a mass, and I really don’t know what it is. It was in my lower right abdomen where all his previous surgeries were. They put a drain in to get all the stuff out. I don’t know what it is and the doctors don’t know what it is or where it is coming from. They were going to operate on it, but ended up not. They manipulated it as much as they could. I am OK. There is still some irritation and pain and I hope I am home for the holidays.
To top things off, Poteete found out he had a low-grade cancer.
“It was there and when they operated two years ago they knew this thing was there and did not think it was cancer. Now, after doing all the CAT scans it is still there and it has not grown at all. They are afraid to do surgery on it because they are afraid it might spread. It is also near my kidneys which have been really screwed up lately. I saw an oncologist and all the doctors agree we are going to leave it alone and there is no reason to do chemotherapy.”
Poteete hopes to enjoy the holidays at home in Las Vegas where he resides with his wife.
“I am going to stay home and take it easy. I am just going to enjoy my family and grandchildren and do the best I can,” Poteete said.