Once inside the doors of Stanford Medical Center, two rooms
still separate Robert Guerrero from his wife, Casey.
PALO ALTO – Once inside the doors of Stanford Medical Center, two rooms still separate Robert Guerrero from his wife, Casey.
In the first room, Robert must completely sanitize, then put on a gown over his clothes and a mask over his nose and mouth. It’s a ritual Robert, a former world champion boxer, has gone through every day for the past four weeks so he can be by Casey’s side.
“There is a window there that I always look through before I walk in and you see her light up,” he said. “All she sees is my eyes. Every time I get there she’s happy and smiling. If I’m not there or I take a little longer to get there she will call me and ask where I’m at.”
Casey was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia in November 2007 and has relapsed twice since then. The opportunity for a bone marrow transplant came about three months ago when a donor match was found in Europe. Casey received the transplant Jan. 25 and has remained at Stanford Medical Center in quarantine, isolated from her friends, family and two young children while her body adapts to the new marrow.
Four-year-old Savannah and 2-year-old Robert Jr. got to see their mom Tuesday for the first time after her transplant.
“They were excited about that and so was she,” Robert said. “That really lifted her spirits, being able to see her kids.
“They are pretty sharp kids. They know what’s going on. They know she’s sick and when she goes to the hospital the doctors are taking care of her.”
Casey is not the only person who has had to make sacrifices to battle her cancer. Last week, Robert, a three-time world champion boxer, withdrew from a bout with Michael Katsidis scheduled for March 27. And on Tuesday, Robert went a step further in dedicating his time and energy to be by his wife’s side by relinquishing his IBF Junior Lightweight title just five months after winning it from Malcom Klassen.
“This fight that was coming up was going to be the biggest fight of my career,” Robert said. “I was getting my chance to go for my fourth (title). It was going to be an HBO main event in the Bay Area. I just didn’t feel right taking the fight and leaving Casey while she got the transplant because I would have gone out to Big Bear to prepare for the fight.
“Usually she has always wanted me to work out, go train and go fight, but this situation was a lot different. She wanted me by her side all the time. She was actually scared going into the transplant.”
For the Gilroy native, the fight he faces now isn’t his own, but Casey’s daily fight of life and death.
“I’m the one out there grinding and doing all the hard work but what she has to go through, I can’t complain,” Robert said. “The way my father pushes me to get in shape … is the way I’m pushing on her to make the recovery. She’s making good progress. It’s a slow process and she’s fighting through it. Only time will tell how everything comes out at the end.”
The pair met 11 years ago in middle school, well before Guerrero’s name was well-known. Since then, he has suffered embarrassing defeats and claimed stunning victories. And by his side through his meteoric rise to world champion was Casey.
Robert has continued to train, using his workouts as a “stress reliever.” But after he is done, he is right back by Casey’s side, helping her with her training as she continues her recuperation.
“You get a lot of people that complain about the training
(for boxing), that it’s hard and you get beat up and bruised … I just laugh at them,” Robert said. “It is nothing compared to what cancer patients have to go through. I can’t even imagine how they feel after a treatment or after radiation or throwing up constantly.”
Robert said his devout beliefs have kept him grounded and given him comfort. And his decision to step away from the sport hasn’t surprised his close friends.
“It goes to show that he cares more about family,” said Bob Tapella, owner of Garlic City Billiards and a close family friend. “That’s him all the way. He is very religious. If he went away and his wife died, he would never forgive himself. You’ve only got one life and money comes and goes.”
The couple now face an obstacle that Robert calls a “building” – and the only way over that wall is with faith and trust in God.
“Strong faith will carry you a long way,” Robert said. “Put God first and everything else after and it’s going to turn out. Whatever plan He has, He has. I believe that everything is going to be alright. Going into the ring you can’t think the worse. You can’t have any doubt. And that’s how I look at life.”
Senior Pastor Mark S. Wilson of The Foothills Church has known Casey and her family since 1991 and met Robert when he began attending church with her.
“One of the things that I love about both Robert and Casey is that they are not given to self pity,” Wilson said. “Overall, their outlook is positive. He is a champion for a reason. A person that has a lot of faith doesn’t feel sorry for themselves.
“They have a strong belief that they are going to beat the odds,” Wilson continued. “That’s where sports and the Christian faith have strong parallels. Casey and Robert don’t have a strong belief that they are going to beat leukemia but that God is going to get them through this.”
For the couple, every day brings new challenges and new questions – and each day they spend together becomes more special.
“They love one another,” Wilson said. “They respect one another. They both draw from each other’s strengths. I know Casey draws a lot of strength from Robert and I know that Robert draws a lot of inspiration from Casey.”
These next three-plus weeks are the most crucial in Casey’s recovery as doctors monitor her body and how it responds to the transplant. Yet, even with every day as unpredictable as the next, each time Robert mentions how strong his wife is, it brings a big smile to his face.
“We’ve always stuck together really close,” he said. “When she got sick it made it a whole different outlook of just not taking anything for granted.”
