Disease in remission, UNC's Adams hoping to play again

Adams, who is from Cambridge, Mass., isn't expected to play Saturday when North Carolina (5-1, 1-1 ACC) faces Miami (2-3, 0-2) at Kenan Stadium (12:30 p.m., WRAL). But now that his disease is in remission, he could appear in the game this deteriorate - something that has his teammates, coaches as well as even his doctors shaking their heads in wonder."You've got to understand that at the beginning of this thing, we thought that football would be icing on the cake ... if he got back to football, great,'' pronounced Dr. Mario Ciocca, North Carolina's director of sports medicine. "The concern was for him, his life. There was the chance he wouldn't survive, the good chance that he would need the kidney transplant.""Joshua loves football, so to have him come back as well as watch him do the thing he loves, it's the great feeling."ANCA vasculitis is the type of autoimmune commotion in which abnormal antibodies attack one's own cells as well as tissues - in Adams' case, his kidneys. According to Dr. Ron Falk, Director of UNC's Kidney Center, the average age of someone diagnosed with it is 55, making Adams, 20, an extremely rare case.Although a single in nine people in North Carolina show evidence of kidney problems at some point in their lives, this illness didn't even have the name, much less the course of treatment, as recently as 25 years ago.One of the keys to overcoming ANCA vasculitis is diagnosing it early. Adams pronounced he feels lucky to have been in the right place, with the right doctors, "because not that long ago, if you got the disease, you would die."Touch as well as goAfter starting four games in 2010, including the Music City Bowl, Adams had returned to campus early in January to resume weight room workouts when he noticed blood in his urine. He had been feeling oddly fatigued the deteriorate before, something he as well as the football team's training staff attributed to physical games as well as hard workouts.When tests revealed abnormal kidney function, Ciocca, the team's doctor, immediate! ly sent Adams to his wife, Cynthia, the nephrologist in UNC's Kidney Center. That led to the visit with Falk, a single of the foremost authorities in ANCA vasculitis."We were blessed that we were here in Chapel Hill ... where (Joshua) had access to Dr. Falk, who wrote the book on the disease," pronounced Timothy Adams, Joshua's dad.It was the touch-and-go challenge, though.In as well as out of the hospital for months, Adams went through plasma replacement, through chemotherapy treatments.At a single point, he pronounced he was taking upward of 16 pills the day, as he developed blood clots in his lungs as well as legs, gained weight - as well as then suffered the seizure.He wasn't allowed to drive because of the drugs' side effects. He couldn't do anything that would bruise him, because of the blood thinners. He took antibiotics, steroids, as well as pills whose names he could barely pronounce.He remembers a single night he went to take the shower as well as was so confused he couldn't figure out how to turn on the water. Seeing him in the hospital, teammate Dwight Jones said, was heartbreaking. Teammates tried to comfort him with smiles as well as prayers."I kind of got depressed for the little while, as well as we thought of everything I'd done as well as everything we want to do. we want to ride the motorcycle, we want to bungee jump, we want to do the lot of fun things, because you don't know how long you're going to live," Adams said.Back on trackAlways, though, his goal was to return to the football field - the dream his teammates as well as coaches inspired every time they visited him in the hospital. His doctors as well as parents reinforced that as he was weaned off his medication as well as as he regained his strength."He needed the football as the point of reference to move forward, as well as not give up, as well as not let what was happening overwhelm him," pronounced Timothy Adams, whose family had moved from Massachusetts to North Carolina the summer before. "He made it his goal to stay in school .! .. as we ll as every time he would fall down, he would get back up."Most were smiling - albeit, the little nervously - when Joshua resumed working out during the summer. He returned to non-contact individual drills in August training camp, as well as by the second week of the season, doctors had cleared him for full practice."And that first day, when we got my first little pop (on the tackle) - it felt good," Adams said. "I felt so good to be back."His teammates felt good for him as well."I used to see him out there, he'd have the little cool pack on. His body really couldn't get too hot," pronounced Jones, the comparison receiver. "He used to do the couple of individual drills. That was during training camp, as well as he never really did too much."Now he's doing the lot more. He's running routes on director team, as well as we see him out there on director team punts, as well as he looks like he's back at full speed."There is no cure for ANCA vasculitis, as well as Falk cautions that like any disease in remission, it could return. Team doctors continue to perform weekly blood tests to monitor Adams' kidney functions, but when, as well as whether, he plays in the game this deteriorate is the matter of conditioning as well as roster space, rather than his disease."I just imagine myself out there every single time we watch the team - where we consider we could make the play, the catch, something," Adams said. "Every day, we have visions of catching my first pass in the game, my first touchdown of the season."He's not the only one. When Adams was at his most sick, as well as no a single knew what might happen, Dr. Falk inspired his patient by telling him he knew he was going to catch the ball in the end zone during the game a single day.Adams, in turn, promised to give him the ball after he scores his first touchdown."And we have the feeling," Falk said, "I'm going to get it."Staff writer Ken Tysiac contributed to this story.