ProRodeo Sports News - February 2, 2024

PRORODEO COWBOYS

PRCA Steer wrestler Kyle Callaway overcomes cancer to rodeo again Survivor K yle Callaway returned to his Billings, Mont., home with cold medicine one quiet morning in 2022 and became violently ill. His wife, Anna, prepared him lunch, and as Kyle prepared to sit down, he tipped over, suffering a seizure. Anna, a nurse, called an ambulance and tried to make sense of what she witnessed. Her husband was healthy. They both worked jobs and competed in the Montana Circuit in the PRCA. He had exhibited no symptoms of fatigue or headaches. A seizure? It did not make sense. A few days later, Kyle woke up in an MRI tube and thought that “That’s just Kyle. I supported him. That whole time he wanted to prove people wrong, mainly the doctors that said he couldn’t do it. That he wouldn’t compete again. He was told, ‘You can’t ride a horse after brain surgery.’ It’s not like he was going to tip off. He’s a cowboy.” – Anna Callaway BY BRADY RENCK, Special to ProRodeo Sports News

Photos courtesy Kyle Callaway Kyle Callaway shows the scar from 65 staples in his head where doctors removed a brain tumor behind his right eye. Below is an MRI of the tumor, which was a malignant form of brain cancer.

“aliens had abducted me.” The steer wrestler, heading down the road for an event, laughed at the memory. Kyle is a headstrong person, tethered by the love of his family. What happened next was the equivalent of a horse kick to the shins. The medical exams discovered a huge tumor behind Kyle’s right eye. Doctors removed the mass, and Kyle walked out of the hospital the next day to attend a junior rodeo with his daughter. Because of his age at the time (38) and the location of the mass, optimism sprouted. Then came the diagnosis. “Grade 3 astrocytoma, a malignant form of brain cancer,” said Anna. Anna broke down when she heard the news. “That’s when I knew it was bad,” Kyle said. The rodeo life brings unpredictability. There is no single event or trip that is guaranteed. Kyle, now a 20-year Gold Card member, embraced the competition, the camaraderie, the toughness demanded. But hearing the words cancer cut through the cowboy veneer to a raw vulnerability. “It was really hard,” Kyle said. “But I had to fight for my wife and my kids (Elsie, 9, Cleah 5, Huckleberry 2). I had to fight hard.” There is a blueprint that reveals itself when cancer invades the body. Kyle and Anna were prepared to follow the path of radiation and chemotherapy. And there “were a lot of great doctors and nurses along the way,” Anna said.

ProRodeo Sports News 2/2/2024

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