Udeze reports a double dose of good news

Remission. Match.

"I had been waiting a long time to hear those words," Kenechi Udeze said Friday night.

Three months after being diagnosed with an acute form of leukemia, Udeze has received two doses of good news recently. Wednesday, doctors declared him in remission after a bone marrow biopsy revealed no trace of the disease. Udeze also learned that his older brother, Thomas Barnes, is a 100 percent match for a bone marrow transplant, a procedure they will undergo together later this year.

Speaking publicly for the first time since his diagnosis, the Vikings defensive end predicted he would beat the disease and return to football. Appearing at a Winter Park fundraiser for National Marrow Donor Program (www.marrow.org), Udeze looked fit and healthy and said, "I'm perfectly fine."

He added: "The last few months have been up and down, but I feel like with my attitude, and the support of my family and friends and everybody here in Winter Park, there is no need to be scared.

''I feel really good about everything that's been happening."

Udeze said he was visiting his wife's family in Idaho during the first weekend of February when he began having migraine headaches and eventually a sore neck. He visited an Idaho hospital to be treated for what he believed was a severe sinus infection.

Instead, he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, also known as ALL. Upon returning to the Twin Cities, Udeze checked into Fairview Southdale Hospital for 24 days because his dangerously low white blood cell count left him susceptible to infection.

A few days later, he was back in the hospital for another five days after a strenuous workout left him with a fever of 105.4.

Udeze said he is now "taking it easy" from exercise. Doctors have attributed his progress partly to the conditioning level of a professional athlete; his stamina will continue to be tested as he undergoes chemotherapy two or three times a week until the bone marrow transplant, which has not yet been scheduled.

"I tell [people] I have nothing but a cold," he said. "Because that's what it feels like. I'm not feeling down or anything like that. That's the way you have to attack it. You always have to have a good attitude and a good mindset. That's something I naturally have always had. This has been a crazy last three months. With everything that's going on, I honestly feel that everything has been working out for the best."

Udeze joked that he planned to try on his football equipment "to make sure it still fits" and said he would "of course" play again in the NFL. Udeze said he has established no timetables for resuming his career. A 2008 return remains unlikely.

"That's the least of my worries right now," he said. "The coaches have done a great job reassuring me: No. 1, making sure you're healthy and making sure that you're OK for the next 50 years of your life. That's all we're focusing on. Football is not going anywhere. And just like football, I'm not going anywhere."

The next step is the transplant procedure. According to Dr. Daniel Weisdorf, who is treating Udeze at the University of Minnesota, leukemia patients have a 25 percent chance of finding a match among family members.

One of Udeze's brothers was a 50 percent match, but Barnes tested at 100 percent. Like Udeze, Barnes grew up in Los Angeles but coincidentally attended St. Thomas University and graduated from law school at the University of Minnesota.

He practices law in Denver but has been among the family members who have helped Udeze and his wife, Terrica, and their 4 1/2-month old daughter, Bailey, through treatment.

"It's crazy," Udeze said. "I call him 'Foolery' because his name is Thomas. He is a lawyer. He takes things so seriously. He is the true definition of a big brother. Now I've got to think of another nickname.

"He knows how important he is to me. He's always been there since the day we found out. He really is one of my best friends."