Courtesy St. Louis Post Dispatch

(March 13, 2009) Former Blues tough guy Kelly Chase, now the team's radio analyst, has been toughing it out this season as he continues to deal with a mysterious brain lesion. The origin of the spot, and even what it is, remains unknown, and the ailment has led to periodic intense headaches that have made working a challenge on occasion.

"You have all your vital organs, and (doctors) know all about them, but the one that runs all those organs we know the least about," Chase said this week. "That's the way it is."

Chase, 41, first was affected by the problem last summer and has been undergoing treatments that involve intravenous applications of medication, a four-hour outpatient process he estimates he has had about 10 times this season.

After the sessions, he said "food tastes like metal and it's hard to sleep" until the effects wear off. Then he wants to sleep for 12-14 hours.

He also has had a spinal tap and an EKG, and said the good news is that the lesion has decreased in size and the color of his brain in that area is closer to normal now.

"They're more comfortable it's not cancer, they don't believe it's MS (multiple sclerosis), but there's still a chance it could be," he said, adding that the goal is to have the treatments eventually eliminate the lesion without surgery. "I hope everything keeps going good, so they don't have to open my head up."

He still has numbness in his left hand and the left side of his face, along with the headaches.

"Everything is positive," he said. "My main concern now more is with headaches. They can be debilitating."

He said they are accompanied by an intense burning feeling.

"My ear will get red, my face will get red and I'll start sweating," he said. "I'm wiped out."

He has missed some Blues practices because of the ailment, but no games and is determined not to do so.

"There were some games I didn't want to come to, but you have to do your work — just like any other job," he said. "This isn't like a (hockey) injury where you simply can't play. I still can think and talk the game."

He credits broadcast partner Chris Kerber for helping. "Kerbs always carries the mail, I've been on his coattails for how long now?" he asked.

But Kerber said Chase is being modest.

"Only a couple times I could tell he's battling" the condition, Kerber said. "But he's a hockey guy and this job is what he does. He's doing what he loves, being around the rink and talking to people. He hasn't missed a beat all season. He still broadcasts home games from the Blues' bench, and has an much energy as ever. If you went up to him, unless he told you about it, you wouldn't know a thing."