For Don and Scott Robbs, life is treasured daily

Don and Scott Robbs have partnered for University of Hawaii baseball broadcasts in the past, but they’ll be a team on a nightly basis now.

They feel fortunate to work together — and both feel lucky to be alive.

Since August, Don, 77, has dealt with bypass surgery, a stroke, surgery to clear blockage in a carotid artery and hernia surgery. The veteran of 37 years as the voice of UH baseball is close to fully recovered, and ready to resume duty on Friday when the Rainbow Warriors open their season against Oregon at Les Murakami Stadium.

"Overall, it’s a lot for anyone to go through," said Dr. Harvey Takaki, who performed the carotid artery surgery. "He’s still recovering, but I think he’s come a long way. Don’s been through quite a bit. Things set him back, but he always had a positive attitude. The prognosis is good for the future."

With Scott ready in the bullpen, Don won’t work as many innings as in the past.

"I have the usual level of excitement, but I am so appreciative," Don said, his sonorous voice breaking a bit at times. "When I open my mouth, I don’t know what’s going to come out. But I have enough confidence in my ability.

"And I have a deep appreciation to everyone who responded to this. Emails, telephone calls, people encouraging me. I think all of that worked."

On his first day out after 33 days at Queen’s, he covered 15 yards with a walker, despite the right side of his body being severely affected by the stroke. Now less than five months later, he’s recovered enough where he can even drive.

"One thing I discovered is I have a high tolerance for pain," he said.

It will help Don that Scott, who has been there with him through his recovery, will also be in the booth.

"When this first happened, he told me ‘I think my baseball career is over,’ " Scott said. "But that’s what helps keep him going."

And today, Scott, 47, publicly reveals his own serious health challenges.

"I went through a physical thing," Don said Sunday. "He went through a mental thing."

Scott Robbs has salvaged his career, marriage and possibly his life in the past four years by taking positive steps to deal with panic disorders, severe depression and alcohol abuse. You might not know it if you didn’t see him every day, because Scott was good at putting up a lighthearted front.

"I was good at masking. But I hit my bottom, I couldn’t take it anymore. My life was a mess and couldn’t handle it anymore," he said. "I knew if I didn’t do something about it, I was in real trouble. Had I kept on going the way I was going, I don’t think I’d be here. Maybe not alive."

His father was among Scott’s loved ones who "had it with him," as Don bluntly puts it. Also, unknown to him at the time, Scott’s wife, Dori, was prepared to leave him, with their young daughters.

"He was drinking a lot and lying about it," his wife, Dori Robbs, said. "Lots of arguments."

And everyday tasks, like driving to a store, were often impossible for him.

"She was like a single parent," Scott Robbs said. "I wasn’t good for anybody at that time. Self-medication (with alcohol) mellowed me out but created other problems."

There were work difficulties, too. Scott was the UH volleyball play-by-play broadcaster, but due to agoraphobia (anxiety in open or crowded areas) he feared flying. On one trip, a panic attack kept him in his hotel room in El Paso, Texas, and he had to reschedule his flight home to the next day.

Finally, on a day in Nov. 2010, when he was supposed to get on a plane to broadcast the WAC volleyball tournament, Scott instead checked himself into Castle Medical Center.

"It got to a point where I knew I can’t keep doing this, I’m going to die and I didn’t want to die. I told (Dori) I was going to Castle. She revealed that if I’d gone on that trip she was going to leave me."

Scott said he knew something was wrong from the time he was 18. But it took the sixth therapist and the third medication for effective treatment. He got both of them on the three-day visit to Castle four years ago.

"I dealt with it a long time, got to a point where I was stuck in a circle that I couldn’t get out of with the self-medication. I was almost constantly in panic. My anxiety was always high with the panic attacks. I’d been on meds 10 years prior to Castle, but it wasn’t working," he said. "The number one thing the psychiatrist diagnosed me with was severe depression. I found out that when people have anxiety disorders other things come with it."

Part of Scott’s treatment is an anti-depressant, Lexapro. He said it has made a big difference for him, and he hasn’t noticed side effects.

"I feel like I was released from a prison my mind was in for 24 years and I was finally able to get the key. The past four years have been the happiest I’ve been as an adult because I can function. I don’t have to go to Long’s to get a bottle of rum and plan routes to avoid triggers of attacks. I feel like a regular person."

His wife said he’s a "completely different person."

"The best thing he could’ve done was going to Castle. I think it really opened his eyes," Dori Robbs said.  "Now he’s totally driving on freeways. Tunnels used to be a big problem, they aren’t now. Things people take for granted, he couldn’t do."

Scott is over his fear of flying, too — which means he can handle the baseball road trips this year as Don won’t be making them.

Don now lives with Scott, Dori, Iliahi and Oliana, and Don credits them with helping him recover well and soon enough to return to his perch above the diamond.

Through it all, they’ve kept their sense of humor.

"I can hear him snoring, he can hear me snoring," said Scott.

"If you DON’T hear me snoring, come check on me," his father replied.

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Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. Read his blog at staradvertiser.com/quickreads.