Christi's Story
By: Angela Thomas
(Christi's Mom)
On Monday May 12, 1997 a beautiful, seemingly healthy 8 pound, 4 ounce precious baby girl entered the world. A perfect baby, she was named Christine Shayna and we always call her Christi.
Throughout her young life she has always been extremely active, alert, silly, fun loving and startlingly smart. Her intelligence and wit have surprised friends and family. At age 18 months, she knew all the letters of the alphabet, at 24 months she counted to 54, at 36 months she knew all of the letter sounds. She taught herself to read and add and subtract positive and small negative integers and could do simple multiplication when she was four years old. She thrived last year in preschool and was anxious to finally start school. Following kindergarten screening; the decision was made to put her in first grade. Her future seemed so bright!
She has always been so healthy (or so we thought) and only had minor sicknesses thoughout her young life. Then she started complaining of back pain during April and May of 2002. We took her to her pediatrician and to the emergency room for severe back pain on about five occasions. Each time we were told it was constipation and then the pain would go away for awhile. We were hesitant to take her back because the physicians told us that nothing was wrong. She did not complain of back pain much at all during the summer, but it started again a few days before school began. On her first day of school, I woke her up and she was absolutely thrilled and excited beyond belief, but then she quickly crawled back in bed and said that her back hurt and asked if she could rest for just a little bit. She must have pushed the pain out of her mind because she came around quickly and wanted to go to school and take a present for her teacher. She had a wonderful first day of school.
After starting school and thriving there for just ten short days, I brought her home early on a Friday with a low grade fever. The next day I took her to the doctor and she was put on antibiotics for a sore throat. On Sunday, she was still restless and not moving from the couch or her bed. Her low grade fever remained. Suddenly she woke up from a nap screaming with abdominal pain and yelling that she couldn't breathe. Her Daddy carried her out to the van and stayed with her little sister Shayla while we took off for the emergency room. Still they couldn't find anything wrong, but the doctors decided to admit her. I was thrilled that finally we were going to get to the bottom of this. Nothing was found (that I was told about) on Monday and I thought we were going home at noon on Tuesday. Then a doctor walked in followed by a nun, a priest, and a nurse. They told me that they had found a tumor along her spine and around her heart and that she needed to be transferred to a Children's Hospital.
Many test were run, two hours from home, at Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. On September 11, 2002 we were told that our cherished 5 year old, 4 month old daughter had Neuroblastoma, a rare childhood cancer and that it had spread throughout her tiny body and into her bone marrow. Hers was Stage 4, the most advanced stage. Her prognosis was a 35% chance of surviving for 2-5 years and a 5-15% chance of surviving for 20 years.
Christi spent most of the last five months in isolation. She has not been permitted to attend school, church, dance lessons, go to restaurants or into stores. She has made the best of this, getting out only to go to the hospital for chemotherapy and check ups. She has kept busy at home and we are thankful that the hospital stays have only totaled forty days so far.
Recently, it has been determined medically necessary for her to be transferred to Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York City. They have decided that a more intense regime of chemotherapy and other advanced procedures are necessary and she has started this treatment. The intense chemo will be followed with surgery, a stem cell transplant, radiation and monoclonal antibiodies. So far she is doing fabulous! Her positive outlook on life has served her well. Many of the doctors have told us that they have never seen a patient tolerate this treatment so well. We know this is going to continue to be not just an uphill battle that we are embarking upon but a downright bloody war. Sometimes the future looks gloomy at best, but with Christ, all things are possible and with our Christi, one never knows what may happen next! (smile). We have a team of prayer warriors fighting daily for this little child of God and we invite you to join us in this bloody war, as Christi fights for her life. Thank you and may God bless all of you! |
