Heroes come in all sizes, my best friend is one of many. She was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare, fast-growing soft tissue cancer not long after her second birthday. Being only two years old, she didn’t understand she could have possibly lost her life due to cancer. She only knew she was sick and in pain all the time and wanted her mom to “kiss it better” and couldn’t understand why she can’t. Nor did she understand why everyone around her was crying or why her hair was falling out.
She may have been only two years old and not understood what was going on, but she kept a bright spirit alive inside of her that never ceased through the whole process. It was like a game to her--always laughing and smiling no matter what. She didn’t like to sit still even during her chemo treatments and was known for walking away if an eye wasn’t watching her. She was proud of the fact that she had no hair so she refused to wear a hat and loved driving the doctors crazy by asking questions and visiting other people.
Through this battle there was one point when her port (the line in her chest used to administer her chemo) became infected, causing her to slip into a short coma. Because of the infection, the doctors had to use adult strength antibiotics to treat the infection. Even this didn’t stop her, as soon as she was awake and better she immediately bounced back to the joyful two-year-old she was.
She was announced to be in remission in 2002, but she never knew if her cancer was truly gone and left many questions, Did the chemotherapy kill it all? Did it just destroy most of her in the process and leave cancer behind? Did the tumor her doctor remove have any friends lurking somewhere else deep within her?
Questions and thoughts like these were left lurking in her mind. She told me, “You’ll sit there and you’ll wait for your doctor to make the announcement that the cancer is back, and then the suffering will begin all over again. While you wait, you’ll think of all the things cancer took from you in the process.” Luckily, for her, she remained in remission for five years long enough for her doctors to officially announce her cured.
She remained healthy besides the fact chemo stunted her growth and took away her nutrients she needed to grow but, she was alive and that is all that mattered. Everything was going well until 2015 when she discovered a rock-hard knot in her upper left thigh. The cause of this was something doctors had never seen before called neurofibromatosis most neurofibromas-the tumors that develop on the nerves- are begin and develop in the nervous system, however, hers were in the nerves of her legs. The doctors brought up the topic of entering an experimental trial-chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, it was all confusion and a struggle for her. She went through rounds of tests and received surgery on November 14, 2016. By this time, she was a Junior/ Senior in high school deciding what college to go to and the career she should choose.
She had her career chosen and her college picked out then found out that neurofibromatosis can’t be cured. The tumors can grow at any time, and while they’re usually non-cancerous, they can become cancerous. Despite her struggles and what she has gone through, she refuses to give up on her dream. She believes that she can do anything she puts her mind to. Neither cancer nor Neurofibromatosis will ever define her. It may bring her down and put obstacles in her way, but she knows that if she continues to push forward in life, she can get past this.
she graduated from Vilonia High School in 2017 and is now a freshman in college at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock and pursuing a degree in Criminal Justice. She wants to be a crime scene investigator her passion spawn from watching Criminal Minds, Law and Order and The First 48. She is doing very well even though she has the normal struggles of essays and deadlines every college freshman has and I couldn’t be prouder of her.
I met her my sophomore year of high school, we had Keystone and art together which is a class that teaches you life skills and how to be successful. I will never forget all our times sitting on the bleachers laughing and carrying on or when we would sit together and work on art nor, will I forget the many rants we text each other and the current court cases we discuss. She will forever be one of my closest and strongest best friends.
In honor of all the children fighting cancer, the survivors and the ones who lost the battle I decided to write this article for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. I hope this can be a voice for all of you struggling. Together we can all Go Gold! and Fight Like A Kid!
For more information on how you can help the fight visit:
