Hello my Name is Dan and this is my daughter Christi who is battling a rare and aggressive cancer. We were made aware of possible problems with our daughter when she complained about back problems and would easily get tired after simply going up a flight of stairs. After an MRI and CT scan the doctors had noticed a fluid build-up in her lungs and that there was a mass under her left arm. We immediately were encouraged to go to Riley's Children Hospital in Indianapolis Indiana to conduct further testing and remove the fluid in her lungs. The test results came back and we were informed that our daughter has Stage 4 Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma or "A.R.M.S" This is a type of cancer that typically is found in the skeletal, muscular areas of the body. For my daughter it has been detected primarily in the bone regions including her ribs, bone marrow, and cranium. She has a tumor growth under her left arm and a large tumor growing from her hand which doctors believe may be the primary tumor. We were saddened to be informed that this cancer has, because of its multiple locations and aggressiveness may have a terminal outlook for my daughter. This is something that hit all of us hard, and despite our odds, my daughter has chosen to fight and believes firmly that she will defeat this nasty disease. (Christi at Riley's Children Hospital with her high school friend Justin)We have been behind her on this battle and will continue the fight at any cost. However treatment and appointments with our oncologist team can involve traveling up to 3 hours one way and overnight stay once maybe twice a week and this gets expensive very quickly. This includes me and my wife taking time off work to both be there for our daughter at the hospital and continual care at home especially after her aggressive chemotherapy treatments. My daughter is extremely smart and is a top honor student in high school, plays the trumpet in band and is a member of The National Honor Society. She is an influence to everyone around her because of her kindness and willing to help others with no expectation of return. She is loved dearly by me and her mother, and her 3 other siblings: Julian age 13, Gaia age 4 and Lillian age 3 months. (Christi with her sisters Gaia 4 and Lillian 3 months)(Christi with her cousin Sarah and her brother Julian age 13)My daughter is almost 17 years old and plans to pursue something in the medical field after high school. She has seen this cancer battle as "hands-on" research for her later knowledge in medicine. Even though she was informed of this terrible news, she still manages to not only fight this battle for herself but she believes that she is fighting for all the other younger less fortunate children whom she became familiar with at the hospital. Along with the hospital who will deal with the treatment, we will be pursuing other institutes to help educate Christi in both nutritional awareness and spiritual development. This is going to be a long battle, and we feel that with your generous support we can be with our daughter to help give her the care she needs while maintaining our home and also raising our 3 other children. Setting up this page was very hard for me because I wasn't sure if I could swallow my pride and ask for help from others, but with the response from people asking on how they can help us and being told numerous times to create this page I felt it was necessary. In the short amount of time we have been battling this cancer my daughter, myself and the rest of my family have learned more about both ourselves and each other than one could possibly learn in a lifetime. We believe that this battle will be won and that my daughter will make something great out of this in her future. I thank you for any support you can give, and I appreciate you all. Thank You!!(Christi with her nurse "B.F.F Katie" at Riley's Children Hospital)
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