She sincerely wants to be a dragon trainer, her dream job that hasn’t changed through the ups and downs of cancer. Her love for the movie “How To Train Your Dragon” has stuck around — unlike her favorite color.
Chrissy’s story has been seen around the world, gaining unprecedented attention as news broke of her diagnosis last year. One man who’d never met her, drew for her, her very own book on dragons. The first page is her favorite.
“Warning. Read the heroes guide to deadly dragons and you will die. We all die eventually.”
It might be a disturbing start to a children’s book — unless you are Chrissy. There are scarier things than facing death. She’s faced it head on and won.
Chrissy doesn’t just like pink, the color of breast cancer awareness, she’s made it a part of everything she does. She colors new dragons on a daily basis with her older sister Brianne, who likes sea creatures. Each is lucky enough to get their own pink ribbon.
The little girl has grown up a lot in the last year. Looking back, she recalls the shock of meeting with doctors at Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City.
“They said it was a rare form of breast cancer” Her reaction? “I’m like — what? Why do I have this? I thought it only happened with grown ups.”
In most cases, grown ups are the ones dealing with breast cancer. But, breast cancer can happen to anyone at any age — just ask Chrissy.
While one in eight adult women face a breast-cancer diagnosis in their lifetime, there are no statistics or treatment roadmaps for children.
Anette, Chrissy’s mom, has a sense of calm about her this November, something she was struggling to find last year.
“I do really well until it draws closer to a check up and then the nerves start to come out again. It is hard not to worry, as a mom, about your little one. You can’t shut it off.”
Chrissy’s parents are both cancer survivors. Anette beat a rare form of cervical cancer and her father Troy is still on a quarterly watch for non Hodgkins lymphoma. It is the same schedule Chrissy follows with her own team of doctors. Their three-month visits don’t yet line up, making for more stress than any one family deserves.
“That is our new norm. What ever normal is that is the new normal for us. They basically do an ultrasound and they check it with a doctor and the doctor says OK you’re good.”
The 9-year-old knows exactly what doctors are looking for, she is a part of the conversation, her own best advocate.
Just last month Chrissy had a scare when she found a new growth on the opposite side from her mastectomy. Not ready to take any chances, Anette made an appointment. Doctors say Chrissy is simply starting to grow and develop and this change was normal.
Anette knows that her daughter’s surgery last December was not the end.
“For her, the journey is still coming. The emotions will kick in, development starts, reconstructive surgery and a lifetime of change.”
“They don’t really talk little-kid talk to me,” Chrissy said.
Her parents and doctors know they’ll have to talk a lot over the years about the possibility of new surgeries slated, as she grows.
“I’ll have to do it” she said. “But life is life.”
Source: WSBT