Cancer Warrior Spotlight: Christian
As told by his mother
Christian is a sweet and chatty 6 year old with a heart of a warrior. He is friendly, empathetic, creative, and obsessed with math! We celebrate him every day and honor all of the small and big moments because there was a time we had no idea if we would be able to see him grow up.
Our family moved from Houston to Dallas back in the summer of 2020 and the one thing we loved to do was explore all of the parks. I still remember a beautiful and crisp December day at a park in Plano, Texas where Christian was running around like a normal two year-old. He seemed normal and happy. We had no idea that would be the last park where we lived a world without cancer. The next two days Christian was fatigued and slept for 18 hours a day and so we took him to two pediatricians who sent us home telling us it was just a virus. Then we noticed he was bumping into the couch and knew something was definitely wrong. We took him to the Children’s Hospital ER, and by the time we got there Christian could not see a hand in front of his face – he was completely blind. He was clearly uncomfortable and in pain, and as a 2 year old, he could not tell us what was wrong. We got the worse news in that ER room when the doctor told us that the MRI showed a large mass in his brain which was destroying his optic nerve, causing the blindness. It was a whirlwind from that point on. Our lives had forever changed. Christian was receiving chemo within 36 hours and on Christmas Eve 2020, Christian was diagnosed with stage 4 Burkitts Lymphoma, an ultra aggressive blood cancer that can double tumors daily. 
Christian went through 7 months of treatment that included 6 rounds of intense chemotherapy and 1 round of radiation to relieve the tumor pressing on his optic nerve and to save what we could of his vision. Each chemo round was painful and scary for all of us. Christian went through two stays in the ICU due to sepsis and seven ER visits. His chemo regimen required that Christian’s white blood cells were obliterated for six rounds, which led him to be neutropenic and immunocompromised. We spent the first 30 days in the hospital after his diagnosis without any relief from the COVID restrictions and rules of having only one parent in the room at a time, having no family nearby in our new town in Dallas, and unable to have any visitors. It was an incredible stressful and isolating time for our family and for Christian. The saving grace throughout all of the treatment was seeing the fight and the smile that Christian still had every day. Christian adjusted quickly to the hospital and considered visits / stays there as a time to “see his friends” and that walks in the cancer ward halls were similar to walks out in the park. We learned how to live life through a 2 year old’s eyes and heart – seeing everything as a game, even when he was told to count to 10 as they put him down with anesthesia multiple times for his lumbar punctures which injected chemo in his spine. He did not complain through it all.
Our ultimate saving grace was the support from our family, friends, and organizations like Sky High for Kids that reached out to us and took care of our family while we focused on Christian’s battle with cancer. Sky High surprised us with family gift card that allowed us to DoorDash treats like Starbucks and Chipotle and gave us a break from hospital food and coffee. The card also covered the daily hospital parking fees and commute back to/from the hospital. No one can really understand the simple yet impactful and uplifting effect that a meal or coffee can do for morale as we watched our 2 year old lose his hair, learn to live with less eyesight, learn to walk again because of muscle fatigue, and battle the side effects of chemotherapy. The care from Sky High and friends just reminded us that we were not alone. That we were not forgotten.
Christian is now 3 1/2 years into remission from stage 4 cancer. We are so happy and blessed to see him continue to defy the odds and navigate the world with his low vision. Our family has moved back to Houston and we are happy and honored to advocate for other families and children who are going through this tough battle. We want to continue to give back to a community that did so much for us when we were going through the darkest time of our lives. The anxiety of cancer never ends completely, but being able to help other families going through this is our way of giving back to same community that held us up. Thank you Sky High for seeing us and holding space and love for us.
