MEET KRISTA!
Krista is the youngest child of five. She loved playing sports as she was growing up. She participated in soccer, softball, and basketball. While attending Buena High School in her freshman year she earned a spot on the Basketball and Volleyball team and continued to do well on the court and in her academics. While playing Volleyball she was awarded many awards as well as team captain for two years in a row. In her sophomore year at the age of 15 she was diagnosed with Leukemia. It was March 1, 2004. Naturally we were all in shock and heartbroken because she had always been so healthy and rarely ever sick while growing up. Krista was treated at Cottage Hospital by Dr. Daniel Greenfield and his very kind and loving staff. As she begun her new chapter in her life, she started chemo therapy, she lost her beautiful long hair, she stayed strong, and we drew much of our strength from her. She has a great sense of humor and you can often hear her laughing out loud while watching her favorite TV shows. While in treatment for the first two years she only missed three months of school and a day here and there when it was time to go in for her spinal taps to put chemo in her spine. She even continued to practice and play on the varsity volleyball team. She was determined to graduate on time with her class. She did graduate and was accepted to San Diego State University to study nursing.
In May 2006, she relapsed. The leukemia came back just one and a half months before finishing her treatment. The doctor informed us that she would have to have a Bone Marrow Transplant to save her life. Although she was one of five children, none of her siblings were a match for her. This news was very devastating because Hispanics as well as other minorities are very under represented in the National Marrow Donor Registry. She was successfully put back into remission but while waiting for a match her leukemia returned and had to go threw more intensive chemo to get rid of the leukemia.
On January 1, 2007 she was admitted into The City of Hope to begin a series of radiation treatments and chemo in order to receive her bone marrow transplant. On January 9, 2007 she received her gift of life donated by a wonderful courageous young man of 21 years of age we will be forever grateful to him. She flew threw transplant with ease, on day 13 her new cells began to grow and at day 28 we were out of the hospital. She was doing great the test showed that she had 100% new donor cells and we were so thankful. She made plans to continue her education by going away to college. I wasn't going to hold her back. She needed to go on with her life just as she always planned. Suddenly her counts began to drop they told us this was normal and it could take a year of ups and downs before her marrow adjusted, and that she had done so well it was not likely to be any reason for concern. As the weeks went on, her counts continued to spiral down and the doctor said it was time to do a bone marrow test to see what is going on.
On day 100, Thursday April 19 th, it was supposed to be the day for joy and celebration. This would mean no more masks; she would be able to going to church, movies and shopping centers. Since she was on a restricted diet she could not have any restaurant or fast food for the first 100 days. This meant that she would be able to eat all her favorite restaurants. Instead she was having a bone marrow aspiration to see if the leukemia had come back. Since it was day 100, we did go to BJ's on the way home and she loved it. On Friday evening we got the call. It was now certain the leukemia was showing signs of it self. This news was devastating and sad for our family. She was so close to putting all this behind her and move on in her life. She has been through so much. Those Survivors on TV don't know what challenges are unless you have been diagnosed with a disease and gone through treatment or transplant. These patients are the real survivors.
We met with the doctor and he gave us three options, #1 try to get her in to remission that would mean strong chemo and try for another transplant. #2 try a clinical trial which they don't have much data and #3 do nothing. Doing nothing was not an option, the fighter that she is she wanted to go through transplant again, she is a fighter. Two days later we were in the hospital for chemo to get rid of a very aggressive disease, and go threw another long journey through transplant. She continues to have a great attitude and amazes me every day. I Love this girl. - Written by Krista's mom
Thursday, May 24 Krista is currently being treated at Cottage Hospital for pneumonia. We are hoping she will be out soon!
Please join us for a Celebration Luau in Honor of Krista on Friday, June 1, 2007 at Mai's Cafe (Open to the Public)
Luau information attached!