Saturday, July 12, 2008

Cancer couldn't stop her; life starts anew

Clara Garcia News-Bulletin Staff Writer; cgarcia@news-bulletin.com

Jarales Sitting at her grandmother's kitchen table surrounded by family and friends, 18-year-old Renee Hamilton is happy, healthy and living every day to the fullest.

By just looking at her, Hamilton seems to be like any other teenager — laughing, joking and having fun as she prepares to go on a family vacation to Disney World. But as soon as she starts telling her story, it's very clear that she's not your average teenager and her visit to Florida isn't just any other trip.

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On Friday, Hamilton, her mother, Sherry, grandma, Sylvia, and brother, Daniel, left on an all-expense-paid vacation to the resort courtesy of the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Leaving everything behind, Hamilton is determined to have fun and forget — just for a while — what she's been through and how hard she's had to fight.

As Hamilton was looking forward to her senior year in high school last summer, she began feeling ill. It soon progressed into what she described as a bad stomachache. Day after day, the pain, and what she believed to be bloating, worsened into nausea.

"At first, I thought it was just the flu," Hamilton said. "I had a stomachache all the time, and I was really, really tired. I felt bloated all the time, and my stomach was getting bigger."

Hamilton went to her doctor. But even before the results of the blood tests came back, the pain became so unbearable that her mother rushed her to a hospital emergency room.

"We couldn't wait for the results," she said. "I was throwing up a lot, and it hurt so bad that it was making me sick."

After she sat in the waiting room for nearly nine hours, doctors finally examined Hamilton and performed an ultrasound on her abdomen. But because something was blocking their field of vision, the emergency room physicians decided to do a CAT scan and an X-ray.

Immediately, the doctors knew, Hamilton's mother, Sherry, said.

"They said it was either a really bad infection or that it was cancer — a tumor," Sherry said. "I was scared, she was scared — don't let her fool you. They told us she had to have surgery."

"I was so tired and sick, but I was scared," said the teenager about her first reaction to the news.

The three and one-half hour surgery the following day revealed the family's greatest fear that their little girl did, in fact, have cancer — Burkitt's lymphoma actually. According to the American Cancer Society, Burkitt's lymphoma develops from B-lymphocytes, and it is one of the most rapidly growing cancers known. It may spread to other organs, including the brain. Because of this, it must be diagnosed and treated quickly.

Burkitt's lymphoma is mostly diagnosed in children. A typical child diagnosed with this type of cancer will develop a large tumor in his or her abdomen that can sometimes block the bowel. This can cause abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting.

"A young doctor comes in, and he was having a hard time talking," Sherry said. "You could tell he was trying to hold back the tears. He said 'there's was no other way to say this' and he hesitated. And I finally just asked him 'Does she have cancer?' and he said yes."

While the doctors didn't know what type of cancer the teenager had, they knew they had to remove 12 inches from her colon, her right ovary and a 25-pound mass from her abdomen.

"My mom was crying, my cousin was crying and my mom asked me what we were going to do," Sherry said. "I just said we have to have faith — that's all we could do. I wanted to be strong for my daughter; I didn't want her to see me crying because I didn't want her to be more afraid than she already was."

The family decided not to tell Renee of the diagnosis until the next day when she was fully awake and when the doctor was there.

"I got scared, I cried," Renee said. "I thought when you got cancer you'd die. I thought I was going to die — but that's not true, obviously."

Even though Hamilton had been diagnosed with Burkitt's lymphoma and told she was in the third stage of the disease, she was determined not to give up. She was going to fight, and that she did.

Hamilton was transferred from Presbyterian Hospital to the University of New Mexico Hospital's pediatric wing. She stayed there for five months receiving intense chemotherapy treatments through her spine.

"It was hard — it was really hard," Renee said of what she had to go through. "I was sick, I lost my hair and I couldn't eat. I lost so much weight and, at one point, I was down to 64 pounds."

In November, Hamilton was allowed to go home, but two days later, she was rushed back to the hospital the day before Thanksgiving with a stomach virus. She was able to finally leave and go home for good on Christmas Day — the best present she's ever received, she said.

After release from the hospital, Hamilton was able to graduate from Infinity High School in three months.

Even though Hamilton had endured so much pain during her stay in the hospital, she said the worst part of the whole thing was not being able to eat "real" food and watch satellite television.

"It was hard losing my hair, too," she said. "It starting coming out one day, and I started crying. I lost my hair everywhere — even my eyelashes.

"It was weird, but sound affected me. My senses went really weird. You couldn't even whisper because it hurt my ears. I wouldn't let anyone say anything because it hurt so bad."

Not only is she grateful to be alive and healthy today, Hamilton said, she's learned a lot about herself and about life. Before becoming sick, she had always planned to become a nurse, but now, her goal is to be a doctor — although she isn't sure what specialty she'll aim for.

"I learned that there are some things that aren't worth worrying about," Hamilton said.

"She's matured a lot; she's more positive," her mother says. "She laughs a lot more than she did before. Things had to be her way or no way."

"They still do," the teenager said laughing.

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