And I'm going to be honest with you: if you're looking for something cheery... this is a long story, that doesn't end well. Look elsewhere now for a good old fashioned American ending, because this story is sad. And real, honest-to-goodness non-fiction.
Addison was almost three years old when she was diagnosed with the rarest of the rare- a very rare childhood brain tumor, that- unusually- was growing at the bottom of Addison's spine, instead of in her brain.
The unusual thing about ATRT (atypical teratoid rhaboid tumor), is how aggressive it can be. Addison lost the feeling in her legs first, then her ability to walk within days of diagnosis; one week after her tumor had been completely surgically resected, it had regrown completely, back to its original size.
The other thing about spinal cord tumors, is their destructiveness to a person's functionality. Imagine how many functions depend on the nerves going down and out the bottom of your spinal cord. Leg muscles, sensation, reproductive functionality, bowel and urinary continence. Everything below the waist, really.
And when I saw her for the first time, she was the first toddler I'd ever seen in a wheelchair, paralyzed by her cancer.
Cancer can be such a bastard.
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