Beating the odds

VERMILION — Camryn 'Cam' Colahan was a typical healthy, energetic teen playing on a high school volleyball team. She was a starter on Vermilion's varsity team, averaging nine kills per game. When she played in the back row, she would dig every ball she could. She even recorded 31 digs in one match. During the middle of the season of her sophomore year, in 2018, Cam discovered a bump that felt like a twisted rope coming up from the inside of her leg and up toward her tailbone. What she and her family thought was a muscle problem turned out to be a rare form of cancer. She was 15 years old at the time. Figuring out the diagnosis Cam was able to feel the mysterious "bump" — but didn't think much of it. Her mother, Aimee Colahan, said they would watch it for a few days, and if it was still hurting, they would get it checked out. When Cam started to experience more discomfort, they tried to develop a plan. "I remember the debate was 'Do we go see her pediatrician or if it's a muscle thing, then could we do a deep tissue massage?'" Aimee said. "I distinctly remember having the discussion of being fearful of going to the doctor and being told she couldn't play (volleyball). There was a series of tough games ahead." Aimee talked to a friend and took Cam to receive a deep tissue massage. After the massage, Cam felt better, but it only took a couple of days for the pain to return. At that time, Cam decided she needed to see a doctor. Cam went to the pediatrician and received an ultrasound. The pediatrician thought it was a cyst and put her on antibiotics. A follow-up appointment was directed to a pediatric surgeon. Cam also received an MRI. "We were told it was some sort of mass and still weren't sure what it was," Aimee said. "There were different types of cysts it could be, so they put her on a stronger antibiotic to see if it would change the size of the mass." The day after the appointment with the pediatric surgeon, Cam prepared for a sectional championship volleyball match in Willard. That same day, Aimee got a call. Cam needed to be admitted to have additional testing. Aimee was conflicted. The sectional final could be the last game of the season. Her oldest daughter, Madison, was a senior and Cam was also a starter. Aimee asked the surgeon if she could bring Cam in the next morning. But she needed to be admitted that night to get on the schedule for the scans. "I didn't want to cause that change and have it affect the entire team," Aimee said. Aimee and the surgeon reached an agreement that Cam was to be admitted after the game. The game was played and Aimee told Cam that she needed to spend the night at the hospital. "When the doctors were pushing everything quickly, we started to question whether or not it was minor," Aimee said. "We were getting concerned." At the same time, Cam felt the mass getting bigger — and it was painful just to sit down. People asked Cam how she could play volleyball with the pain, but she wasn't sitting during the match, so the pain didn't bother her too much. But Aimee recognized Cam wasn't moving as fast during the last couple of games. By the time Cam was in a room at the hospital, it was almost 1 a.m. It had already been a long day and night. She continued to think the mass was just a cyst. But Aimee thought differently. As she watched Cam laugh, act goofy and be herself she thought, "This could be the last night of our family's life, of the normal we've always had. This could be the last moment I have with her that she doesn't have cancer," she said. After the night in the hospital, Aimee's husband, Brett, who is a teacher and head football coach at Vermilion High School, also came to be with Cam. She had a biopsy and a CAT scan done. When Brett and Aimee were in the waiting room, the pediatric surgeon came out to tell them they were finished with the procedure. It was a Friday, so the surgeon advised them they would follow-up the next week. But the surgeon also mentioned the need for an oncology consult. Aimee questioned why an oncology consult was needed. The surgeon didn't want to confirm anything, but he did believe Cam could have some type of cancer, Aimee said. On Oct. 23, 2018, Aimee received the call that confirmed their suspicions. Cam had Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare form of cancer affecting soft tissue. The next day Aimee, Brett and Cam met with the team of doctors at the Cleveland Clinic. It was a small exam room full of doctors. "We had to bring in like 10 chairs," Cam said. Cam had to lay on her stomach on the exam table during the discussion because it was still too painful for her to sit. According to Aimee, they were told the cancer was aggressive, very difficult to beat — and would take a lot of treatment. It was considered high-risk at stage 4. The doctors did tell them that they would do everything they could to give her the best chance of surviving. The next steps Cam's first question to the doctors was, "Can I play basketball and JO (volleyball)?" Sports were important to her because she enjoys competing. The answer? "No," they said. Since Cam was going to have a port wired into her heart to access her bloodstream for treatment, playing sports was too dangerous. Cam said she never thought the diagnosis would be cancer. "I thought it would be an easy fix," she said. Brett said he drove separate from Aimee and Cam the day they met with the doctors in Cleveland. "I was a complete mess driving home," he said. Brett said when he heard the word "cancer," he said he considered it a "death sentence." And from what he knew about cancer, that's what it could have been. But Cam didn't see it that way. She only considered it a bump in the road. "Probably the hardest thing for me was that my sister is a pathology assistant," Aimee said. "Having someone who is very knowledgeable on the statistics and the survival rates of different cancer types was something that put things into very real terms for us early on." Aimee said the doctors didn't want to wait long for Cam to start treatment. She began aggressive chemotherapy treatment Nov. 1, 2018, at the Cleveland Clinic. "(Cam) knows that if she can get through this, she really has beat the odds of this diagnosis because it isn't a positive one," Aimee said. "Some kids go through this three, four, sometimes five times. I'm just hoping she doesn't have to go through this more than once." Keeping things normal The Colahan family of six is very busy day-to-day. Cam's cancer didn't slow them down. "I think keeping things as normal as possible didn't let her focus on (cancer), and that was the same for us," Brett said. "The complexity of the helter-skelter schedules, in a way, was a blessing." Brett contemplated if he should back off on certain things to be there more for Cam, but Aimee didn't want that. "To change the things we've always done as a family would almost be giving in to saying the cancer is controlling us," Aimee said. "Why should we change what they're used to until something happens, and we absolutely have to do out of necessity? We get up, we do what we normally do and keep everything the same as what it has always been." The family's demeanor changed with Cam's diagnosis, but her siblings Madison, Kaitlin and Trey still acted like siblings. "They still have the same little tiffs, arguments and sibling rivalry," Aimee said. "That stuff still happens. We're thankful for that. If it wasn't that way in some regard, we would know that things were getting pretty difficult." Aimee said the hardest thing they've struggled with as a family was being able to make the important things, like Madison's senior year, priorities. There were a lot of instances when time, which would have normally been spent on Madison, ended up switching over to what Cam needed. "I think it has robbed them of some innocence. The disease has robbed them of their time to shine," Brett said. Aimee said Cam didn't let cancer define her daily life. Throughout her treatment, Cam attended basketball games with her teammates and cheered for them from the sidelines. She even worked a couple of days per week making ice cream at Romp's Dairy Dock in Vermilion. "She's doing exactly what she wants to do within her physical capabilities daily, and isn't worrying about what's happening on the disease side of it," Aimee said. "I think that's how she's getting through it because she's not dwelling on it." Unassuming role model Throughout treatment, Cam has been able to maintain an "incredibly healthy, positive attitude," Aimee said. Cam is also being looked at as "a symbol of strength and encouragement." "If Camryn had her hair, you wouldn't look at her and know she is sick," Aimee said. Donna Rini, a teacher at Vermilion High School and a manager at Romp's Dairy Dock, said she was marveled as she has watched Cam during her battle with cancer. Rini said Cam doesn't let it define who she is or how she acts or treats others. "She has battled with grace and courage that is quite admirable," Rini said. Cam has been told she's a role model that people look up to. She said she has learned to not give up and always have positive thoughts. "I've been pretty healthy throughout the process, and people see that as amazing," Cam said. Community rallies for Cam The Colahan's have received an outpouring of support from the community. People have given them money, gift cards and other kinds of donations. People show support at different fundraisers and reach out to see how she's doing. "The community's support has been crazy," Cam said. "It makes me feel really good to know that they care." Throughout Vermilion and surrounding areas, signs have been posted showing support toward Cam. She said the signs make the support seem even bigger and she likes seeing them. Brett described the support as humbling. "We can't thank enough people, and sometimes I'm afraid I haven't thanked someone, like you missed them because there are so many people giving you words of encouragement or showing their support somehow," he said. Reaching her goal Cam went through chemotherapy, radiation and then more chemotherapy over the course of nine months. For her radiation treatments, she traveled to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Due to the location of Cam's tumor, her parents and doctors felt she would benefit from the proton therapy at MD Anderson. Proton therapy is a more direct form of radiation that can target a tumor while sparing nearby healthy tissues and minimizing side effects, according to the cancer center's website. On June 7, everyone was full of anxiousness. Cam was to have new scans to see how she responded to the treatment regimen. "Before (the doctor) came in I was really nervous to find out the result. But once she came in with a smile, it took all the worry away," Cam said. It was good news. "She is clean in terms of no active cancer cells," Brett said. "Nothing is there." Brett, Aimee and Cam all felt a sense of relief. Cam continued with chemotherapy to finish the remaining cycles. The key to long-term survival is to do everything to kill the microscopic bits of cancer the first time around because survival rate becomes very dismal if cancer returns from a cell hiding somewhere, Aimee said. On July 22, doctors and nurses gathered within the children's building at the Cleveland Clinic. They cheered as Cam walked down the hallway. She was on her way to ring the bell after finishing her last chemotherapy treatment. Many cancer centers have a bell and ringing it marks a major milestone in a patient's journey. The ceremony included a song and ended with Cam hugging the doctors and nurses who helped her reach remission. "I was feeling just very happy that I got to ring the bell, and also happy knowing that it was hopefully my last intensive chemo," Cam said. Cam will continue treatment with maintenance chemotherapy, which comes as an oral pill for 6-to-12 months along with three low dose chemotherapy infusions. She will have new scans every three months for the next two years. After five years of clean scans, she will be considered cured. Although Cam is in remission, her fight continues as her type of cancer is prone to relapse, Aimee said. Cam said she hopes the treatment will keep working. She was cleared to play sports, so she'll be getting ready for volleyball season, which began official practices on Aug. 1. "I'm looking forward to getting my life back to how it was before and getting to be 'normal' again," she said.