Catalogue of Chicks

Welcome to the Catalog of Chicks — a place where you can meet everyday women and read about their extraordinary acts of bravery and courage. We hope you are inspired by their stories — we certainly are!

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<<Previous Chick Next Chick>>Katie Alvarez
Hockessin, DE
Submitted by: I'm not sure what you're looking for in a submission but there is so much I could say about Katie and her story. She's a daughter, sister, mother and I am proud to say, my cousin. She is fun and silly and beautiful. She is loving and caring and thoughtful. And one day she got sick - very sick and very fast. She was told to go straight to the hospital for what turned out to be a tumor between her sinus cavity and her eye. She endured test after test and surgery to remove - Chemo and radiation too. There was talk of losing an eye, losing her sense of smell and much much more. She was scared but determined not to let her son and daughter down. She was going to fight and to win.

It was a long battle which she fought each and every day - maybe not always with a smile but always with determination. Today Katie is healthy and happy. Two weeks before her diagnosis she had accepted the proposal of her "beau". The diagnosis didn't stop them or ruin them. Together they got through the dark days and when Katie was finally "well" they were married, on October 12, 2007 - her 40th birthday!

Katie never wavered in her determination. She fought the good fight and if I ever have to go into battle, I'd like her (and you Katie Schultz!) to lead me in the fight. Katie is ONE BRAVE CHICK! Must be something with the name!!!

SECOND NOMINATION:

This Brave Chick is my beautiful daughter, who is a fighter and a winner. My daughter went through a very difficult divorce after twelve years of marriage. At the time she had two small children. My daughter worked long hours and was away weekly on business. Her life was filled with stress 24 hours a day. I am a firm believer that stress and cancer can go hand in hand.

Right after her divorce was final, she was on a business trip when she started to hemorrhage from the noise. That happened a few times in the next few weeks and when she finally got herself to the doctor he said that she was fine. It was due to stress which she had lived under for two years. About 9 months later she couldn't see well out of a clouded right eye and again it took a few weeks to get into see her eye doctor. The doctor said her eyes were perfect and there were no problems that she could detect. Katie went back to her GP the following morning. He took one look at her, ordered an MRI, called her that afternoon to tell her she had a tumor behind her right eye. She was to pack her suitcase and he would call her back in two hours and tell what hospital she was to go to. She ended up at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, because they had one of only four doctors in the country that could do the operation she was likely going to need. Yes, her tumor was malignant and it was in her right nasal passsage behind her right eye and the bottom of her brain. The operation was done through her nose and she was told that it would be a 16 hour operation. I cannot express how she handled this whole thing. How do you ever move forward if you don't know if you are going to live or die? She was a true lady! She had two young children that needed her, she had just found her Prince Charming and he needed her, and her family needed her. The doctors told her she had a 90% chance of losing her right eye and living 2 to 5 years. She took that stark news like a trooper. She just said, "I am going to do everything I can to prove you wrong." Her eye was saved and the operation was only 9 hours. She started her fight on the operating table and never stopped. Her chemo and radiation therapies were started four days before Christmas. What a Christmas present! She went nine weeks having radiation five days a week. Two of those days she would sit for 6 hours of 'chemo' before we could take her for her radiation at another hospital site. I have no idea how she ever did it. She was a wonder and my hero! She was extremely sick from the very start of the chemo and radiation but they were going to give her body as much treatment as it could stand. She fought this war like a brave soldier and was not going to lose. At times I thought she was ready to give up but all she had to do was look into the eyes of her children (who were scared to death they were going to lose their mother) and she would work harder than ever. I know those two children are the reason she is cancer-free today and with God's guiding her and her outstanding doctors. She was so lucky to have the team of doctors she has had through this fight. She never would have made it without all of them. They cared and they saved her life.

She was married a beautiful garden in October on her 40th birthday as the sun was setting. There was not a dry eye. She had her one-year check-up in February and her body is 'clean'. She still needs some work done with the vision in her saved eye (double vision, but 20-20 in both eyes), but that will come in time. She still needs to build up her strength and that will come in time. She will do it because she is "ONE BRAVE CHICK" as well as one of God's miracles!<<Previous Chick Next Chick>>