Collin Kratzer is the JTSF January Rockstar and
has the honor of being our inaugural Rockstar! Collin lives with his sweet
sister, Neya, and his parents, Jenn and Bill.
Collin is very sweet, loving, and easy going. He loves playing
with his sister, and playing on his iPad. He likes Mr. Potato Head, Elmo, The
Wiggles, and Caillou. He likes to look at cookbooks, and pretend to cook in his
kitchen. He has a sense of humor, and makes us laugh every day!
Collin started walking before he turned one, but he fell a lot. At
his 15-month check-up, his pediatrician noticed that he turned his head and
looked out the side of his eyes to see things. He sent us to a pediatric
ophthalmologist, but at that first consult the eye doctor didn't see anything alarming.
He decided to watch Collin closely, and would see him three weeks later. During
those three weeks, Collin started throwing up and not eating. He was very fussy
and it was hard to console him. He spent Easter weekend in the hospital with
dehydration due to what we thought was a stomach bug. When the eye doctor
checked him three weeks after that initial consult, he saw pressure on Collin's
optic nerve and ordered an MRI. The next afternoon, an MRI showed a large tumor
in Collin's cerebellum, which was why his balance was bad, he vomited
frequently, and he couldn't talk or swallow. He was admitted directly to the
PICU following the MRI, and had brain surgery the day after that to remove the
tumor. Collin was officially diagnosed with Medulloblastoma.
Collin had a total resection of the tumor. He underwent five
rounds of chemotherapy, and then a sixth round of high dose chemo followed by
an autologous stem cell rescue. He survived the life threatening complication
of veno occlusive disease. He has had months of maintenance chemo at home, a
few different times.
Collin is an absolute fighter. He has relapsed twice. He has had
Gamma Knife surgery, and has participated in a Phase II trial. He has had 28
sessions of cranio-spinal radiation, and is currently on more maintenance
chemo. He has also had a few years of occupational, physical, and speech
therapy, which still continues.
Despite not wanting to go to clinic appointments or take medicine,
Collin doesn't fight against doing these things; instead he is very brave and
does what he's asked to do, usually with a smile on his face. He doesn't sit
around feeling sorry for himself. He gets up everyday, and just wants to be a
kid, doing "kid" things. He is very proud when he is told how brave he
is. Again, a real fighter.
Collin’s parents have simple wishes for him. They want to see
Collin have a chance to grow up and live his dreams. They want childhood cancer
to get the awareness and funding it needs and deserves, so better treatments
and cures can be found. For Collin, we fight for this!
