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Berwyn is home to two women named Vanessa Benitez, and it's difficult to tell which one is stronger.
One, a 28-year-old single mother of three, has been dealing with her daughter's cancer treatment while juggling a job in retail.
The younger Vanessa, 7, has endured those very treatments and still says she’s proud of her mother.
In October 2010, the girl began having trouble with recurring bouts of vomiting. Doctors at MacNeal Hospital called it acid reflux disease and prescribed medication. But in April of that year, the child became so nauseous she was unable to walk, and her mother rushed her to Comer Children's Hospital at the University of Chicago.
There, Vanessa was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a rare form of cancer that sat on the little girl's brain stem and began pressing against her cerebellum, which refines motor movements.
“It was devastating,” her mother said about being told the news. “I could hear everybody talking, but my brain wasn't registering what they were telling me. It was just like my whole mind just went on pause.”
Luckily, there is hope for families like Vanessa’s. According to the National Cancer Institute, deaths due to pediatric cancer have been on the decline since 1975. Still, an average of 165 children in Cook County are diagnosed with pediatric cancer each year.
That day after young Vanessa of Berwyn was diagnosed, she was rushed into emergency brain surgery that lasted nine hours to remove the malignancy.
“At that point, they told me if I would have waited just one more day, she might not be here right now,” her mother said.
The surgeons removed as much of the tumor as they could, but removing all of it would have involved removing healthy brain tissue and permanently handicapping the 7 year old.
As a result, the girl has endured months and months of treatment.
Recovery from the surgery alone took more than a month, at which point her mother stopped working. She was able to get three months administrative leave to treat her daughter, but had to go back July 1 or face termination from her job in retail.
She got by with help from her mother and child support paid by young Vanessa’s estranged father.
“It's hard because I don't get to see my other daughters. They need me also. But me being the mother and the father, I have to stay (at the hospital) with her because it's hard for her as well,” she said. “I just feel like I'm stuck in the middle but I have to make the best of it.”
Berwyn is home to two women named Vanessa Benitez, and it's difficult to tell which one is stronger.
One, a 28-year-old single mother of three, has been dealing with her daughter's cancer treatment while juggling a job in retail.
The younger Vanessa, 7, has endured those very treatments and still says she’s proud of her mother.
In October 2010, the girl began having trouble with recurring bouts of vomiting. Doctors at MacNeal Hospital called it acid reflux disease and prescribed medication. But in April of that year, the child became so nauseous she was unable to walk, and her mother rushed her to Comer Children's Hospital at the University of Chicago.
There, Vanessa was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a rare form of cancer that sat on the little girl's brain stem and began pressing against her cerebellum, which refines motor movements.
“It was devastating,” her mother said about being told the news. “I could hear everybody talking, but my brain wasn't registering what they were telling me. It was just like my whole mind just went on pause.”
Luckily, there is hope for families like Vanessa’s. According to the National Cancer Institute, deaths due to pediatric cancer have been on the decline since 1975. Still, an average of 165 children in Cook County are diagnosed with pediatric cancer each year.
That day after young Vanessa of Berwyn was diagnosed, she was rushed into emergency brain surgery that lasted nine hours to remove the malignancy.
“At that point, they told me if I would have waited just one more day, she might not be here right now,” her mother said.
The surgeons removed as much of the tumor as they could, but removing all of it would have involved removing healthy brain tissue and permanently handicapping the 7 year old.
As a result, the girl has endured months and months of treatment.
Recovery from the surgery alone took more than a month, at which point her mother stopped working. She was able to get three months administrative leave to treat her daughter, but had to go back July 1 or face termination from her job in retail.
She got by with help from her mother and child support paid by young Vanessa’s estranged father.
“It's hard because I don't get to see my other daughters. They need me also. But me being the mother and the father, I have to stay (at the hospital) with her because it's hard for her as well,” she said. “I just feel like I'm stuck in the middle but I have to make the best of it.”
After the surgery, radiation therapy was combined with chemotherapy. In about a week, Vanessa will resume another 6-month round of chemo.
She’s lost most of her hair, but she wears stylish caps and her sisters lovingly call her new look the “chicky poo.” The young Vanessa’s favorite food used to be fried chicken, but now she's predominantly fed through an IV. The chemotherapy has degraded her sense of taste so much that she doesn't even like candy anymore.
“I don’t really have a favorite food anymore, but I still like biscuits,” the girl said.
Vanessa’s also attached to a medicine pump 12 hours a day and has a peripherally inserted central catheter, better known as a PICC line, that stays in her at all times.
For all the pokes and prods and sickness that come with treatment, the 7 year old said changing out the PICC is the worst part.
“Also, I didn't like the medicine because it used to give me the fuzzies,” she added.
Despite all she's been through, she still laughs with the unbridled glee only a child can muster. She's grown to enjoy the long car rides with her mother to the hospital, has fun playing her Nintendo DS and still jokes with her sisters: Karoline, 10, and Paris, 4.
Treatment’s also brought the family closer. Trips to sessions begin as early as 6:30 a.m., and Karoline’s only missed one so far.
For radiation, Benitez sought treatment at a ProCure proton therapy center in Warrenville. Proponents say the proton therapy causes fewer side affects than traditional X-ray radiation. According to the treatment center, the Chicagoland location is the only proton therapy of its kind in the state and one of just nine in the country.
The drive from Berwyn — which included a scary first time on the expressway — was worthwhile for the chance of fewer longterm side effects. Young Vanessa’s prognosis is difficult to tell, but her mother is hoping the cancer will clear and stay in remission.
Although Vanessa will be home-schooled this year, her mother hopes she’ll rejoin children her age next year and end up leading a normal, happy life.
In the meantime, both lean on each other for strength.
“She’s my motivation for me to do what I do every single day,” her mother said. “ I just do it because I want her to be better.”
The younger Benitez, who’s already shown near-impossible strength at her age, said she doesn't need to rely on any special tricks to get through the rigors of treatment.
“I don’t have a secret,” the girl said. “I get the strength from my mom.”
