Twelve-year-old Kylie Eaton has enjoyed trips to Michigan and Tennessee this summer, along joining her peers in practices for the Bellefontaine Middle School football cheerleading team, making crafts and spending time swimming with her siblings.
The peaceful summertime activities for her family are treasured times, as just two years ago in June 2019, she was beginning a lengthy and challenging treatment regimen for a malignant brain tumor called medulloblastoma, which caused Kylie to miss her entire fifth-grade year of school.
Despite those tremendous difficulties, she finished her sixth-grade year with a 3.5 GPA and now is about to begin seventh-grade at BMS next week.
The courageous pre-teen also has been named a 2021 Relay For Life honorary co-chair for festivities taking place beginning at 5 p.m. Friday, Aug. 13, in downtown Bellefontaine. She will be joined with fellow Relay honorary co-chairs Robin Tester and Mark Berkfield to lead the survivor lap at 6 p.m. around the Logan County Courthouse.
She and her fellow honorees will present speeches about their cancer journeys as well.
Kylie and her parents, Bill Eaton and Joanna Eaton, related that soon after school let out for the summer in 2019, she began experiencing blurry vision and intense headaches.
“I’d find her in a dark room and she wouldn’t want us to turn any of the lights on,” her mother said Tuesday. “It came on suddenly and was pretty alarming; this was just not like her. It seemed like she was having really bad migraines.”
Upon receiving a check-up with her family physician, Kylie was referred to Nationwide Children’s Hospital to see a specialist. June 21, 2019, she and her parents went for her appointment there, expecting Kylie to undergo an MRI and then be able to go home. However, that was not the case.
“After the MRI, she was immediately admitted to the hospital and they were beginning to make plans for surgery,” Mr. Eaton said.
During the MRI, her scans showed a tumor that was suspected as a medulloblastoma, a cancerous tumor that arises from the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls balance, coordination and other complex functions. About 15 to 20 percent of all childhood brain tumors are medulloblastoma, according to the University of California San Francisco’s Benioff Children’s Hospitals, www.ucsfbenioffchildrens.org.
Just three days later on June 24, Kylie underwent an eight-hour procedure at the Columbus hospital, where her neurosurgeon was able to successfully remove all of the tumor, her parents said.
Two days after that on June 26, her family received the official diagnosis from her biopsy that she had medulloblastoma.
“It was really a whirlwind,” Ms. Eaton said. “We didn’t hardly have time to stop to catch our breath, but had to just keep moving along to help get Kylie the care she needed.”
Kylie spent the next several days in the hospital recovering from surgery, and was able to go home temporarily on July 5.
One of the risks of the brain surgery was a loss of mobility, and Kylie temporarily lost her right side mobility. For a short time, she had to use a wheelchair and then progressed quickly to a walker.
The then fifth-grade kept fighting an uphill battle with her family and community behind her. Beginning July 22, she would go to yet another city for six weeks of radiation treatment at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital at the Liberty campus. The treatments took place five days a week.
Following a one month break after the radiation, the cheerleader and animal lover began nine months of chemotherapy back at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
While she made it through that time, it came with many side effects, including body pain and fatigue, that made it hard to complete any kind of schoolwork, even when she was not hospitalized.
“The chemo took a lot out of her. Those nine months felt like about 10 years,” her father said. “She was in the hospital more often than not.”
Her parents said they had to closely monitor her for fevers and took multiple middle-of-the-night trips to the hospital when she spiked a fever, which needed to be treated immediately.
Kylie also experienced two colon infections during that time, received various platelet and blood transfusions, and at different points in her journey, was fitted with several types of feeding tubes.
During the many ups and downs, Kylie and her family said they were able to pull through by the many kind gestures received from their local community and friends from Bellefontaine City Schools.
In the fall of 2019, the first Chieftain football game of the season was dedicated to a “Kylie Strong” fundraiser, and T-shirts and bracelets were sold that fall to honor the local student. Kylie also had the chance to help kick off the Sunflower Shuffle last summer in 2020, and an entry for the Doors of EnCOURAGEment project was created in her honor last year as well.
“The community stood behind us, and it meant a lot,” Ms. Eaton said. “The Chieftain community really came together. Our family and friends have been wonderful.”
At long last, the now 12-year-old finished her chemotherapy in June 2020 and received a cancer-free MRI at that time as well.
She eased back into school last fall, first attending half days at BMS for sixth-grade.
Also during sixth-grade, she underwent physical and occupational therapy at Mary Rutan Therapy and Sports Medicine to regain her strength and mobility. The dance and cheer aficionado no longer has a need for her walker.
Kylie currently visits with her neurosurgeon and oncologist every three months and undergoes an MRI. These appointments will gradually be pushed out so she doesn’t have to go as frequently.
While sharing her story Friday night, she offers hope to both youths and adults alike working through hurdles in life.
“Kylie is an inspiration. She is the definition of determination and strength,” her teacher said during Kylie’s receipt of a BMS Tride of the Tribe Award earlier this year. “She works hard and never gives up on anything.”