Community rallies behind GMS wellness teacher

When veteran Galvin Middle School wellness teacher Kristine Fritts first got wind of this weekend’s 5K fitness walk being held in her honor, she was very flattered, a little embarrassed, and “completely floored” by the kindness and generosity of her colleagues throughout the school district.

Kristine Fritts with son Cameron, 7, and daughter Kacey, 5

As she told K-12 wellness coordinator Peter Boucher in a recent email, “You guys are an amazing group of people that I work with, and words could never express my gratitude — really.”

But the way her colleagues see it, no one is more amazing than Fritts herself, a single mother of two young children who has battled cancer three times in the past 13 years and yet has never once lost hope despite countless setbacks.

Take her latest setback, for instance. While Fritts has now been cancer-free since late November, she has also been voiceless since early August, a side-effect from the intense radiation that bombarded her neck for 33 straight days last summer.

It turns out, the radiation had done its job — destroying the tumor that had conveniently attached itself to her carotid artery and sparing her from an invasive and risky surgical procedure. But it also severely damaged her right vocal cord in the process, leaving her, quite literally, speechless.

As a result, Fritts has been unable to return to work this entire year, and that is on top of missing most of last spring to undergo chemotherapy. Meanwhile, life at home with 7-year-old Cameron and 5-year-old Kacey has turned into a daily adventure, to say the least.

As Fritts explained on her blog back in January, having no voice “wouldn’t be a problem if [she] were a hermit and lived alone and never left the house or tried to answer the phone.”

“But as most of you know,” she continued, “this is not my life and I use my voice every day, forcefully, for my job as well as at home with my two cherubs, who are not totally taking advantage of me after six months of no voice! Not my kids! Yeah right!”

Four months and one rather unusual procedure later, and Fritts can still only manage a “raspy” whisper. She said the procedure, which involved having a “gel-like substance” injected directly into her vocal cord, has made her voice “some better, but not nearly where it needs to be.”

On her blog, she mentions that her mother, Linda, had to battle with the insurance company just to get them to pay for the procedure itself — they refused to cover the gel-like substance — and she still might have to go for a second or a third injection.

Besides the problems with her voice, Fritts is currently dealing with a host of other ailments, including stiffness in her neck and shoulders and difficulty swallowing. Just last week, she was admitted to the hospital for what turned out to be aspiration pneumonia and had to be sent home with a feeding tube.

Her mother did not mince words while updating her blog on Sunday, noting that Fritts is “frustrated as hell.” But she also reminded readers that her daughter will “get through this,” a common refrain that has been echoed countless times over the past 13 years.

Take her very first post on her online blog, which she aptly titled, “Dear Cancer…I am stronger than you…Game over!”

Written last April, just a month after being diagnosed with her second bout of squamous cell carcinoma, Fritts offered up a detailed synopsis of her medical history since 1998, when she first discovered a lump in her neck that was later diagnosed as Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

In it, she laid bare every painful memory — weeks of radiation from her diaphragm to her ears, her throat getting so sore she couldn’t eat or drink. In 2006, the cancer reappeared on her tongue, and a portion of it had to be removed, along with 17 lymph nodes in her neck. She described suffering through four days of isolation — radiation being beamed into her tongue through ten tiny catheters — while her kids, ages 2 ½ and 8 months at the time, were at home missing their mother.

And now here she was beginning round three, and yet somehow her spirits, and her sense of humor, remained intact.

“I am holding my head high and trying to live each day with a smile on my face,” she wrote. “I am scared, as you can imagine, but I know what I have to do and want to prove to myself and everyone else that I can beat this damn disease once and for all … or is that thrice and for all?”

Keeping to her word, Fritts remained upbeat throughout the entire ordeal, supported every step of the way by her parents, Linda and Chip, her sister, Jen, and many other family members and friends.

On her darkest days, she still found a bright side. When the chemo took her hair in “handfuls,” she wrote about how it is “just hair and it’ll grow back,” while wondering “what color it’ll be or if it’ll be straight or curly.”

When she completed the Relay for Life from start to finish, she thanked her sweet Cameron and Kacey for holding her hand the entire way and making “all this fighting worth it.”

She put on her “happy face” as she began her latest round of radiation — her third overall — and even after it had taken her voice, she couldn’t resist gloating a little when the tumor finally disappeared.

“Looks like I am all clear!” she wrote in late November. “Cancer-free! Adios and don’t ever come back here! Hit the road, Jack! Bye, bye, bye!”

Yet through it all, she never lost perspective, and she rang in the New Year with a profound sense of gratitude:

“A year ago, I had no idea what I would be up against, that I would be fighting for my life — again — and trying to win the battle against this horrible disease. But now, almost a year later, I can say I did it! I have again beaten this monster and pray to God every night that I will never have to deal with it again.”

Canton wellness teachers at last year’s “Unity Day” event at GMS. Kristine Fritts is on the far left.

Inspired by this amazing story of courage and humility, Fritts’ colleagues in the wellness department have organized a special 5K “walk for wellness” this Saturday, May 21, at 8 a.m. at the CHS lower field, near the softball and baseball diamonds. Participants can walk with Fritts as they “help support her battle, raise funds, and raise awareness all at the same time.”

A series of kids’ fun runs will be held after the walk, including a “diaper dash,” and 100- and 400-meter races. The cost to participate is $15 for adults and $10 (suggested) for kids. Pre-registration begins at 7:15 in the CHS lower parking lot.

For more information or to donate, contact Peter Boucher at Boucherp@cantonma.org.

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Posted by Jay Turner on May 18 2011. Filed under Features. Both comments and pings are currently closed.