Freshman Corinne DeWitt has a rough story to share. In December of 2022, DeWitt was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, which is an extremely rare cancer found in or around the bones. DeWitt’s case is localized, which means it’s in one spot and hasn’t spread elsewhere. She had previously been looking into what the growth could be since it was causing her pain.

“Early 2022 I was having an annoying, dull pain that would come and go – and as time went on, the pain continuously got worse,” DeWitt said. “I told my mother we needed to look into what was happening, because it got to the point where I couldn’t handle the pain anymore.” 

She didn’t waste any time, jumping right into treatment and listened to what every specialist had to say. 

“I went to Urgent Care and they took an x-ray of the growth and recommended me to a physical therapist,” DeWitt said. “I went to physical therapy for a few months, but the pain never got better. Eventually the physical therapist said that I should head to the hospital and get it checked out – so my mother and I went to Barnes Jewish Children’s hospital and from there they biopsied it and ran some more tests.”

The doctors had a lot to say – from how she’ll be taking 14 rounds of treatment to how they would be using 5 types of chemo, and that all of this wouldn’t be easy. About halfway through all of the treatments – after the sixth round – they will perform surgery to remove as much of the growth as possible and to replace the joint and bone that has been eaten away by the cancer.

“The last half of the treatments will be used to make sure they kill off all of the cancerous cells that may be left,” DeWitt said. “When I’m finished, I will have to go in every few months to get scans and get my arm checked to make sure that it doesn’t come back.”

Everyone knows from the movies and TV shows that chemo is rough on the body, even on the toughest people. 

“The first couple of times they stuck the needle in my chemo port it hurt, but after that it was okay,” DeWitt said. “During the process of getting chemo, nothing really happens –  I just puke a few times. The aftermath is what really gets me. I get super dehydrated – leading to disorientation – and super sick. I’ve learned that I shouldn’t eat anything while at the hospital because I know that I won’t be able to keep it down. But for the most part, I just try to sleep it off. I’m always weak after being discharged but I always look on the bright side of everything.” 

Normally, when you hear about people receiving the news of cancer, it’s super sad and emotional. Especially with all the treatments. It takes a big toll on mental health – but for her, it wasn’t very upsetting. 

“Mental health has been just fine for me, I know when people hear the news, it’s sad – but for me I just think that it hasn’t really hit me fully,” she said. “I can’t help but smile all the time, and way before I knew I had cancer I started to be more optimistic and look on the upside of things. Optimism is what’s been helping me be positive during this.”

Putting this into perspective, she is the student that was here everyday, never missed school, and received straight A’s.

“I was a kid that never really got sick – and now that I’m going through chemo, it makes me super sick all the time. I have to skip school and I hate skipping,” she said. “If I have to miss school because of being sick, and I don’t get to participate in something fun, I won’t be upset. I’ll go outside when I can and do something fun to make up for not being able to participate in activities at school.”