In her battle against Metastatic Giant Cell Tumor of Bone, Christina Kreil simply wants an even playing field.
The Richards High School social studies teacher is in the fight of her life to stop an aggressor that has taken her foot, and now threatens her life.
Extremely rare, “Giant Cell,” she said, is as mysterious as it is debilitating. It is a dark cloud hovering over a summer of hope and celebration.
Kreil recently learned she made the U.S. Women’s National Amputee Soccer Team. She will compete at the inaugural World Cup in Columbia this November.
As she devotes her summer to preparing for the tournament, she is simultaneously focused on solving her own medical crisis.
“It’s time to get loud,” she said. “It’s time to get tough.”
Staying busy, Kreil said, keeps the dark thoughts at bay. In addition to training at home and spreading the word about the South American competition, she is reaching out to anyone who knows anything about her disease.
Because doctors in Illinois seem stumped, and because the condition is rapidly worsening, the mother of two plans to visit some of the country’s top cancer centers this summer, even though she does not have cancer.
“We need to find a researcher. We need to find a drug trial. We need to find someone who’s doing something to advance a cure for this disease,” she said. Currently, there are no such trials in Illinois.
She is hoping that, by sharing her story, she’ll connect with someone who can help.
“People seem to stop listening when I say it’s not cancer. But non-cancerous tumors can still destroy your life. I was in pain from 2000-2015. I’ve had to cancel plans, I’ve lost friends. It has reduced the quality of my life,” she said.
And now it threatens to sideline her for good.
“I have to travel (in search of a cure) while I can,” she said. Soon, she’ll be unable to fly without potential complications.
Now 40, Kreil was just 17 when she developed a lump on her right foot.
Though painful, she said, doctors assured her the tumor was “not cancer.”
“They kept saying, ‘It’s a good tumor,’” she said, a phrase she now likens to a foul in the game of life.
She barely made it through her high school senior soccer season and often couldn’t walk long distances because of the pain.
In 2015, while rocking her infant son, the bones in her foot broke under the pressure. She had surgery to remove the tumor but doctors knew then the nature of this disease meant it would keep coming back.
In April of 2020, her foot broke again. While the world was shutting down because of COVID, she was one of the few people going into hospital for surgery to have the mass removed and to have pins and rods installed for support. But the tumor came back, twisting itself around the hardware.
“That’s how giant cell behaves. It just keeps coming back in the exact same spot it started or it jumps to the lungs,” she said.
In February of 2023, doctors amputated the foot.
That fall, Kreil’s left lung collapsed in an unrelated incident. While in surgery, doctors found a lump and removed it.
And this past January, Kreil received her worst news to date. The disease had spread to her right lung. A subsequent scan revealed 11 more tumors, five in the lungs and six in the lymph nodes, she said.
“It’s not cancer,” she said. But it acts like cancer.
Right now, the only treatment is surgery and Xgeva biologic injections, which have been effective for some patients but not her, she said. But even surgery is no longer an option, she said.
“It’s in the center of my chest, buried in lymph nodes. They can’t just keep cutting open my chest,” she said.
Despite her exhaustive medical quest, Kreil said she is readying herself for the World Cup tournament. The opportunity, she said, shines a bright light on an otherwise dark forecast.
She learned about the U.S. team from a friend. The coach saw a social media post of Kreil kicking a soccer ball over her backyard trampoline and reached out.
“I made the team just by signing up,” she said. But she had to qualify for the tournament.
“I want to be clear, I’m a bench warmer, not a starter,” Kreil said. “Some of these players are much younger and can run a 10-minute mile on crutches. They’re fantastic. I’m happy just to go along for the ride.”
Soccer, she said, has always been a love. “It got me through middle school and the awkwardness of growing up.”
Now, it is helping to bring joy and positivity at a time when exasperation over her medical condition can be consuming.
She said she is fortunate to be surrounded by support. Her husband Jeff, who teaches at Reavis High School, and their children, Katie and Max, as well as extended family and colleagues, have “been wonderful” through her many surgeries and recoveries, she said.
“But it’s been 24 years of this,” she said. “Now, I’m desperate.”
Readers can help Kreil in two ways: share her story and support the U.S. Women’s National Amputee Soccer Team at https://usampsoccer.networkforgood.com.
“We need money to travel, get gear, etc. We don’t even have jerseys,” she said.
“They’re a great group. When they invited me to Columbia,” she said, “I just started crying happy tears.”
donnavickroy4@gmail.com
Donna Vickroy is an award-winning reporter, editor and columnist who worked for the Daily Southtown for 38 years.
