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District title hardly biggest triumph for Plant High runner Gibson

Staff photo by BILL WARD

Plant freshman Caroline Gibson overcame childhood leukemia and is already the Panthers' top cross county runner.

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By BILL WARD | TBO.com

Published: November 12, 2009

Updated: 11/12/2009 06:22 am

TAMPA - After crossing the finish line in first place at last week's district cross country championships, Caroline Gibson took a few weary steps and collapsed into the waiting arms of her father, Keith.

Although elated with his daughter's triumph, Keith couldn't stop thinking back to the painful memory of nearly 12 years ago, when he held Caroline's frail body in his arms as a white fluid passed through an intravenous tube and into the back of her hand. As the effects of the anesthesia took hold, Caroline fell completely limp and into a deep sleep.

It was the first step of a grueling 2 1/2-year battle Caroline would wage with leukemia, a cancer of the blood that - despite major advances in survivability - will take an estimated 21,870 lives this year.

Spending 312 days of the next 36 months in the hospital undergoing chemotherapy treatments, Caroline eventually won her fight with the malignant disease. But leukemia claimed or severely affected the lives of many children she met along the way, including one of her best friends, Autumn Harrison, who died in 2003 when Caroline was 8.

Little wonder that as a perfectly healthy Caroline strode confidently ahead of more than 125 other girls to win a district crown as a Plant freshman, Keith and his wife, Stephanie, were overcome with a flood of wide-ranging emotions.

"For me, that moment where she won the race and fell into my arms was the complete antithesis of that day I held her as a 2-year-old in the hospital," Keith said. "Most of the time, when a child falls asleep in your arms, you think they're dead weight. But that night in the ICU, it felt to me what true death would be like. And now, here she was, so weary from the race but so alive in my arms."

Caroline's leukemia symptoms were typical - lethargy, night sweats and bruises that didn't heal - but it wasn't until she had blood work performed that they knew for sure what they were facing.

Keith and Stephanie vividly remember the day the results came back and their pediatrician, Christopher Reiner, told them the bad news. It was close to noon on Sept.27, 1997. When they asked if they could get a second opinion, Reiner told them bluntly, "There's no time for a second opinion."

By 3 p.m. that day, Caroline was seeing an oncologist, Cameron Tebbi. He told them she had the more common and more treatable form of leukemia, acute lymphocytic leukemia, which results in the excessive accumulation of immature, functionless cells in the blood and bone marrow.

But he also told them it's called "acute" because if left untreated, the disease can be fatal within weeks.

Just a few days before, the Gibsons had proclaimed, "Our lives are perfect." Keith and Stephanie had well-paying professions. They lived in a beautiful home in Hyde Park, just off scenic Bayshore Boulevard. They had a daughter and were planning to have more children.

Then it was all turned upside down. Suddenly, two self-described "Type-A personality" parents had to let go of a situation completely out of their control.

"Before the news, we were like, 'Pinch me, life is good,'" Stephanie said. "It felt like everything was going right for us, and in a matter of hours it all changed."

Initially, Caroline was in the ICU at St. Joseph's Hospital for 45 days. Once out, she would return for more chemotherapy as soon as her body was strong enough for the next dose, usually once a month.

Like most children undergoing chemotherapy, Caroline was hit hard by the treatment. She suffered nausea, a weakened immune system and loss of her hair. Her condition was severe enough to be featured on a billboard with Tampa Bay Bucs cornerback Ronde Barber and to take part in the Make-A-Wish Foundation for children with life-threatening medical conditions.

Being so young, Caroline says she doesn't have many clear memories of those days. But she does recall running through the halls of the hospital hooked up to her IV poles and the friends she made - and sometimes lost - while there. And she believes the experience prepared her for what her body would endure with distance running.

"What the chemo does is break down your body and you have to build it back up, and that's sort of what you go through running," Caroline said. "I really feel (chemotherapy) has helped me in a way because it's trained my body to go through the cycle."

Caroline's health is still monitored closely by doctors, and there is a chance she could have future health problems. But from all indications she has beaten leukemia, and that outcome has affected everyone in her family, which now includes younger twin brothers Campbell and Lee.

Keith even quit his job at a major accounting firm to start a job that allowed him to work more from home and spend more time with his children. For him, the leukemia was an "awakening."

"It really is about spending time with the kids and getting to know them, which I wasn't doing before," Keith said. "You wake up every single day now and realize now that what was right yesterday may not be right today - and you better celebrate today."

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