Cristina’s Health Journey

Cristina’s Health Journey This page is for awareness and for those who would like to follow Cristina's journey with Childhood Pancreatitis.

“Mommy my belly hurts.” Those are words that we haven’t heard in 3 years until yesterday. For a moment I was transported...
09/18/2026

“Mommy my belly hurts.” Those are words that we haven’t heard in 3 years until yesterday. For a moment I was transported back and for a silly second I thought “ooh no pancreatitis?” Silly I know because she hasn’t had her pancreas for over 3 years but yet those words haunt her dad and I. Yesterday Cristina was complaining about abdominal pain and it was progressively getting worse as the day went on but she had thought it would get better until the evening time when she realized it was getting worse that she told her dad and I that she had pain all day. We transported her to the hospital where we waited not really knowing what to expect. She doesn’t have her appendix, gallbladder, spleen, or pancreas so we knew it couldn’t be that but it doesn’t leave much else. While we don’t unfortunately have super concrete answers (answers but just lead to more questions ) we do know she’s not emergent. Cincinnati’s surgery team called this afternoon to check on our girl and we have come up with a game plan and some monitoring items. For now, we are home and hopefully catching up on some much needed sleep.

Tuesday we had Cristina’s follow up from the hospital with her pediatrician. Cristina was feeling better by this appt bu...
09/03/2026

Tuesday we had Cristina’s follow up from the hospital with her pediatrician. Cristina was feeling better by this appt but we were still having issues with her glucose. After struggling with continuous blood sugars above 300 we had a feeling there was an additional culprit. Unfortunately she has another ear infection. Usually with infections we do see these stubborn glucose levels that just don’t respond to insulin as well as she typically does and just requires more. The pediatrician put her on antibiotics and wants us to follow up next week to see if the infection has gone away or if we need to place Cristina on additional antibiotics. Apparently her ear drum was super red yet like true Cristina fashion she doesn’t feel the pain. The only thing she is struggling with right now besides the stubborn glucose levels is her hearing. She is having a hard time hearing out of the one ear which is sadly also the norm with these pesky infections. We are hoping eventually these ear infections stop or we may have to be faced with the decision of placing ear tubes again for the 7th time. 😔 at least she is feeling better and is just only having issues with her hearing now. Also good news, we received word from the hospital that her blood cultures all officially came back as no growth day 5. I’ll take that victory!

Cristina update: She’s been sleeping for 12+ hours each night since the ER. She’s been eating and staying hydrated and h...
08/30/2026

Cristina update:
She’s been sleeping for 12+ hours each night since the ER. She’s been eating and staying hydrated and her temp hasn’t gone above 99.9 since being discharged home which is a great sign. Her blood cultures will take about 5 total days but so far on day 2 the cultures are still showing no growth. 🙌🏻 She mostly is just laying down either watching TV, playing games on her phone and FaceTiming with her friends. Felix our cat is on duty. He typically watches over her when she’s not feeling well. Always has since she was a baby. When she was little and he would hover over her we knew she was getting sick or getting a pancreatitis episode because he would be very clingy to her. The only thing we are struggling with right now is her blood sugar which unfortunately is pretty standard when she gets sick. It’s like a roller coaster effect sometimes. Her blood sugar was elevated most of the day yesterday and finally came down after 4am only for it to go up again when she woke up this morning. Thankfully no ketones so that is another blessing. Overall she has been slowly feeling better each day. Later this week she’ll have to follow up with her pediatrician. Please keep the prayers coming! They are working! Thank you all ❤️
Pic: you’ll see the cat among the stuffed animals in the bed all on duty.

08/30/2026

2am Saturday morning and this one is just laughing and making jokes while in the ER. She had to get IV antibiotics per her fever protocol. She was laughing for a good 10 minutes thinking I was farting when it was in fact the IV 😂 No matter what or how she is feeling Cristina always manages to find happiness and laughter. Gotta love her.

Cristina and mama are both tired today. Last night Cristina spiked a fever and we had to go to the emergency room around...
08/29/2026

Cristina and mama are both tired today. Last night Cristina spiked a fever and we had to go to the emergency room around midnight. This was after having a big appointment at the medical arts building that afternoon and a very long day. Due to Cristina no longer having a spleen she is at high risk for life threatening infections and is to go to the ER for blood cultures and a work up, as well as IV antibiotics anytime she presents with a fever of 100.4 or greater. Due to her fever she did develop a headache but you couldn’t tell due to her positive spirit and laughing. Every nurse and doctor that came in last night including 4 nurses, VAT (vascular access team due to her poor vein access) and 2 doctors all laughed at some point with her. We were thankfully discharged around 3:30ish this morning after learning Cristina’s fever is due to a virus. Little one always manages to get sick around her birthday each year without fail. After not going to bed until around 5am, we slept in until almost 1pm. She’s still feeling pretty crummy but we will be home and hydrating and giving her medicine. Here’s to a weekend of resting and Disney movies. Just what the doctor ordered. Literally after hearing she’s a Disney fan especially Marvel he told her about a Marvel playlist on Disney Plus she’ll be watching all weekend now.

08/18/2026

Cristina’s Magical 12th Birthday Weekend at Disney. Sunday was Cristina’s 12th birthday. We got to celebrate the entire weekend at Disney. 4 parks, 14 rides, 3 days, endless laughs and countless hours of fun. In 2022 Cristina was only able to do Mickeys Not So Scary Halloween and barely did it without the use of the wheelchair everywhere. She could barely walk to and from the buses. This year she didn’t even need to use the wheelchair until Day 3 but that was after so many hours spent at the parks Friday and Saturday. To see her living her best life is such a blessing. Even when diabetes would try to get the best of her at times, we stayed on top of the glucose levels as close as we could and in the end we got the hang of it. I’m so glad we had this opportunity. We made memories this weekend that are going to last a lifetime. To see Cristina experiencing things for the first time was awesome. Heck she went on 14 rides and probably would have rode more or some twice if she had the chance. My not so little warrior. 4 years ago birthdays weren’t easy for her. She is thriving 3 and a half years post transplant and we are forever grateful. Every birthday feels like a new celebration now. Happy birthday Cristina. We love you.

Forever grateful ❤️
05/23/2026

Forever grateful ❤️

05/20/2026

At the end of last year we did a podcast with Make-A-Wish Southern Florida detailing Cristina’s journey from diagnosis to WrestleMania and after. Incredibly thankful for Make-A-Wish and all they have done for our family. Check out the episode now ❤️

05/20/2026

Cristina’s story is out now ❤️ Thank you Make-A-Wish!

Address

3001 W Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd
Tampa, FL
33607

Website

,

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Cristina’s Health Journey posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category