What happened, in summary

Chrystie was 30 when severe pain led to hospitalization in March 2007. She was initially diagnosed with diverticulitis and spent months moving in and out of the hospital, including weeks of intravenous antibiotics at home. When she returned with severe pain in September, a colonoscopy found a large colon tumor after she had also been told she had ovarian cancer.

An operation was stopped when the surgeon found that the tumor was wrapped around an artery and could not be removed safely. After moving closer to her parents, Chrystie was hospitalized again with a major infection. Surgery left a long open abdominal wound requiring a wound vacuum for weeks. She received chemotherapy from January through May 2008, but another operation planned for June was unsuccessful.

By October, the infection had broken through her skin and no further cancer-directed options were offered. Chrystie returned home with a pain pump and received hospice care for 9 weeks. She died on December 19, 2008. Her mother remembered her as someone who kept smiling through an extraordinarily difficult illness.