Meet Wyatt Crippen VFL: May Cause Eyes to Leak

quote:

---

Think about your childhood. The most carefree years of your life spent doing things in a way that only children can. Learning about things for the first time, experiencing things for the first time, developing the love for a sport, for a team. Dreaming of playing that sport for that team. Wyatt Crippen's 10 years have not been so carefree. He has spent much of the last four years in a whirlwind of doctor visits, hospitals and chemotherapy. He knows more about brain tumors than any child ever should, he's fighting his third.

-SNIP-

"The love, I mean, they acted like they had known Wyatt for years," David Crippen said. "They were so glad to see him and he really got pumped up seeing everybody. I think it picked up his spirits. They tell us to keep his spirits up and that's tough to do after four years of hospitals and needles. But he realizes the battle he's been though and the experiences, he can do anything and be a part of a team, to be a normal kid."

Doctors told his family that it was a miracle the way he was able to recover from the removal of his first tumor. His current tumor is inoperable, but is treatable through his current course of chemotherapy. He will have an evaluation later this year to check the tumor's growth and to determine future courses of treatment.

But for one day, all of that was out of his mind. All that mattered was a big smile that just wouldn't come off of his face. He was a Tennessee Volunteer, and he had the jersey to prove it.

"He'll be wearing it to school tomorrow, I guarantee you," David Crippen said. "And the whole school will know about it."

---