Katie Pfeiffer said when she first laid eyes on the Siena College campus, it was “love at first sight” — and once she started classes there, she quickly integrated into the culture.

“I just loved the community, I loved it all,” said Katie. “I was a very active member.”

At Siena, Katie applied herself academically as she had in high school, and exercised her talents and interests. She sang in an acapella ensemble, and continued her passion for dance, a lifelong love she fostered since kindergarten at the Lathrop School.

Growing up in Newtown, she had taken five classes there: contemporary, jazz, tap, ballet, and hip hop, preparing her well to continue pursuing that passion.

Then, during Pfeiffer’s senior year, much of this motion and activity came to a sudden halt when a shocking cancer diagnosis threatened to rock Katie’s world off of its axis.

Nightmare

“I’ve been pretty healthy my whole life,” said Katie. “I took care of myself. So, when I started to have this pain in my shoulder, I didn’t think much of it.”

Katie was an avid dancer after all, and attested she had torn muscles and sustained other injuries dancing. She was used to a little soreness.

Suddenly, Katie’s shoulder became completely immobile, and her entire body began to itch with no response from medication. Katie went to an orthopedic for X-rays, which turned up something sinister.

“I was alone; they’re not going to tell me bad news by myself,” said Katie. “Then I got an MRI, and they didn’t call me about it the next day.”

Instead, the doctor called Christine Pfeiffer, Katie’s mom. They told Christine they found a malignant tumor wrapped around her shoulder blade. And after a referral to Yale, Katie underwent two biopsies.

Then came a weekend call while Christine was at work.

Christine’s coworker, a cancer survivor, knew the weight of a doctor calling on a weekend, and urged her to pick up the phone. However, Christine was reluctant.

“The minute they say it, that’s going to be it. I’m going to lose it,” said Christine, reflecting on the fateful day.

Before she got home, the doctor had already called her husband, Mel, to deliver the somber news: Katie had Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Spirit of Determination

This kind of diagnosis is overwhelming at any age, but at the crest of Katie’s senior year in college, it seemed to come at the worst time for the vibrant student.

Katie said she had to give the Siena College community all of the credit. She and her family had a good experience coordinating plenty of accommodations with the dean, and her professors followed suit, allowing her to use Zoom to access classes or participate asynchronously. Even friends stepped in to help her through.

“I had a tutor, one of my housemates, and she tutored me through two of the hardest classes that I had,” said Katie, reflecting on what helped her stay afloat academically.

Katie talked about “chemo-brain,” a nickname she had for her mental condition following her treatment every other week, which lasted four to five days and inhibited her focus.

“I would literally be sick for days, I’d feel like I had an awful flu. I didn’t want to eat, drink. It was really rough,” said the student, who explained she set her sights on graduating and resolved to “put the work in.”

“I worked through it. I did two or three hours of schoolwork a day, and I’d pace myself. The teachers were really understanding about that,” said Katie, adding she didn’t want to give up on school.

Katie realized she needed to keep her mind away from the messy details surrounding her physical health, because it felt like chemo was taking the life out of her.

“I knew I could do it,” said Katie. “I was holding onto my strengths.”

“I knew she needed something to look forward to or the disease would win. I was very nervous, I didn’t want Siena to say ‘no.’ If they said ‘no,’ I think it would’ve taken away all the hope she had,” Christine added.

Systems Of Support

To face challenges arising from chemo treatments every other week, Katie and her family developed a schedule in which Katie’s parents exchanged roles depending on what Christine described as their strengths.

Christine was the one to take care of Katie when she wasn’t feeling well, mindful of her “chemo-brain” moments.

She also took Katie on little outings to the store. Since Katie’s immune system was compromised during chemotherapy, her mother would make food shopping trips into specially planned outings for the two of them.

“I’d go late at night, so I could take her,” said Christine. “It wouldn’t be so crowded, and I could get her out of the house.”

In his role, Katie’s father was on-call for the trips to chemo, or when she was getting a port installed — trying times where he would have to be there for his daughter.

“My dad and I grew a lot closer through this,” said Katie. “He’d get me soup, and we’d do crosswords and word searches.”

Whenever she had to have a needle, Katie said her dad would hold her face and sing “There’s A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” from the Carousel of Progress in Disney World.

“My dad doesn’t think he’s done a lot … But he’s a real hero to me, and I don’t think he knows it enough,” Katie said.

There to ground Katie were her close friends, her brother who would buy her flowers, and her dog — her “little sidekick,” to hold close when others didn’t have the words.

“During chemo I’d talk to people, but it would be on my own terms,” said Katie. “A lot of people would never fully get what I was going through.”

Another thing that kept the graduate grounded was something unexpected for Katie and her family — Dancing With The Stars.

“I’ve never seen somebody so hooked,” said Christine, adding that while Katie couldn’t dance physically because of the illness, she just found an “amazing interest” in the reality show.

“Dance is something that I love, and I don’t think I could ever give it up,” said Katie. “Dancing With The Stars was something that I oddly found to be just fun.”

The accommodations and loving support paid off with one big surprise. Despite not making dean’s list before, Katie achieved the honor in the fall at Siena while she was getting treated.

Later in her daughter’s treatment, during the radiation sessions, Christine spent weekdays living in Albany and commuting back to town on weekends. She would pick up Katie from school, and drive her to her sessions.

“I don’t regret it one bit. Dad was chemo-buddy, but I was the radiation roadie, because I lived on the road for three weeks,” Christine said.

Even when the final PET scan came back clean, Katie said she didn’t consider herself cancer free until she was done with radiation. Finally, it was over.

“It was a mix of emotions. I was really happy and excited,” said Katie. It was also a sense of relief, because honestly, it was miserable.”

“I was just grateful,” she continued, adding she felt “a new sense of life.”

Graduation, which soon followed, seemed to hold more than one meaning for the family: a celebration of academic excellence and the freedom from illness. The ceremony also landed on Mother’s Day, which Christine regarded as “a gift” in itself.

From Experience

When asked if she had any advice for someone who’s beginning her journey with an illness in school, Katie had some wisdom to share.

“The biggest thing is, don’t let the illness dictate your life,” said Katie. “Don’t give up on your goals and dreams.”

Katie said if she gave up on graduating on time, she wouldn’t have had an escape, or felt like herself anymore. She advises not to have the mindset that you can’t be yourself just because you’re ill.

“Don’t let the illness define you,” said Katie. “Still do things that you love, because that’s something that will keep you going.

Christine said she has never been so proud of her daughter.

“I’ve watched her sick and sit there and still do her schoolwork,” Christine said. “I’ve never seen such determination in someone. Anybody would’ve given up the way she was feeling, but she just kept on plowing through.”

Any time she felt down, Christine said she reflected on what the doctor told Katie at Yale right after her diagnosis — “I can make you well.”

“I would hear these words in my head and I’d try to find the strength,” said Christine, who continued, and spoke about how her own daughter helped her find strength too, and helped her stop worrying all the time.

“I don’t anymore, because you know what she taught me? If you don’t enjoy yourself now, you don’t know what you have in your future,” said Christine, referencing her old inclination to worry. “None of us have a crystal ball.”

To mothers undergoing this hardship with their kids, Christine advises simply — “be there.”

“You will find that inner strength,” she added.

Living Life

On rejoining the world again, including the world of dancing, Katie said, “I think the whole recovery process is a challenge, not just physically. I think it’s worse emotionally.”

Katie continued, saying that she missed a lot at college, and didn’t get to do everything she wanted to do, but physically she is feeling “so much better.”

“I actually have my energy back, everything is basically done,” said the graduate, “but mentally, I feel like there’s such a long road ahead of me.”

Katie talked about rejoining the world from her own bubble, and dealing with the anxiety that comes with it, which she thinks she will “work through.”

Some challenges, though, are right in line with her peers — the mixed feelings of wonderment and overwhelm that come with finally having a college degree.

“I’m a graduate,” said Katie. “There’s this whole new challenge of ‘how do I navigate the work world?’”

When asked about what she was looking forward to, Christine reflected back first on the hard times.

“It was very scary. The whole concept of the thing was just a nightmare. I feel like we lived a nightmare for months,” she said.

Christine hopes to take Katie and the family to Disney World, a favorite place of the Pfeiffers. She said she is excited to do “summer stuff” with the family by simply enjoying time together.

“Having a nice, normal life,” for Christine, is “exactly” what she is looking forward to.

“I’m a big Disney fan. I had to cancel two trips, so I’m looking forward to finally going back to Disney World,” said Katie. “It’s my happy place.”

Katie, who graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Marketing with a minor in management, attested that since she was a freshman, her dream was to be the marketing manager for Disney. She said she is looking forward to exploring her major, and for the full ‘adulting’ of post-college life.

“I’m looking forward to moving on with my life,” said Katie. Moving on, of course, involves rejoining dance.

“I’m telling you, it’s in this kid,” said Christine about her daughter’s love of the artform. “It’s just her joy.”

After her interview with The Newtown Bee, the graduate was headed to Edmond Town Hall, back to her “little family,” Lathrop School of Dance.

There, she worked behind the scenes at the Stardust Revue: the biggest annual event for the studio, and a big return back into the world of motion in which Katie belongs.

Reporter Noelle Veillette can be reached at noelle@thebee.com.