Cassandra Hargin-Muller has no qualms admitting she is a bit different from others.
First of all, she considers Seattle Children’s Hospital a second home and calls it her “happy place.” Second of all, she looks back at the time she was diagnosed with and treated for stage-four rhabdomyosarcoma — a type of muscle cancer — with fond memories. And finally, after (reluctantly) aging out of Children’s, the Redmond native is returning to the place where she received intense chemotherapy and radiation treatments for her condition — all with a big smile on her face.
“The Children’s Hospital cockroach,” she said with a laugh, describing how she’s not making it easy for the hospital to get rid of her.
COMING FULL CIRCLE
While in the past, Hargin-Muller, who graduated from Redmond High School in 2008 and now lives in Kirkland, has entered the hospital as a patient, this summer, she will be on the other side of the medical chart.
Earlier this month, she graduated from Seattle University’s College of Nursing and will soon begin a summer internship in Children’s pediatric oncology unit — the same unit in which she was treated as a kid, though it is in a new wing in the hospital.
Hargin-Muller was diagnosed in November 1995 at age 5. She received chemotherapy and radiation and underwent nine surgical procedures to remove a grapefruit-sized tumor in her left gluteal muscle near her hip. She went into remission by July 1996 and since then, has been cancer free.
Despite her grave prognosis, Hargin-Muller said she enjoyed her time at Children’s because the nurses and doctors were so nice, she made friends and the environment was so kid friendly.
“They do such a good job of making it not sterile,” she said, adding that Children’s always has activities to keep kids and families busy such as visits from Santa, clowns, hospital dogs and more. “They’re really catering to kids.”
Hargin-Muller said she couldn’t have asked for a better experience and as a result, she grew up looking up to the nurses who treated her rather than the singers, actresses and other celebrities young girls typically idolize.
In deciding to go into the medical field, Hargin-Muller said she chose to be a nurse rather than a doctor because nurses have a bigger role in a patient’s treatment and are more involved. She also chose to go into pediatric oncology with the goal of returning to Children’s.
“That is the only place I will ever want to work,” she said.
HELP FROM THE COMMUNITY
Hargin-Muller, now 23, said another reason she wasn’t too scared during her illness was because she was still fairly young and oblivious of the seriousness of her situation.
Her parents, however, were fully aware of her condition.
“I really struggled at first — realizing that the apple of my eye had just been diagnosed with something that carried a 25 percent survival prognosis,” said Hargin-Muller’s father Bill Hargin.
Hargin said they were able to turn to family, their church community and neighbors for support and help with meals, house cleaning and other logistics. He said the people at Children’s and the Make-A-Wish Foundation helped, as well.
“We also made friends with a number of families whose kids were going through treatment at the same time,” Hargin said. “There’s kind of a camaraderie that develops as you go through the same thing together.”
A LONG ROAD TO SUCCESS
Even though Hargin-Muller has had her sights set on nursing since she was a little girl, it wasn’t easy.
As a result of her treatments, she developed “chemo brain,” a condition that she said, “pickles” the brain and affects a person’s cognitive thinking. Getting a degree is do-able, Hargin-Muller said, but difficult. A science degree, such as one in nursing, is even more difficult as it requires a lot of memorizing and “chemo brain” affects a person’s rote memory, she said. Hargin-Muller began showing signs of the condition in elementary school.
“It was so hard to get through college,” said Hargin-Muller, who chose to get her degree in five years to make her course load more manageable. “It was like running a marathon.”
Hargin said any parent is proud to see their child finish college but for him, watching his daughter power through some of the post-treatment obstacles she has faced, “has been nothing short of amazing.”
Hargin-Muller said after what she went through academically, she wants to work on making resources available to students struggling with “chemo brain.” She pointed out that accommodations are made for individuals with dyslexia and attention deficit disorder; “chemo brain” is just as real a condition.
Although it would have been nice for someone to initiate this while she was in school, Hargin-Muller has no problem taking on a leading role.
“I am happy to be a pioneer,” she said.
