A Spokane woman with a rare hardening disease dies and survives her doctors’ predictions by six years

At the age of 22, Cat Davis was alone in a doctor’s office when her practitioner said, “You have 2-5 years to live, but don’t worry, you will never have wrinkles.”

Davis, a graduate of Northwest Christian School, was diagnosed with CREST syndrome in 2010. The syndrome, which consists of five combined diseases, causes scleroderma, which literally means “hard skin”. Davis’ immune system attacked and destroyed her healthy tissue, making it so tough it was difficult to insert needles for her medication, Davis told The Spokesman Review in 2013.

“When you’re in your early twenties, you keep being told how the world is at your feet, how the world is your oyster, or how you can do whatever you want,” Davis wrote in a 2016 column for The Spokane Coeur d’Alene Living Magazine.

“Life happens,” she wrote. “It depends on how we react. We need to realize that we have a choice. We have a choice to love both our good times and our bad because we never know what the next minute will bring. “

Davis made life possible six years longer than some doctors predicted she would have to live. She died this week at the age of 33. This comes from an update of a BuckF list from GoFundMe for Davis that has now been turned into a fundraiser for commemorative expenses. It is run by Melinda Sanchez.

Davis’ illness was a long, hard battle. After graduating from high school, she moved to Arizona and worked as a waitress and in a medical clinic, her mother told The Spokesman-Review in 2011.

When Davis left her parents’ home before her diagnosis, they qualified for Medicare and dropped her insurance policy. By 2011, she had spent about $ 30,000 on her medical expenses, mostly with funds borrowed from a friend.

They kept trying everything. Davis ended up in Mexico for regenerative cell therapy that was not offered in the United States. The treatment made her sick. She showed a brief improvement before she got sick again.

Her hands were curled up until 2012. It was difficult to stretch your arms above your head. She had difficulty sleeping because the symptoms of the esophagus made her vomit when she leaned back.

Then she took a risk in the form of stem cell treatment, although some of her doctors didn’t think she would survive.

She suffered two nasty bouts of chemotherapy during the trial. After the doctors harvested 14 million stem cells, she went through her second round of chemotherapy and lost 20 pounds.

Eventually she got her transplant in Chicago. Before the transplant, she had deteriorated rapidly. Then she could shower, get dressed, and drive again.

However, the insurance did not cover stem cell treatment. Instead, a Cure for Cat campaign launched by her friends and the Northwest Christian School raised tens of thousands of dollars, mostly from Spokane donors.

“I literally believe Spokane saved my life,” Davis said in 2012.

In the last months of her life, donations helped Davis cross every line on her bucket list, Sanchez wrote on GoFundMe Tuesday. She traveled to Hawaii, visited her long-distance friends, and spent Christmas with her family, the update said.

“Cat went into the arms of Jesus. She fell asleep and looked very peaceful, ”wrote Sanchez.

Sanchez wrote that Cat wanted everyone to know Jesus the way they felt.

“When I feel down, God always shows me in some way that my illness allows me to be a light to others in their darkness,” wrote Davis in 2016. what I’ve been, smile through The only answer I have is that it’s not me, it’s all because of Jesus. My faith makes every day bearable, and that alone makes all the pain and suffering worth it. “