What is Darla Talking About...

...Our daughter Ariel (El), her cancer, survived 4 months; diagnosed January 4, 2012

About to leave from the holidays to start her Junior year at Midwestern State University, El and her college roommate decided to go have some lunch, January 3, 2012.   After 24+ hours of symptoms of food poisoning not stopping, possible appendicitis thoughts began to creep in.

To put all of our minds at rest, we opted to visit Craig Ranch that evening of January 4th, 2012.   No, she didn’t have appendicitis. Our minds could not grasp that the scan found a "very large mass". This mass was not associated with her food poisoning symptoms yet it was approximately 10 cm mass around her pancreas.

Four hospitals later, endless tests, locating the best oncologist surgeon and team as well as a tandem vascular surgical team, on February 23, 2012, El underwent an almost 12 hour surgery.  The neuroendocrine tumor had invaded her pancreas, her spleen, her artery that fed blood to her body, the vessel that carried blood to the liver and gallbladder.

I am convinced of three things;

God the Almighty was not surprised at this and used the food poisoning to tell us “it’s time you know about this tumor”,

we could NOT have gotten through this without so many prayers and words of encouragement, and He is STILL The God of Miracles.

Looking back over the past two years I see her symptoms were indications of more.  We had attempted on more than one effort to obtain diagnosis for her symptoms of indigestion, high blood pressure, increased heart rate, back pain, racing heart, and her occasionally telling me, “Mom, my heart hurts sometimes”.   For almost 4 weeks summer of 2011, she wore a heart monitor.  Nothing was found.  In all cases we were assured with, “she’s in college, stressing, eating college food, not enough sleep, it’s the usual college syndrome.”  But that wasn't the case. This tumor grows very slowly and she had this for some time and her symptoms were reflective of this I'm certain. I remember telling my husband last summer, her Daddy who is also a physician, "There's something else, there is something more..." I was right. There was.

One day awaiting one of her several biopsies, both of us searching for something to laugh over I teased her and said, "All they are going to find is a mass of Tums!" Tums had become a "staple" in her life since she was about 18 years old.

After 5 days of MedSurg ICU, 15 days in the hospital, several post surgical complications and the loss of 30+ pounds, believe it or not, just this past Saturday, May 5, 2011, she moved back to M.S.U. to begin summer courses, thinner but tenacious!

She is cancer free.

What did El take away from this? She would tell everyone to not take for granted health.  She would assure you the only way one could get through this is by prayer. She and we prayed more than we had ever.  She didn’t realize how strong she was – neither did her Daddy and I!  She grew up quickly in this. 

What she plans to do with this?  The morning she was diagnosed I laid down at 4:45 AM to try to get some sleep in her hospital room after being awake all night.

.  I had a vision of her, all in pink and she was standing speaking to a small group of approximately 30 women, encouraging them. 

She is by The Almighty's design a counselor at heart. Anyone who knows her will agree with this. It comes so natural to her. She counsels people at every chance she gets, regardless of their circumstances, their age or what they are dealing with.

I shared with her this vision and that I KNEW, I KNEW God The Almighty One, would heal her here on earth and she would tell her story.  I clung to this and I believed God.  She believed Him too!  She is a warrior! She will tell everyone about this miracle!