{"id":1299,"date":"2019-02-19T22:13:40","date_gmt":"2019-02-19T22:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/?p=1299"},"modified":"2019-02-19T22:19:40","modified_gmt":"2019-02-19T22:19:40","slug":"family-community-rally-around-young-mother-dealing-with-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/?p=1299","title":{"rendered":"Family, community rally around young mother dealing with cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Editor’s note: Trina and Shane Eia are in Arizona, where she is receiving natural-based cancer treatments. Shane will soon be returning home to the couple’s three children and Trina will return when her treatment course is complete \u2014 probably in a month or so. The following story ran originally in The Daily Item newspaper on New Year’s Day.<\/em><\/p>\n

A series of devastating events emotionally pummeled Trina Eia and her young family the first week of November, leaving the 36-year-old mother of four struggling to regain her composure.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Nov. 5 X-ray discovered a 6-centimeter mass in the Paxtonville woman\u2019s chest near her esophagus\/trachea\/heart region.<\/span><\/p>\n

A followup CT scan on Nov. 8 revealed a 3-centimeter mass in her lower right lung.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat first week was\u00a0especially brutal. Mygrandmother, who I was\u00a0really close to, passedaway the Sunday before\u00a0my masses were discovered.\u00a0The whole time at her\u00a0funeral, I kept thinking,\u00a0Am I going to be next?\u2019\u201d\u00a0said Eia. \u201cI had a hard\u00a0time sleeping and wouldwake up crying. I couldn\u2019t\u00a0think about my awesome\u00a0husband or wonderful<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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children without bawling. I even recorded a message to be played at my<\/span>\u00a0funeral.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A Nov. 14 bronchoscopy lead to news that she did, indeed have cancer. On Dec. 6, she met with a team of doctors who shared that her cancer was Stage 3 mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the lung, an extremely rare form of cancer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMucoepidermoid carcinoma is usually\u00a0<\/span>associated with the salivary<\/span>\u00a0gland, and even then it is considered rare,\u201d said Dr. Rajiv Panikkar, chair of the cancer institute at Geisinger Medial Center. \u201cOnly about 6 to 8 percent of people who have cancer of the head, neck or throat have mucoepidermoid carcinoma, and it is much more rare for it to show up in the lung.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Treatment options for Eia\u2019s condition are limited.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, they\u2019re pretty sure it is considered low-grade, which means chemotherapy would not work, and 1 agree with the doctors that surgery would be too dangerous because of where the lymph nodes are placed in relation to the rest of my body,\u201d said Eia. \u201cBecause of its rarity, they were not 100 percent sure yet if radiation would work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On Dec. 11, Eia had a second consultation at the Envita Medical Center in Arizona and was encouraged by some of the facility\u2019s treatment options.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe had lunch with someone who actually went there and is currently cancer-free and would recommend it to anyone who has cancer,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause they also do more natural ways of dealing with cancer, a majority of the treatment will not be covered by insurance and the typical range for Stage 3 cancer like this at the facility ranges from $80,000 to $100,000.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the numerous potential hurdles, Eia relayed that she is in a much better place emotionally thanks to her faith.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne day in the shower, I felt the overwhelming love of God. I did not know if I would live or die, but I did know at that moment that Jesus Christ loved me very deeply,\u201d she said. \u201cSince then, my emotions are a whole lot<\/span>\u00a0better. I just keep thinking\u00a0of how I can best glorify\u00a0<\/span>God through this process.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The experience has led to healthier eating for Eia \u2014 which has, in turn, helped reduce some of the symptoms she\u2019s experienced with chest pain and chronic coughing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI learned through some research that cancer feeds on sugars, so the day after finding out about the mass in my chest, I cut out all processed and refined sugars,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNow my diet consists of raw vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds. While I do not enjoy eating this type of food, I feel so much better.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Another thing that has helped throughout the dark moments of the process is the outpouring of support the family has received so far.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been a truly humbling experience. I feel such love from God and others.<\/span><\/p>\n

People have sent cards, prayed with us, cleaned our house, gave our family Christmas presents, brought meals, offered to babysit, gave money and helped our children transition from homeschooling to taking classes at the Juniata Mennonite School,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trina and her husband, Shane, are not new to suffering or other\u2019s generosity \u2014 but have done quite a bit to reach out and help others.<\/span><\/p>\n

After a series of miscarriages and issues with infertility, the family decided to adopt two children from Ethiopia.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe sent our paperwork over to start the process, and<\/span>\u00a0found out a month later that I was pregnant,\u201d Eia said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThankfully, the adoption agency allows us to continue with the adoption.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Several months later, they were matched with Zeynu and Fozia, both around 18 months old at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we brought them home, they were still in 3-6 month clothing. Our son could not handle any textures in his mouth and just started to crawl at that time,\u201d she said. \u201cThey received a lot of therapy and once again, we were blessed by those around us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Zeynu and Fozia are now each 8 years old, Leif is 7 and the couple\u2019s second biological son, Elias, is 5.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a lot easier now that they are older, but when they were 3 and under, it was extremely challenging,\u201d Eia said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the dire diagnosis, Eia admitted that God’s love and provision through the family\u2019s current trials is visible through those who have offered their love and assistance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been very humbling and encouraging to see people\u2019s love and kindness to our family,\u201d she said. \u201cI really appreciate the prayers and I pray that God would be glorified through this all.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A GoFundMe account has been set up to help the family offset Trina\u2019s growing medical costs. It is available online by clicking here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note: Trina and Shane Eia are in Arizona, where she is receiving natural-based cancer treatments. Shane will soon be<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,959],"tags":[978,977,979,980],"class_list":["post-1299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christian-walk","category-health","tag-arizona","tag-eia","tag-gofundme","tag-mucoepidermoid-carcinoma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1299"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1301,"href":"https:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1299\/revisions\/1301"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}