Thankful in the face of adversity
Courtesy photo A recent fundraiser for Cheryl Bryant was held at the Pinecreek Tavern. Pictured are Bryant and the ladies who put the event on for her. Back row, from left: Stephanie Brunner, Wendy Vergobbi, Jennifer Figueroa, Tammy Rahm, Dawn Jennings, and Tammy Nusz. Front row, Bryant, Casey Figueroa, and Stephanie Reed.
Cheryl Bryant is a thankful person.
In November of 2016, Bryant was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma, but as of last Thursday, she has finished her chemotherapy and is in remission.
Over the last six months Bryant has been through a roller coaster of emotion, having to jump numerous health hurdles.
Instead of dwelling on the overwhelming amount of pain and frustration she has experienced though, she has chosen the path of being thankful.
Thankful for friends, thankful for family, thankful for life.
And to think it all began with a hula hoop.
“Some girlfriends and I were doing some circuit training at Silver Valley Fitness and we got to a station with a weighted hula hoop,” Bryant said. “Later that night I was getting out of the shower and I noticed that my sides were bruising, which was weird because it didn’t hurt when I was doing it and by the next day they were black. I went to a volleyball game and was sitting with the same girlfriends and they were talking about the circuit training and me being me, I lifted my shirt on the side to show them the bruises and said jokingly, ‘none of you were working as hard as me.’ Their faces dropped and then they told me they thought I should see a doctor.”
Initially blood work detected a low count in Bryant’s blood platelets, which led her doctors to believe that she had a platelets disorder which would explain the fatigue and easy bruising.
“I received a phone call at two in the morning saying I needed to get to an emergency room because my platelets were as low as they’d ever seen,” Bryant said. “I drug my feet at first and asked if this was something that could wait until morning, but they said no and I began getting transfusions.”
The transfusions were not helping and Bryant’ doctors had just one more idea, a bone marrow biopsy.
“Lymphoma typically attacks of all of a person’s blood cells, not just the platelets,” Bryant said. “They did the bone marrow biopsy right at the beginning of November and that’s where they discovered I had Lymphoma.”
Since then, Bryant has had six rounds of chemotherapy and as previously mentioned, is in remission.
This trying time in her life won’t be remembered as her half a year of cancer though, it will be remembered as the time her friends, her family, and her community banded around her to make sure she and her family were taken care of.
Fundraisers were almost instantly planned for Bryant following her diagnosis, everything from auctions, spaghetti feeds, and supportive t-shirts were used to help generate financial support, meanwhile people would stop by with cooked meals and then hide cards full of money somewhere where Bryant would find them after they left.
The support was almost as overwhelming as the disease that she was bravely fighting.
“Even though I am someone who is not from here,” said Bryant a California (or more aptly South of Lewiston) native. “I would have never expected the kind of turnout that has been at these events and fundraisers. We are all functioning off a certain amount of money, time, and energy and to think that so many people have intentionally chosen to put me at the top of where they prioritize their resources is beyond humbling, it is such a blessing. I know how difficult it can be to fit things into your budget, even small things, I never would have dreamed that so many people would have came out to help me.”
Bryant’s faith has played an important role in keeping her mental health strong, which was not easy as she battled the physical aspect of it.
“I couldn’t have gotten through this without my faith in God,” Bryant said. “This trashes you physically, but the mental side of it, that’s the part that I don’t think you can pull through something like this if you can’t keep it together mentally because you have some really dark spots and you need your faith.”
One thing that kept being reiterated by Bryant during her interview, and it is something that she has always made clear.
She is so thankful.
“The outpouring of community support has been tremendous,” Bryant said. “I still can’t believe how much support I have received. I can’t even begin to express how thankful and appreciative I am for what they have done for me.”