My Sister, My Friend

Tuesday, May 25, 2010, I was on Facebook (imagine that!  ha.) and one of my college roommates/sorority sisters, April, posted on one of my sorority sister's, Dena's, page that she was praying for her and her family.

   My first thought......oh, no, what happened now?   

Dena and I are the same age.  We joined Delta Zeta the same year.  In college, I remember her having to mature pretty quickly.  Her dad was very sick.  She was very responsible!  I remember thinking many times how I could never handle what she was handling, and she handled it with so much grace.  

 Dena is very outgoing.  Very social.  Very FUN!  We always had a great time together!!

Dena is the type of friend that even if you don't talk to her often or see her for months, when you do see her it is like you never missed a beat.  Last year Joe and I were at the ENT in Searcy and I ran into her and her daughter.  She was trying to juggle holding Grace and finding all important insurance cards, and she says "Here Rae, can you hold her for a sec?  Grace, I promise you will be fine.  Rae loves kids!"  Grace looked at me like who in the world are you.  Dena and I just talked and talked.  I'm sure the other people in the waiting room thought we were crazy!

I quickly messaged April to see if everything was okay.  April quickly (Thanks, April!) wrote me back and told me that Dena had a brain tumor, was in the hospital in Little Rock, and would have surgery as soon as Thursday.  

Definitely not what I expected.

Dena has a 3 year-old daughter and a 4 month-old son.

She just had the chance to become a stay-at-home-mom.

What?  There must be some mistake.

I remembered her posting a few weeks ago that her husband had taken her to the hospital because she was having severe head and neck pain.  Then she posted that she was home and doing better.  

I never thought anything else about it.

On Tuesday, she posted on her Facebook:

I am doing good. Please continue all thoughts and prayers. I have a tumor on the right side of my brain. Hopefully they can shrink it and remove it by Thursday. Please just pray, pray, pray! Thank u for all of ur well wishes. Will post when I can. Christ is King and I believe in the power of prayer!

 On Wednesday, the day before her brain surgery, she posted:

Thanks so much for the thoughts and prayers! Surgery is after lunch this Thursday. All prayers are needed! Thanks so much! God is Good! All the time!

Go away brain tumor!

Wow!  What an awesome outlook!  She is so strong!

I am not a very patient person.....okay, so I admitted it.  It is hard for me to wait.  So I decided to do this post while I wait for an update.  Dena is still in surgery.  (She was when I started this post.  Now she is AWAKE!!)  I am refreshing my Facebook often waiting for updates.  It brings tears to my eyes how all of my DZ sisters are coming together praying for Dena.  Everyone asking for everyone else for prayers for Dena.  I've been out of college for 8 years.  We don't get to see each other often.  Some I haven't seen since college, but there is just something about that bond.  

I pray everything turns out the best it possibly can.  Please pray with me!

**UPDATE:  She is out of surgery.  Dena is awake! Dr. said it was a Medulloblastoma. Not the ideal tumor to have but Dena said "we'll deal with it." She may have to have radiation.

(I stole all of these pictures from her Facebook.)

 

Rae