Loving Life & Living Pickleball
A three-time cancer survivor, Erica McNeal is now a pickleball tournament champion and co-owner of Pickleball Ninjas.
BY ERICA MCNEAL
When I was 22 years old, I learned the hard way that the only difference between a stumbling block and a stepping-stone is how you use it.
I was a graduating senior in college, captain of our women’ s volleyball team, and so excited to“ start real life.” However, I learned quickly that sometimes real life could be difficult when I was diagnosed with a very rare type of cancer, so rare in fact that my doctors had never heard of it. After researching, they found that this type of cancer had only been diagnosed in a handful of men over the age of 80. After surgery and three weeks of radiation, my doctor told me that if the cancer returned, I could have two months to live.
Four and a half years later, I was newly married to the man of my dreams when my cancer returned. My husband Todd was on his first of four military deployments and not expected to be home for three months. Doing the math, I reached him and told him that if he wanted to see me again, he would need to come home. He was sent home a week later and I went through another surgery and three more weeks of radiation. Thankfully, I went into remission again.
At that time we were told the cancer was not as aggressive as once believed and given the all-clear to start a family. In 2006, we had our first daughter, Jordyn, who is now 11 years old. We had no idea at the time what a true miracle she would be.
In the three years following Jordyn’ s birth, my husband and I experienced the premature delivery of our daughter Kylie, who only lived for 80 minutes, a miscarriage, and a failed adoption of a little boy we named and brought home from the hospital. His mom had decided to revoke his adoption plan and we were totally crushed.
In our grieving, my husband and I threw caution to the wind and became pregnant with twins. However, at around 10 weeks I miscarried and was left emotionally raw and exhausted. In a way only God can do, that exact same day our now-adopted son was born. When Austin was seven months old, we finalized his adoption and it was a true celebration.
However, that celebration would not last long. Just two weeks later, my cancer returned. This time, my doctor decided on chemotherapy. The chemo drug was supposed to be low-key with few side effects, but I ended up with a life-threatening anaphylactic reaction. It left me with inflammation in my heart and lungs, as well as an autoimmune disorder. Apparently I am highly allergic to mice and the chemo was infused with mice antibodies. While my heart returned to normal after a few months, the inflammation in my lungs caused severe chest pain and pressure for more than three years.
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