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OUTDOORS
East Oregonian
Saturday, January 26, 2019
EASTERN OREGON PRESENTS…
WINTER WONDERLAND
Photo contributed by Barbara Morehead
Frozen fog clings to trees and vegetation on Weston Mountain.
A
couple of area photography enthusiasts recently captured frosty proof of the winter season. People are invited to submit
landscape or other interesting photos for possible inclusion in Your EO News. Attach as a high resolution jpg and email to:
community@eastoregonian.com. Also include when and where it was taken, any other relevant details and your name.
Photo contributed by Barbara Morehead
Photo contributed by Larry McMillan
Camas Creek, located south of Ukiah, provides a frigid reminder that Old Man Win-
ter is still passing through.
Earlier this week, a fresh blanket of snow covering the foothills of the Blue Moun-
tains could be viewed from the Grecian Heights neighborhood of Pendleton.
Tiny warrior: Conventional treatments limited, alternatives hard to come by
Continued from Page C1
loan them a condo near the
Portland hospital complex
where they currently spend
much of their time.
After learning about
a promising, but wildly
expensive sea cucumber
extract, Jeff paid $900 out of
pocket for the first month’s
supply. Later, he was able to
get more of the medicine by
enrolling Dylan in a study.
They are also able to pay
for cancer-fighting canna-
bis extracts that are not cov-
ered by insurance — some-
thing Casey says families
with less income and com-
munity support wouldn’t be
able to do.
U.S. Rep. Jaime Her-
rera Beutler, the mother of
a child with a rare, usually
fatal disease, invited the
Harrells to visit her family
in Camas. They took Dylan
to their church, where their
pastor prayed over her.
“It was really, really
heartfelt,” Jeff said. Herrera
also used her connections to
help the Harrells get access
to an experimental drug.
Still, the costs of even
standard treatments are
astronomical and caring
for a sick kid can be over-
whelming. On Mondays,
family members look after
Mason while Jeff, Casey
and Dylan go to Port-
land. On top of daily radi-
LEFT Dylan Harrell’s preschool teacher, Jeri Wilson, pro-
vides occasional respite care. When she comes to visit, she
bring’s Dylan’s favorite foods.
ABOVE Community members have painted dozens of rocks
with colorful images and inspiring messages, which they
sometimes leave in the driveway for her to find when she
comes home from treatment.
EO Media Group photos/Natalie St. John
ation treatments, there are
appointments with the neu-
rologist, the oncologist,
the naturopath, the canna-
bis consultant, the physical
therapist and the occupa-
tional therapist.
Dylan has been a very
good sport, her parents
say, but certain aspects of
her care are major ordeals.
Once a week, her providers
have to change the sticky
dressing that covers the IV
port in her left arm.
“I am not into that,”
Dylan said. She takes doz-
ens of pills a day. The sea
cucumber extract is an
unappetizing
green-gray
slime. It’s tasteless when
mixed with juice, but Dylan,
a skilled and determined
haggler, tries to negotiate
her way out of every dose.
‘Little
things
don’t
matter’
These days, Casey and
Jeff shrug it off when one
of the kids chips the paint
or breaks a dish. If they see
a fight brewing over a bowl
of snacks, they pour another
bowl.
“The little things don’t
matter anymore,” Casey
said.
In a house where some-
one has DIPG, even lit-
tle victories are big. Two
weeks ago, Dylan’s hands
shook violently as she tried
to eat. She was too tired
to talk much, and couldn’t
walk at all. On Nov. 25, she
was steady enough to eat
unaided, take a couple steps
with her walker and chat
as she dressed her Barbies.
The radiation honeymoon is
working, for now. Her sense
of humor is coming back
and she hasn’t vomited in
weeks. She’s feeling stron-
ger — she played for about
10 minutes before saying,
“Mommy, I’m getting a lit-
tle bit tired.”
Her good streak brings
Casey and Jeff gratitude
and joy, but it’s bittersweet.
They know it will probably
end, and they don’t know
when. They find them-
selves checking constantly
for returning symptoms,
watching her while she
sleeps to make sure she’s
still breathing.
“You feel like you have
this pressure in your chest,
almost like a heart attack,”
Jeff said. “It’s like you
have trouble breathing. It’s
always there.”
Regardless of the out-
come for Dylan, the Har-
rells say they’ll be pushing
for a cure and advocating
for DIPG families for the
rest of their lives. They
hope, eventually, to start a
foundation that would help
families cover the costs
of things like travel and
non-traditional treatments.
They want to repay the
kindness people all over the
world have shown to them.
For now, they’re squarely
focused on making Dylan’s
life as good as it can be, for
as long as possible.
“We
aren’t
giving
up hope,” Casey said.
“We don’t want to be the
statistic.”
Follow Dylan’s prog-
ress on Facebook at bit.ly/
dylan-harrell