Christina’s Story

Site created on January 21, 2021

**You may see Calls to Action to donate to Tributes. Please be advised that those donations go to the CaringBridge organization, not the Beverly family.**

On December 15, 2020, a large mass was found on my pancreas. After a biopsy and several tests, I have was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma of the pancreas. Ewing's sarcoma is very rare and is usually found in bone among children and teens. There are currently less than 30 documented cases of Ewing's sarcoma of the pancreas. It is an aggressive cancer so treatment was also aggressive.  Each month I had 5 consecutive days of in-hospital treatment and one day of outpatient treatment. After eight rounds, the tumor had shrunk about 90%. To remove the remainder I had to undergo a surgery called the Whipple. This is one of the most invasive and complicated surgeries around. They removed a portion of my pancreas, my gallbladder, bile duct, and duodenum. I had no idea how important those organs were until they were gone.

I was only able to complete two more rounds of chemo after the surgery. It took a severe toll on my body. We decided to stop chemo and I am healing very slowly.

It has been so encouraging to have friends and family from around the world support me in the adventure God has set before me.  To make things a little easier with updates and resources, we wanted to create a space where Nelson and I could keep everyone informed on our journey.  We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.

Newest Update

My project

Journal entry by Christina Beverly —

Hi everyone! Yesterday I was pretty brief :) After the good news, Nelson and I went to the Oxford Exchange in Downtown Tampa. It's a lovely place with a bookstore, gift shop, and restaurant. I overdid it with the eating and have felt poorly since. Oh well, new normal!

I am ready to share the project I mentioned a few posts ago.

Caringbridge has been a great tool for us to keep you updated, especially when things were at their darkest. But there's a slight stigma for me with it - I kind of perceived it as a place a person goes to die. Serious health problems to then death. I've followed several stories on here and unfortunately that has been the case.

But thankfully I'm healing! And I have my brain back (for the most part lol) and my body back (minus 30 pounds). And the other thing is that I'm a graphic designer, I'm a creator and so I must create!

So I'll be leaving this space for now. BUT there's a new place you can go to follow me and my misadventures!

Would love to see you over at https://livingrarely.com/.

I'm building this website to tell my story to a broader audience and to fill in some gaps I may have missed last year. There are videos and photos that I haven't yet shared with anyone. You can subscribe on the site for updates as well, which you will receive in your inbox whenever I publish a new post.

There's so many topics I want to get into to help others, and I want to give insight into what was going on in my head during all of this. I also have some exciting things coming up too!

I was able to chat with one of the state organizers for ACS-CAN and he says they really need patient stories to help push legislation through to increase awareness, research, and funding. So my website will be a way to help accomplish that as well.

Thank you to everyone who has followed here over the course of a year and a half. Your support and encouragement has been priceless. I will use Caringbridge to get out immediate needs or prayer requests when they arise. Other than that, I'm kinda glad to move on from this space. Onward and upward!

Read More of the journal titled "My project"
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