After being diagnosed with stage-three pancreatic cancer almost two years ago, Darlene DeHarde is defying the odds and continuing to live, fight and beat the disease.
DeHarde, a St. Charles native and Hahnville High School graduate, is not yet 50 but she has been fighting for her life every day since October 2009.
When her upper back pain first started in the summer of 2009, DeHarde, a 2nd grade teacher at the time, thought she may have had gallbladder problems.
“I was having back pains…I thought I was carrying too many heavy books. All of the sudden in late summer, it started to get really bad and people were telling me it could be my gallbladder,” she said.
She finally went to the emergency room at the urging of her mother.
Doctors found nothing unusual until they came across a calcified cyst on DeHarde’s pancreas.
“They went ahead and cut it out; they had to take the spleen and gall bladder out too. They sent the samples in for routine testing,” she said.
A few weeks later in October, DeHarde got the worst news of her life.
“They got the results back and found cancer in the lymph nodes and it turned out to be stage-three pancreatic cancer, which is very aggressive cancer,” she said.
DeHarde said that doctors urged her to fight for her life from the very beginning.
“(The doctors) said ‘You’re young and healthy and we’re going to fight this,’” she said.
According to the American Cancer Society, only 20 percent of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer live for more than one year. DeHarde has not only defied the odds, but her cancer has stopped growing.
She immediately started going to MD Anderson Cancer Center and was started on intravenous chemotherapy, then radiation, then both. So far, she has had 33 rounds of radiation, but doctors say she is taking it well.
She said that doctors are giving her more treatment than most peoples’ bodies would be able to handle.
One of her radiologists is a professor at Columbia University and is using her as a case study for his students.
“I told him: You wouldn’t want me to die, that would ruin your study,” she said, laughing.
While DeHarde did lose a lot of weight, doctors continued to give her as much treatment as she could handle.
“The biggest thing I lost was my memory, but I’m not sure if that was because of my 50 years or because of the cancer,” she joked.
Now, almost two years later she is still taking three chemotherapy pills twice a day, every day and going in for a CT scan every three months, but she has started gaining her weight back. However, some of the effects of the cancer, like the loss of the enzyme-producing half of her pancreas, will never be cured. For the rest of her life, she will have to take enzyme pills before eating anything that contains fat because her body needs the enzymes to break down the fat.
“I can live with that, though – I can live with anything as long as I get to live,” she said.
So far, doctors have been able to isolate the tumor and keep it from growing at all.
“They tell me (the cancer) is stable right now, but they’re watching it,” DeHarde said. “It’s an aggressive cancer and they want to keep it at bay.”
One of her biggest obstacles in treatment is still to come. In July, doctors will try to pull DeHarde off of chemotherapy treatments to see how her body will react.
“I’m excited because I hate chemo, but I’m scared because maybe that’s what’s keeping (the cancer) from growing,” she said. “I have a little bit of mixed emotions…but I have so many people praying for me and I have so much confidence in the doctors…I just can’t lose faith.
“They brought me back from aggressive stage-three pancreatic cancer. If this monster rears its head again, they’re going to kill it again.”
DeHarde was a cheerleader at Hahnville High School in the class of 1979. Friend Regina Allemand said that classmates have offered a lot of support to DeHarde.
“Darlene was a cheerleader for us for many years, now it’s our turn to be a cheerleader for her,” Allemand said.
Allemand and other friends of DeHarde have organized a 50th Birthday Bash fundraiser on April 2 to raise money for DeHarde’s cancer treatments. Like DeHarde, most people in the HHS class of 1979 will turn 50 this year. The event will take place at Cajun Cottage in Taft from 7:30-11:30 p.m. and a $10 donation is requested. Allemand said the event is open to anyone who wants to join, but it is aimed at those in the parish who are turning 50 within the year before or after the event.
DeHarde said she is so grateful for her classmates, family and other friends throughout St. Charles Parish. Now she is focusing on getting better, taking care of her 16-year-old daughter and looking forward to one day working a desk job – she will never be able to teach 2nd grade again.
“I really want to thank all of the wonderful classmates and people who have already been so supportive and helpful to me throughout my sickness,” she said. “I think whenever you’re sick, you should look at the glass as half full and never, ever, ever give up.
“I’m a real regular person and proof that miracles do happen.”
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