Portraying Captain Hook in her school’s performance of Peter Pan, Lyla Morel brought the character to life.
Getting to the stage, however, took perseverance. It was no guarantee for the R.J. Vial Elementary School student, who suffered an unexpected and rare health setback leading into the play.
On Oct. 22, Morel’s mother Britt brought her to the family’s pediatrician for evaluation, after the 10-year-old – she’ll turn 11 in a few days – began feeling upper abdominal pain. Tests revealed she was suffering from chronic pancreatitis, that a mass had formed in her pancreas and that she had blocked, atrophied bile ducts.
The great and relieving news was that the mass wasn’t cancerous. The situation as it was, however, still loomed. Morel had a significant road to recovery ahead, and in the short term, a play she badly wanted to perform in.
“We were kind of blindsided at first when we received the news, then everything kind of moved quickly,” said Britt. “We really thought her symptoms were something she could work through, and we didn’t even consider that it could get so bad, so fast that Tuesday’s show wasn’t even going to be a possibility. Sunday evening was when she kind of took a turn for the worse and we ended up in Children’s Hospital.”
The idea that she’d be sidelined was heartbreaking for Britt and husband Taylor, who knew how much it meant to their daughter.
“We didn’t see how it would even be possible,” Britt said. “I felt kind of uncomfortable even mentioning something like that to her doctors – we didn’t want to create any kind of wishful thinking. Her health was so much more important for her than getting to that show.”
But Lyla was still hopeful, even while on IVs and taking pain medication.
“She was like, just get me there,” said Taylor. “I’m ready to go, I’m ready to perform. And the nurses would come in and say ’oh, you’re going to be in a play?’ And I hoped, maybe they know something more than I do, because I’m pretty much a realist and thinking this isn’t going to happen … it’s midnight on Monday morning, and no way do we think within 24 hours, she’ll be well enough to leave the hospital.”
But indeed, Lyla was discharged under strict instructions, making it on stage and pushing through her situation to make her performance count.
“She’s a quick learner and she was ready,” said Britt. “She pulled some strength. We prayed together about it … she just loves it and wanted to be up there so much. And it was pretty amazing for her theater teacher (Megan West) and principal (Christina Mullins). They worked super closely with us.
“Ms. West was constantly updating with us and at no point did she ever say she was considering pulling Lyla. It was 1 o’clock in the afternoon and she was still in the hospital, and she says we are believing that Lyla is going to be here today. That means so much to us, because in many cases a director isn’t going to take that risk.”
That faith, as well as Lyla’s, was rewarded.
Still, she has a road to recovery before her. On Oct. 31, Lyla underwent surgery. Two stints were placed, but the blockages were not able to be removed as the stones proved too large and jagged to remove without potentially damaging her bile ducts.
The Morels were told her case is a very rare one.
“Her surgeon will be presenting her case at a conference he’s attending next week to seek ideas for her treatment going forward. He said he’s never seen a child with this many stones or stones this large,” Britt said. “He said he’s done thousands of pancreatic surgeries on children and this one is top three in his entire career.”
Her case is so unique, in fact, that her surgeon was set to present the case at a conference this week to seek ideas on her treatment going forward.
While the family waits for the next step, Lyla is doing her best to improve matters.
“She’s super aware,” Taylor said. “She’s very conscious about what she eats now. She knows what can cause it to feel worse. It was hard for her to come to terms that her diet was going to have to change significantly.”
Lyla has good days and bad days, and the bad days can be painful.
“We don’t know exactly how long this is going to take, but we know that it has to get done soon,” said Taylor.
