Faith at foundation of Danielle Pint’s 5-year cancer fight

  Danielle Pint has been battling cancer off and on since 2012. She’s had good days and bad days, but she’s never given up hope or lost faith in God.
    “It (faith) has been such a source of strength,” Danielle said last week as she openly discussed the details of her stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. “No matter what happens, it doesn’t change who God is in our life and the work that he’s doing.”
    Danielle, a former teacher at Ralston (Neb.) Middle School, was first diagnosed with breast cancer in February 2012.
    “We decided to treat it naturally – through diet, lifestyle, environment, nutrition and exercise - and it went into remission,” she said.
    Already the parents of two sons – Josiah and Caleb - Danielle and her husband Ryan learned in 2013 they would be having another child. It was during the pregnancy that Danielle suspected the cancer had returned, but the confirmation didn’t come until after baby Garret was born.
    “We knew something had come back while I was pregnant, but we did not seek treatment because we knew I would not do chemotherapy while I was pregnant,” Danielle said. “It not only just came back, but it had come back with a vengeance to where it had metastasized and spread into the bone, the other breast, into my spine eventually into my brain.”
    That second diagnosis came in February 2014. Since then, it’s been a series radiation and chemotherapy treatments (three different types) in addition to brain surgery.
    The treatments have slowed the cancer’s progression, but not stopped the disease. That’s why later this month, Danielle will begin making a weekly commute from the Pints’ home in rural Glenwood to a clinic in Kansas City where she’ll undergo 10 weeks of hyperbaric oxygen treatments.
    “You’re in a tube and they give you 95-98 percent pure oxygen. It’s an extended treatment. The one I will be having is 90 minutes,” Danielle said. “The oxygen basically infiltrates your body. It crosses the blood-brain barrier and helps with wound care. I’ve had open wounds on both breasts for almost two years and nothing has been able to help close those up.
    “One other thing the oxygen does is it helps develop new vessels to bring oxygen to different areas of the body. Cancer doesn’t like oxygen, so we expect to see results as well in the size of tumors and hopefully even within the brain.”
    Danielle and Ryan are optimistic the oxygen treatments will stop the cancer from spreading and put the disease in remission. Danielle will receive four treatments a week at a total cost of $8,500. All costs will be paid out of pocket. Although insurance will not cover any of the expense, friends Danielle and Ryan have made through their connections with several Glenwood-area churches have stepped up and helped fund the treatments through online donations (www.gofundme.com/daniellepintoxygen).
    As of Tuesday, $7645 of the $8500 had been donated on her gofundme page.
    “We’re so thankful,” Ryan said. “We’re also very hopeful and confident in the treatment. Doctors said she shouldn’t be alive. God is showing us he’s good.”
    Danielle, a home school teacher for her children, knows the next 10 weeks will be a challenge, but through her faith in God, Danielle is optimistic the treatments will help her win the battle she’s fought for five years.
    “There’s always hope,” Danielle said. “There’s always hope.”