MIRACLE IN THE MAKING: Instructor fights off cancer in a matter of months

The fresh layer of snow glistened in the December morning light as math instructor Teri Donoho drove to school in her red Ford Fusion. Christmas was nearing and familiar jingles played on the radio while Teri passed houses covered in holiday decorations.

A few hours later she leaned on her desk filled with student papers so fiercely that her knuckles turned white. Her hazel eyes pinched shut, preventing tears from flooding her face. She felt like a knife was stabbing her stomach and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

Two months passed. It got worse.

“[The pain] woke me up at night,” Teri said. “I was down on the floor [and] I couldn’t get up. It hurt so bad. It was probably the worst pain I [had] felt up to that time.”

In February she went to see a doctor for the first time. He recommended having a CAT scan done. So Teri waited. She heard her phone ring at about 6 p.m. that evening.

“When your doctor calls you that night you know you’re in trouble,” Teri said.

Read more about Donoho in the Lance coming out 10/21.