Cedars, October 2017

by Tim Miller T he most fateful tragedies in life rare- ly happen to you. Your neighbor’s house catches on fire, not yours. Your friend’s mother gets diagnosed with cancer, not your own. For most people, the momentous instant in life happens to someone else . For Cedarville soccer player Creslyn Van Dyck, an inauspicious occasion actually happened to her, rather than a classmate’s distant relative. Last fall, Van Dyck began feeling woefully ill and was diagnosed with a brain tumor. “I didn’t know if I was ever going to play soccer again,” Van Dyck said. As her freshman season as a Cedar- ville women’s soccer player waned, Van Dyck’s symptoms started. While at first she was told it was just the flu, Van Dyck knew something more was off. On Oct. 29, 2016, Van Dyck totaled just eight minutes in the final game of the sea- son. Van Dyck said she attempted to play but felt dizzy and struggled to run. She was pulled early in the match and began to won- der if her flu-like symptoms were something more serious. A week of rigorous tests paired with unrelenting migraines kept Van Dyck in the hospital. During this time she found out about a swelling mass that was pressing against her brain. Joy White, wife of Cedarville Univer- sity President Dr. Thomas White, arranged for Van Dyck and her family to stay in the resident director apartment in Johnson Hall during this period. Van Dyck expressed gratitude to White for constantly doing what she could to keep Van Dyck and her family comfortable. The course of treatment was supposed to be a form of radiation called gamma knife surgery. The procedure is as close to non-in- vasive as it gets for brain surgery, so Van Dyck didn’t feel all that worried. Van Dyck, a native of Harrisburg, Penn- sylvania, traveled home with her family for the surgery. On the way, Van Dyck again was afflicted with unabated migraines. The family was forced to stop at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Upon arrival, Van Dyck learned the tu- mor was more serious than first interpret- ed. The tumor had aggressively attacked her body, and a more invasive and aggressive surgery needed to be performed. “It was definitely a lot scarier then, since I didn’t realize how serious it was at first,” Van Dyck said. “I remember sitting there and the neurosurgeon explained that the tumor had grown within a week to the point that it was blocking off my spinal flu- id.” Van Dyck was told that she needed a craniotomy. Without the operation, doctors told Van Dyck and her family that she would die. Back at Cedarville, women’s soccer assistant coach Brianne Barnes continu- ally collected slivers of new information from Van Dyck. Barnes was with Van Dyck through the entire process, and Van Dyck said Barnes was central in each stage. Barnes learned the news of the more serious diagnosis, and it was her undertak- ing to relay the news to Van Dyck’s team- mates. During one of the team’s scheduled Bible studies, Barnes, who didn’t typically go to the studies, showed up to deliver the news. “It was not a pleasant experience to tell the girls,” Barnes said. “We found out that this is a serious surgery and that we’d have to step up the timeline and do it right away.” Stephanie Cradduck and Grace Miorel- li, who are teammates of Van Dyck, were close to her through the entire trial. The two said they were enamored with Van Dyck’s ability to be faithful to God and that it al- lowed the team to grow. “We were all shocked at first,” Miorel- li said. “We weren’t expecting something huge like that to happen to her. But I think it brought us closer together. It just shows God’s provision and sovereignty.” On Nov. 17, Van Dyck had brain sur- gery. Upon waking up, Van Dyck was able to talk and read. She seemed to have avoid- ed any immediate complications. Less than a week after the surgery, Van Dyck was able to walk up a flight of stairs with rel- ative ease, and her doctors cleared her to go home. The three-hour drive from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg proved grueling for Van Dyck. The part of her brain that was affected by the tumor was unable to handle the long car ride, and she began vomiting when she ar- rived home. October 2017 16 COVER STORY Van Dyck Miraculously Playing After Brain Surgery Photo by Mikayla Veness Creslyn Van Dyck overcame brain surgery and returned to collegiate soccer in less than a year.