Miranda Barrier is the mother of 3 beautiful children. ...Elijah 12 , Ian 10 and Ellen 6 yrs old. She has been married to Jarrod for almost 15 yrs. Miranda has stage 4 Melanoma and is currently trying the last medicine available to fight her cancer. We know it will work and are praying for a miracle!  I can not even imagine the physical and emotional battles she is fighting daily, along with her precious family...my heart is breaking for all of them. Prayer is so powerful...we are asking you to share her story and pray for her and her family.  Her husband is always by her side and takes off work to be at every appointment so if you can donate it would be a wonderful thing to do for her family.  You can make a difference.   Thank you in advance to each and everyone one of you that pray, donate and share her story!  

Here is her story:

(written by Leslie, her sister in law)

Miranda went to the doctor 2 years ago with a spot on her left side. She thought it looked odd and wanted to have it checked to make sure it wasn’t anything to be concerned about because she is fair skinned and her family has a history of skin cancer. We were all relieved to hear that the results came back benign. What a relief for her and the family!

June the 20^th of this year she woke up with a pain in her left side. When she reached down to feel it she found a knot. It was close to her breast so she immediately called the doctor and got an appt. She had a biopsy on June 25^th. They had plans to go to a friends house near the beach that weekend and as they were on their way the Doctors office called and said again that everything looked normal. We were all relieved again! They returned home Sunday evening. Jarrod got up and went to work Monday as usual and Miranda and the kids were home. She got a phone call from her Doctors office telling her they needed her to come in as soon as possible that they needed to do another biopsy. She could come Tuesday July 3rd or Thursday July 5^th. She went on Thursday and had another biopsy done. She didn’t hear anything Friday so it would be Monday. Monday came and she and I were talking she said she had a bad feeling about this biopsy. I reassured her that no news is always good news. She said she was going to call them for peace of mind. So she did and they said that the lab was backed up and they would call her tomorrow. They called her Tuesday morning and told her they thought it may possibly be cancer. We automatically thought Breast cancer because of where she found the knot. She had to go again at the end of July to have yet another biopsy done. Never did we expect to hear what the results would be! It wasn’t breast cancer it was Stage 3 Melanoma. It was in her Centinal lymph node near her left breast. She had what she had feared. We thought that they could just take the nodes out and it would be ok. They set an appt with M.D. Anderson in Houston and in the meantime she would have ANOTHER surgery to remove the lymph nodes. It was in 9 out of 29 nodes. When she went to Houston they looked at her and couldn’t figure out where this “skin cancer” came from! She was checked from head to toe in every crack and under every toe nail! Did not find anything! The only conclusion they could come to was that the biopsy from 2 years ago may have been wrong. If that’s the case then she has been walking around untreated! Houston and the Cancer Center she is going to agreed on her medicine to be “the devil” Interferon. She was to take it through IV for 4 weeks 5 days a week then 3 shots per week for 11 months. She was to start her treatments on August 27^th. Miranda’s birthday is August 25th and she turned the big 40! We went to Double Head Resort and stayed at a couple of our friends cabins! A little get away before she started her treatments. We had good weekend.

My Mother and Miranda’s Mother had decided that they would take turns staying at their house to be able to get the kids to and from school. Jarrod doesn’t usually get off work until after the kids bus runs. The meds made Miranda terribly sick. She stayed in the bed for the whole month that she had the IV treatments. They lowered the dosage to try to help with her sickness but she still felt horrible throughout the day. Her nights were very restless. Its hard for her to get comfortable from all of the biopsies. She bed hops as she calls it. I may wake up one morning and have a text message from her at 2:00 wondering if I was awake by chance. Lol usually I am asleep but I have been known to be up at that time! After kids u never sleep do u? She got passed her month of IV’s and went to the shots. They were not as strong and she tolerated them lots better however they still made her feel yucky! Another month passed and she went in for her blood work and again news we didn’t expect or want to hear. They found 3 more tumors underneath her left arm. She had to have a ct scan and biopsy. The biopsy was positive and ct scan showed spots on her liver. She is now stage 4. Only good news was it was not in her bones. Thank goodness! They changed her meds to Zelboraf. She will be taking 4 pills every 12 hours. Jarrod was on the phone trying to find a mail order pharmacy because the drug will have to be sent over night and can only go to one of these pharmacies. He found one and got her meds delivered and she is now taking them. She is having side effects from them and they are scary. She is having rashes and it feels like she has stuck her hands and feet in frying pans. This weekend she started noticing knots at the base of her head and this morning under her arm. They got her in and the doctor feels very confident that it is a reaction from the meds because the first 3 they found seem to be shrinking. Finally a bit of good news! He took her off of the meds for a week but no longer and is going to start her back at a lower dosage hoping her body can manage it better. Prayers have been answered this weekend!

Miranda talked to her doctor last week and asked him to be honest with her about her prognosis.  I know this is hard for them. The stress of what’s to come tomorrow and not knowing if the meds will work or not. It’s not just hard for them but for our whole entire family. Jarrod takes off work for every doctors appt that she has and is trying to keep up with 3 very active kids in sports and don’t forget homework! I want my Brother and Sister in law to not have to worry about every time he is off work that he is not getting paid. You don’t put cancer in your budget! There is no amount of donation that will be too small and will be greatly appreciated! I have felt so helpless and have wanted to do something to help them and through a friend I was led here. I hope that anyone who reads this can help if it’s only a prayer! Thanks to everyone!