Adriana Zelaya didn\u2019t want to go. She was in grade school then, a 9-year-old kid in Arizona on a school trip to the county fair, when one of her friends talked her into braving the house of mirrors. It took some convincing\u2014\u201cI don\u2019t really even like fairs,\u201d she says\u2014but reluctantly, Zelaya agreed.<\/p>\n
Inside, reaching out to feel her way through the disorienting maze, Zelaya smacked her hand against a mirror and accidentally elbowed herself in the stomach. For most kids, the result would have been a bruise and some temporary embarrassment. For Zelaya, something was different: She soon felt nauseous, and got sick on the bus ride home. Her parents took her to the ER, and before long she ended up in the hospital; no one had an answer. \u201cThey thought it was a hematoma,\u201d Zelaya says, but her grandmother, a nurse, insisted there was something more serious going on. She was in and out of the hospital for the next month, on and off pain meds, and lost 20 pounds off her slender frame.<\/p>\n
Finally, a second opinion from a new doctor revealed the source of Zelaya\u2019s suffering: pancreatic cancer. \u201cWhen I elbowed myself,\u201d she says, \u201cI actually ruptured the tumor.\u201d She can laugh now at the absurdity of it: Had her best friend not dragged her into the fun house that day, the fast-moving cancer, so rare in children, might not have announced itself until much later. \u201cIt was a miracle,\u201d she says. \u201cIf I\u2019d waited a couple more months, it would have been too late.\u201d<\/p>\n