Category: Carrie-Anne (Page 1 of 12)

Just a short post today to update you on my wife Carrie-Anne. Yesterday’s reconstruction surgery went perfectly, of course — these folks at MD Anderson know what they’re doing. They started the surgery at just after 7am and we were both back here at the Hampton Inn before 12noon! Crazy how quickly they turn it around out here! She spent most of yesterday afternoon and evening on pain meds, slipping in and out of sleep. I cooked chicken spaghetti for dinner while Carrie-Anne directed me from the couch. By the way, it is impossible to heat up frozen cheese bread slices without an oven. She ate two bowls of the spaghetti and slept well last night, we both had hearty breakfasts this morning, and she’s getting around pretty well. They want us to take 5-10 minute walks every hour-and-a-half, so that will pretty much define our day. We’re just taking it easy. We’ll drive back home tomorrow, stopping every 90-minutes to walk around and stretch. So it’ll take like four days to get to Midland.

Carrie-Anne is still super sore, and will be for about a week. She won’t make her first day of school, July 19 — we have a video follow up with her surgeon on Friday the 21st. But she might be ready to ease back in to work on Monday the 24th.

Thank you so much for your concerns and prayers and kind words and sweet gestures toward us over the past week or so. Yesterday’s surgery was the last big step in C-A’s treatment and healing. There will be follow-ups and check-ups and another procedure or two this fall related to the reconstruction. But, in the big scheme of things, we are now done. It’s over. My wife is cancer-free and we are overflowing with gratitude to our God and to all our dear friends and family scattered all over Texas and the Great Southwest and throughout the Lord’s eternal Kingdom.

Peace,

Allan

Our hearts are full of gratitude for the thoughtful and considerate team of nurses and doctors at Texas Oncology / Allison Cancer Center here in Midland. These kind and warm professionals walked with us every step of the way during Carrie-Anne’s 16 chemotherapy treatments and took great care of us throughout the five months. Kirsten welcomed us to the infusion room on that very first Friday back in February and guided us through our first few treatments,  Lindsey took care of us on our very last day, Paula and Julie were calm and compassionate caregivers in the middle months, and Gian (not pictured; slacker) was the consistent model of efficiency, source of humor, and conversation partner.

After spending four hours every Friday with these great people for five months, we feel like we know them and we love them. We know the TV shows Julie’s kids watch and we know that Julie knows all the songs. We know about Lindsey’s husband’s job and their family back in Austin. We know about Gian’s upbringing in the Philippines, his faith journey, and his “maid.” We talked together about Aerosmith and church, hockey and the economy, Friends and M*A*S*H, the Cowboys and potty-training. We compared Lindsey’s precision infusion techniques to Gian’s more, shall we say, decisive(?) methods. And we prayed together.

There is much to be thankful for. Carrie-Anne is “cancer-free,” her side effects throughout the treatments were minimal and short-lived, she has hung on to about 80% of her hair, and her infusion port is coming out this Friday afternoon. We are thankful for our God’s incredible mercy to us over this phase of our cancer journey. We are grateful to our church family at GCR — for their prayers, cards, texts, calls, meals, visits, and love. And we thank the Lord for our friends at the Allison Cancer Center. They are doing really great work. And they do it in a way that reflects the glory of our God.

Peace,

Allan