One Last Post

So where do I begin? I want to say thanks to everyone for all of the prayers, thoughts and support for myself and our families over the past week and a half. I have talked to most of Carrie's family and we are still adjusting to her not physically being here.

Carrie's visitation and funeral were how Carrie would have wanted them and thanks to everyone who came by the funral home and church.

On a personal note, I want to say thank you to all of friends and family from outside of Auburn for all of the prayers, cards, phone calls, Facebook messages and visits over the past two years. To our Auburn friends and family thank you for hanging out with us, traveling with us and praying with us. Thank you to the College of Veterinary Medicine, faculty, staff and students. You have put up with me on good days, bad days and everyday in between. Thank you for letting me be off whenever I needed to be with Carrie. You all have made working at the Vet school the best job I could ask for.

If I have forgotten anyone, please forgive me. To everyone, thank you for everything. That should cover it. :)

Some have asked about my plans for the future. So here is the rundown. I plan on staying in Auburn for the time being. My job has been so good here, I can't see myself walking away and I really like the Auburn area. I am returning to work next week to try and get back to some type of normacy. My parents have been here the past week helping me with odd jobs around the house.

Please continue to pray for us during this very tough adjustment.

With that, I finish this final blog post. As Carrie would say, thank you to everyone for all that you have done for us.

Jason

Remembering Carrie

As most of you have already heard, Carrie went home to be with Lord Tuesday night around 9pm. She was surrounded by family. We are saddened at loosing her but at the same time we rejoice that she is no longer suffering and is cancer free. Visitation will be Thursday from 6pm - 8pm at Frederick's Funeral Home  (1801 Frederick Road, Opelika). The service will be Friday at 11am at Lakeview Baptist Church (1600 East Glenn Avenue, Auburn). Burial will be at Memorial park Cemetery.

Thank you to everyone that has taken care of us and supported us for the past two years. We love each and everyone of you.

Carrie Chavers
October 12, 1984 - October 25, 2011

Jason

Another day with Carrie

Not a whole lot to report in this post. Carrie's status has not really changed since yesterday. She had one burst of energy today and she spent most of it asking why she felt like she could get up and walk around when she knew that she shouldn't be able to. She seemed to be resting more peacefully than the last couple of days. We have not had to increase any of the morphine dosages. They seem to be enough to keep her comfortable for the time being. This was day 4 that she hasn't had anything to eat or drink. She wonders sometimes why she is still here, even though mentally she is ready to go be with the Lord. We tell her that he wants her to be here with us a little longer and we are taking advantage of every moment that we get.

Thanks to everyone that has posted your favorite stories of Carrie on the blog. I read them to Carrie tonight and each one brought a smile to her face.

As always please pray us and our family.

Jason & Carrie

Almost Home

Today has been better than yesterday emotionally. Even with the amount of morphine that she has in her system, she has been pretty coherent. Since yesterday afternoon, Carrie hasn't really been able to talk where you could hear unless she was talking right into your ear. This morning, my parents were sitting in the room with her when they called me back to the room. When I got there she was wide awake and moving her left arm as is she was leading a band.  My dad asked if she was leading the choir and she said yes. For about 15 -20 minutes Carrie was back to her old self, talking just as clear as she could and cracking jokes with us. After that she seemed to have lost that burst of energy. Later this afternoon the burst returned for about 10 minutes. This time though she said she was trying to figure out what was real and what wasn't. So she appears to be in limbo. Also, her uncle asked what her favorite popular song was. She said the theme from Dirty Dancing was very appropriate. Title of the song...I've Had the Time of My Life. Being the music entusiaist that I am :) I just so happened to have it on my iPod. So we played the song for her and she bobbed her head and mouthed the lyrics. Needless to say it was very touching.

So all in all it has been a good day here at the Chavers' house. We really enjoyed the few minutes when we got to have the old Carrie back even if for a short time. We know that eternity is coming.

I will let you know if anything changes.

Jason

Favorite Carrie Stories

Ashley Burt had a great idea of your favorite stories of Carrie. Leave the story as a comment.

Thanks,

Jason

Toughest Day So Far

The post title just about says it all. Carrie is currently resting as peaceful as possible. This day two that she has not eaten or had anything to drink. The hospice nurse came by this morning and checked on her and Carrie asked what she is going to do since she can't eat or drink anything. Sadly the answer is nothing. The mass is pressing on her stomach so much that she cannot get anything down. Her current pain medicine schedule was 60MG morphine pill every 8 hours and she could take .5ML of the liquid morphine every 1 to 2 hours as needed for pain. While the nurse was she said that she was not comfortable and the one thing that she kept saying was the she didn't want to be miserable. Unfortunately the only way to get her comfortable is to put enough pain medicine in to keep her mentally "out of it". She said that would be fine and she has been able to talk to all of her family in the last couple of days. At 2:30 pm this afternoon we increased her liquid morphine to 1ML every two hours and that has seemed to make comfortable. She has lost the energy to be able to move any parts of her body. If you ask her a yes or no question, she is still able to comprehend and answer by nodding or shaking her head. Her speech is very weak and we have to listen very closely if she says anything. Our families are taking turns sitting with her.

It has been comforting for us to be able to sit around here at the house and talk about all of the fun times that everyone has had with Carrie. Probably the most talked about story is our 17 hour drive from Columbia, TN to Miami, FL just to get on a cruise ship. It could be a movie by itself. Comedy of course.

As always, please remember us and our families in your prayers. It has been a tough day with the toughest yet to come. We rejoice that Carrie is just waiting on the Lord to call her home. We expect that to be in the next couple of days given how her health has declined. But she is one tough cookie.

I am trying to keep the blog updated daily. I know that a lot of people use this and I appologize for the updates coming so late at night.

We love you all and appreaciate everything that you all have done for us,

Jason & Carrie

Still Declining

I was planning on updating the blog daily considering how things have been going, but I just didn't get a chance yesterday. Carrie's health is still declining. She had some coke yesterday and it didn't stay down very long. She then was able to eat very small portions of mashed potatoes and cream corn. Her strength has greatly decreased and she is no longer able to get out of bed even with assistance from me. This morning she woke around 5am and said that her mouth was very dry. I gave her a little water and it didn't stay down as long as the coke did. We called the hospice nurse and she came by around 7:30am this morning. Carrie is still taking 60 milligrams of Morphine 3 times a day and now I am giving her .5 milliliters of liquid morphine every 1 to 2 hours as she needs it for pain. The liquid absorbs quicker and gives a quicker relief to the pain. Since she is not able to get out of bed she now has a catheter. Her oxygen level dropped a little bit to the low 90s and so Hospice ordered her an oxygen machine.

As I stated in the previous post Carrie is mentally and emotionally ready to go home to be the Lord. We are just waiting on His timing. I estimate that given her current physical condition that she has a couple of days to a couple of weeks left. Again this my estimation, and I have been known to be wrong on a couple of occasions. HA HA.

I am doing as good as can be expected given the circumstances. I had planned on starting a leave of absence on Monday but actually started yesterday. Both sets of Carrie's parents are here as well as my parents. So yes I have two sets of in-laws and my parents as well, the best way to describe it is like the family from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation without the Christmas decorations. I am just kidding. I am glad that they are all here.

Please continue to pray for us and our families. The next few days are going to be tough. Thank all of you for your continuous support. We will never be able to thank everyone for all that you have done.

Jason & Carrie