Mary's May 20 Facebook Update

Mary Hawkins Allen

“It is good for us to be here” (Matt 17:4). Sacrament meeting at Primary’s is a sacred place. There are angels among us. Come in your jeans, tank tops, pajamas. Just come and feel love. Nathan is on his first (and hopefully only) unscheduled visit after a double whammy of 7 weeks of radiation plus 5 days of chemo was a little more than his body could take on his own. So grateful to be receiving such good care for body and spirit.

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A Shift in Treatment

Thanks again to all of those who read these emails and think about me. I occasionally realize, or am told, about the kind acts that someone has done for me without my knowing, even by people who I don't know very well. This is a long and hard journey, but I have many great people who go through it with me. I have been getting chemotherapy for the past 8 months, and during that time I had a 7 week period where I got radiation. There have been times where the treatment has given me pain, and sickness. I am happy to report that I am now shifting from a harder part of treatment, to an easier one. This shift in treatment is not a recent decision, but has been planned in my regiment since the beginning. Where I have previously had a five-day stay, a two day stay, and an outpatient day each month, I now only have a handful of two day stays and a lot of outpatient stays. When I first was learning about my treatment for cancer, I was told that I qualified for a c...

A Permanent Return Home

After returning home, and being home for just over two weeks, I was told I will not be returning to my mission. My service of 16 months is, at least for the time being, complete. This was told to me by my stake president today, two days after receiving word from my doctor. I was told by the doctor in the Huntsman building for cancer that I do have cancer. It is a rare, childhood cancer that normally is found in children under the age of five. It is treatable, and I will be starting on either Tuesday, or Wednesday. The expected treatment time is about one year. My family has been here for me, and it has been wonderful. Due to my a family situation, and people being gone, yesterday was the first day that all of my immediate family was together. They will be able to support me as I get care at Primary Children's Hospital. I definitely have been blessed with great parents and a great family. I will have the help of doctors here, and specialists, who deal with 99 % of the cases of ...

Settling In

Well, the past few weeks I have kind of been settling into my schedule, working at my new job 10 minutes away from me, going into the hospital, and other activities. I have been having a good amount of fun recently, and have been feeling fulfilled with things I do at work. I feel pretty good these days, but some days are better than others. The biggest thing I face is nausea, and just not wanting to eat... but I know that I need to and so I make sure that I do :). I have a pretty good set up here, and can save for college with no real expenses :). My schedule is every day I wake up and go to work, and then come home and hang out with my family, or go to institute on Wednesdays. Lot of times, I do physical therapy (just the exercises they gave me, I don't go anywhere) when I come home on my foot that has been bothering me a little bit recently. I have been feeling pretty good recently, with certainly enough energy to drive to work and sit down in a chair for 8 hours. This c...

The Race Set Before Us

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