Couple with cancer resolve to ‘live our lives in love’

Cancer touched our lives in 1998. The day before I was to leave for a business trip, my husband, David, expressed his concern to me regarding his health. I instinctively knew that his symptoms could not wait long before seeing a doctor. The appointment was set for the week I would return home.

Thus began our “New Life” engulfed with doctor appointments, x-rays, scans, blood tests, surgeries, chemo and radiation therapies.

Special

Algia Tarrer and her husband, David.

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David was diagnosed in April 1998. I took leave from work to be home with him during the first surgery and treatments fully expecting to return to work in a few months. My faith in God was kindled by my church family and soon it touched my husband. By June we were both attending church and enjoying the love, support and fellowship we had missed for many years.

Six months into David’s treatment, I had my annual check-ups. Two days after a mammogram, I received a call to meet with a surgeon. I too was diagnosed with cancer. We spent that fall and winter with a surgery and both in treatments, he for chemo and myself for radiation. The fall of 1999 we received news from our oncologist that nothing more could be done for David. The prognosis: six months left to live.

The doctor suggested my husband might be a good candidate for a research program. By January 2000, we had entered a cancer research program at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md.

We continued in that program for four years, having three surgeries and a research drug. Then in January 2004, all treatment was referred back to our area doctors. It is now fall of 2008 and we are still fighting. I will complete my regimen of therapy in the spring of 2009. My husband is taking chemo again which will continue thru January 2009. His cancer started in the colon with metastases’ to the liver, lung, and now the tail bone.

This journey has been hard, but not without learning how our faith can prepare us for our future. It took us a few years before we also learned that we can control our emotions and what really counts in life. We learned how dear family and friends are in times of need.

And, most importantly we have learned not to fear death, but be prepared in spirit and live our lives in love. We do not wish a life be lived with cancer for anyone, yet we are so thankful for the experiences and knowledge gained by living life to its fullest with cancer.

At the end of this journey, we can say “David and Algia Tarrer lived to see, feel, and know why this disease touched our lives and why God has given us these years together.”