Zachary Family’s Cancer
Began Before The Wedding Day
By Tracie Bertaut, APR
American Cancer Society
Every little girl dreams of planning her wedding - the gorgeous dress, the beautiful flowers, the wonderful music…and, of course, the perfect man. It is a beautiful picture, but what happens if your fiancé is diagnosed with cancer three months before the wedding?
For Carrie, a Zachary resident, it meant starting their marriage with the type of hardship most couples do not experience for many years, if ever.
Travis was diagnosed with nasal
pharyngeal carcinoma in March 2002, shortly before his twenty-fifth birthday, when
the couple still lived in
Radiation Therapy
It was during a routine PET scan in 2006 that Carrie and Travis learned the cancer had returned, in a different form – hemangiopericytoma, a type of sarcoma – as a brain tumor. Doctors were able to remove most of the tumor with surgery and Travis started another round of radiation therapy. Although the treatments minimized the tumor so that it was virtually gone, the couple knew there was a good possibility that it could return.
It was during this time that Travis and Carrie became involved with the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life.
The American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life is the largest fund raising event. It is a life-changing program that gives everyone in communities across the globe a chance to celebrate the lives of people who have battled cancer, remember loved ones lost and fight back against the disease. At Relay, teams of people camp out at a local high school, park, or fairground and take turns walking or running around a track or path. Each team is asked to have a representative on the track at all times during the event. Because cancer never sleeps, Relays are overnight events of up to 24 hours in length.
Travis served as a Team Captain at
his company for an event in
“Being involved with Relay has given Travis and me another sense of fighting his cancer. I am personally involved because of Travis. I volunteer for him and for all the other people out there fighting this awful disease,” said Carrie. “Relay for Life is the only way I know where I can personally be involved in preventing another person from suffering from cancer like Travis.”
The couple and their two children
moved to Zachary in 2007 when Travis‘s company transferred him. While
vacationing in
Travis was admitted to the hospital
in
During this time, Carrie wanted to
be involved with the local American Cancer Society. She used her previous
experience in
“Aside from the financial benefit, ACS was able to give me peace of mind and one less thing to worry about,” Carrie said.
New Tumors
In May of 2009, after six months of stable MRI and CT scans, doctors found several new tumors in Travis’s lungs and started him on a combined treatment of oral and IV chemotherapy. Soon, they learned the spinal tumor was growing back and Travis underwent a 14 hour surgery to remove two vertebrae. A second surgery in December removed a tumor in his spinal canal. Although not normally an aggressive cancer, the hemangiopericytoma had mutated and Travis had to begin another round of chemotherapy at M.D. Anderson.
For many people, the effects of
treatment are harder than the illness. Travis turned out to be one of those
people who develops a severe infection from the chemotherapy. Because of his
low blood count, he became septic and in January, had to undergo emergency
surgery at Our Lady of the
Today, Travis is recovering at home
and contemplating the next steps. Although they do not have family in
Life Threatening Surgery
Friends drove to
“Everyone I know has offered to
watch our kids and Zachary businesses have helped us out with financial
obligations. Everyone has been praying for us. God placed us in the right
community when he moved us to
Relay For Life of Zachary will be
held on April 30 at the