For many years, my sister-in-law Liz has been fighting cancer. Tragically, the fight is about over and we are all praying that Liz can live long enough to spend one more Christmas with her loving husband Dave and her two children, Emma and Tyler.
The Deseret Morning News published an article on my brother and his family yesterday, December 23rd. You can view the article at this link. Since the article won't be available to view for long, I am going to paste a copy of it into this post.
I'd like to thank Lois M. Collins for writing the following article.
"Wishes at Christmas come in all sizes. You can pine for world peace or a new Barbie. David Lloyd is praying that his wife, Liz, can hang on long enough to enjoy one last Christmas with her family.
He wants to watch her watch Tyler, 7, smile as he opens the toy train they picked when Liz was feeling better. To enjoy, once more, the excitement of daughter Emma, 9, as she unwraps a doll.
It will be, without question, Liz's last Christmas. At 33, she has battled brain cancer off and on since Tyler was just a baby, winning some rounds and losing others.
But today she's winding down in a nursing home, her care provided by Intermountain Home Care's hospice service. That is, ironically, husband David's employer. She now has three aggressive tumors and moves in and out of consciousness.
The family was living in Logan when Tyler was born. When he was seven months old, he had a cold that wouldn't quit. They took him to the hospital and, in a whirlwind of discovery and activity, he was soon in an air ambulance flying to Primary Children's Medical Center. Not long after, David and Liz learned their baby would need a heart transplant although he was, for the moment, stable.
Liz, meanwhile, had been having severe headaches, and an MRI revealed a tumor on the right front side of her brain. She scheduled surgery for that weekend, anxious to have it over so she would be recovered enough to care for her son before his dramatic surgery.
Three weeks later, Tyler received a donor heart and, for a change of pace, all the news seemed to be good. Both mother and son were doing "remarkably well," David says. It would not be long before they were both back home, each getting a little stronger every day, life returning to normal.
But the need for ongoing medical monitoring meant they wanted to be closer to their doctors. David quit school, found a job in Salt Lake City and they moved.
A year later, the cancer returned, and Liz again had brain surgery, followed by radiation. The recovery was a little rougher that time. Still, she seemed cancer-free for quite a while.
Bad news this time came packaged as a seizure. Sure enough, says David, the cancer was back for round three.
The tumors were too big for radiation and in a bad location for surgery. They agreed to try chemotherapy, and "although no one offered a lot of long-term hope, the chemo worked wonders, better than anticipated," David says — until this fall, when yet another tumor appeared.
It has not responded to chemotherapy, and Liz has been losing mobility on one side. She has trouble walking, her speech is fading, and both memory and comprehension are now a struggle, as well.
She was determined to make it through Christmas, and he had hoped to keep her home and care for her, but her need for assistance has outpaced her small family's ability to provide it. So she's in a care facility, and they visit all the time.
Christmas is bittersweet. On the days when she's felt better — and they're getting fewer now — she's talked about the holidays and gifts and what she wants her kids to remember. Earlier this year, she helped select the special presents she hopes to see delight them.
David's mother-in-law and friends, meantime, are trying to raise some money to help David pay bills not covered by insurance. Friends have established an account at Zions Bank in the name "David Bryant Lloyd Donation."
All they want for Christmas is Christmas. Together."
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