Christmas Letter 2006
By Odell Sneeden Hathaway, III
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Christmas Letter 2006 By Odell Sneeden Hathaway, III Dear Friends and Family, We are sorry that we did not manage to get off a Christmas letter last year. We were overwhelmed with the events of the year. And so this year we will attempt to bring you up to speed. It will have to be the reader’s digest version as these two years have been so full. We do want you all to know that we are sorry for not keeping in touch. When we last wrote Linda had returned to school and was becoming a certified Medical Office Assistant. Well, in May of 2005 Linda graduated. In August Linda was hired by the Vancouver Clinic, but was laid off in November. In December she was hired by Open Advanced MRI and is still working for them (but every other weekend only). In September of 2006 Linda was hired by our local hospital pain clinic and is working there full time. She loves her job and is having a great time. Unfortunately, in May of 2005, Odell and Linda were visiting Family in CA and TX when Linda developed congestive heart failure. Since then she has been treated and is doing very well. In July of 2005 Linda got a new car she is now ripping around town in a gold Toyota Prius. Linda loves driving her new baby. She thinks it looks like a spacemobile she still loves it. Linda has also taken up making greeting cards with rubber stamps and other arts things. While she is enjoying her new hobby she has not gotten to the point that she feels confident enough to send anyone a card she has made herself, but we have hopes for next year. Last year Odell was working for DM2 Software at their help desk and that is still where you can find him today. Unfortunately, the rest of the news about Odell is not so good. As 2005 was ending it was discovered that Odell had growths on his thyroid. Then on a cold morning in January Odell developed facial paralysis (unrelated to the Thyroid). Odell is no longer able to smile or sing. His speech is slurred and eating is difficult. Some of the time he is blind in his right eye because the eyelid drops and covers the eye. Recently he has recovered some use of the face, but as that is happening some of the nerves are getting rewired incorrectly. When he tries to smile his forehead furrows or when he yawns his eyes close. Because of this Linda now has to do most of the driving. On that same day in January Odell’s doctors let him know that he has cancer. Because of the facial paralysis they were not able to operate until July. When they did they found massive and extensive thyroid cancer that had spread throughout the throat. Now if you are going to get cancer, thyroid is the kind you want to get. It is by far the most treatable. The surgeon removed everything he could. Then Odell had radiation treatments. This is not the normal radiation treatment. In this case they give you 2 radioactive pills. The thyroid tissue absorbs it and it kills the cancer. Odell took the pills at the end of August. At that time Odell had a body scan and they only found the cancer in the throat, so there is a 94% chance of full recovery. In the meantime, Odell is still getting his thyroid medication adjusted so he will someday have his energy back. Right now he is very weak. In March they will do more testing to see if they removed everything or not. For the moment though, Odell is not allowed to go into government buildings because he is radioactive and could set off there radiation detectors. Linda is going to visit her family in Well we hope this has not been too depressing and we both hope that next year’s letter will be filled with more happy events. In the meantime life goes on. We hope all of your lives are going well and we hope you are all healthy and happy, and that the year to come brings each of us peace and love. So, as Tiny Tim said: “GOD BLESS US, EVERY ONE!!!” Love, Linda and Odell |
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