Allan and Teresa Tipton: October 2009

Allan with Doctor Mark Merlin- He has been a great doctor!

Allan sitting by the radiation treatment machine.

Our journey continues. James, the driver and tour guide that takes us on the tours sponsored by the RCOG tells us that we are on a 'Radiation Vacation'. We are so excited that we are going home this Friday! Even though this has been an incredible journey, filled with many blessings along the way, we are so ready to go home. We miss our family and friends so much. We hope we will always appreciate what they mean to us.

When Allan is finished with the cancer treatments, he will have received 35 radiation treatments over a seven week period of time (Monday-Friday, 10:15 a.m.) We are usually in the clinic for 30 minutes every time he has a treatment. The doctors and staff are great and they treat us like family here. They have so many outside activities for us that really helps us pass the time and gives us things to look forward to during the week. They always have a physicians lecture and dinner on Tuesday nights, excursion every Wednesday at 2 p.m., Ladies luncheon or Dinner at the Frisbee's every Thursday.

The Brockett Ward has been helpful and pulled together when we went to the temple (the Atlanta Temple is closed for renovations so we didn't bring our own temple clothing). We had a chance to go to the Birmingham Temple and the ward came up with some temple clothing for us. We really needed to recharge our spiritual batteries and the temple trip really helped us to do that. We had been very homesick and looking forward to the temple trip and doing a session in the temple really helped. Allan rescheduled his treatment for a later time that day to accommodate the trip.

Three or four nights a week, dinner is brought into the Hope Lodge by local churches, businesses and the American Cancer Society. I will always be grateful for this wonderful place to stay, free of charge, while Allan receives the best treatment possible for the cancer within his body. So I will put in my plug for the American Cancer Society. They do much more than research. They help cancer patients with so many resources and helps that most of us don't realize what they do. Please contribute if you can. WE certainly will!

My words are inadequate to express our gratitude to everyone who helped make this possible for us. You know who you are and we love and appreciate what you have done so much. This journey has been very difficult, but in the midst of the difficulty we realized the tender mercies of the Lord in our lives and the bounteous blessings that he bestowed upon us. We look forward to many years ahead with Allan in our earthly lives because of being able to be here and being treated at the RCOG. Life is good!

This is the machine that delivers the radiation to the cancer cells.

Jennifer making sure Allan is in the right position for the radiation treatment.

Jennifer-Radiation Therapist

Greg-Radiation Therapist

Kelly-Patient Resource Coordinator

Baljeet Kaur-Oncology Nurse

Tybee Island

Tybee Lighthouse

Riverboat on Savannah River

Carriage Tour in Savannah

Phyllis Tippetts-Relief Society President-Brockett Ward-Atlanta Stake

Permecia-Hope Lodge Assistant Manager

Allan & Chris Fronczek

James Smith-Shuttle Driver/Tour Guide for RCOG

We had an opportunity to go to the Birmingham Alabama Temple

Pond in park of Emory University, where the Hope Lodge is located

Fox Theater where we saw RAIN-A Tribute to the Beatles.
The Hope Lodge receives many complimentary tickets to many events.

Georgia Aquarium

This has been an incredible journey so far. We finally got into the Winn-Dixie Hope Lodge last Thursday. This is a facility that is supported by the American Cancer Society. It provides free lodging for cancer patients and their caregivers. We have made some wonderful friends and have been the recipients of so much generosity and compassion from total strangers. This afternoon the Hope Lodge along with a local business hosted a recognition dinner for the survivors and caregivers who are staying here. The local business provided the dinner (most of it was funded by donations from the employees) and gave the lodge a Wii for the guests to enjoy. We feel very grateful to be here. We have been overwhelmed by the kindness of the people here. Southern Hospitality is alive and well.

Allan & Teresa with Terrance (volunteer at Hope Lodge)