“Both His Beautiful Girls Were in the Fight of Their Lives”: Teen Faces Losing Sister & Girlfriend, But God’s Plan Prevails

I wrote out a Facebook post pleading that if anyone knows anyone who has dealt with pediatric pancreatitis, to PLEASE let me know. He answered me immediately. A vibration of the phone told me I had a message on messenger. One of my oldest friends went to college with a woman whose daughter has battled pediatric pancreatitis. Could she connect me? Sweet Jesus, yes, YES! We were in contact all night long. I was working with the nurses on our end to get her records in order to be sent to University Health Systems in San Antonio, Texas. Our angel, Christyn, worked all night on her end getting Carson accepted as a patient of Dr. Sundeep Patel.

She was transferred by 2 p.m. the next day. Her life was saved. She ended up being in the hospital a total of 3 months.

Since, Carson has been diagnosed as chronic pancreatitis, adrenal insufficiency, and Cystic Fibrosis. Most CF’ers are diagnosed at infancy. Since Carson’s largely affected only her GI system, it wasn’t caught. But, University Health Systems in San Antonio caught it. And since that spring of 2016, Carson has had 18 procedures overall, 12 on her pancreas. She has spent approximately a fourth of the time in the hospital. It’s our second home now. The staff is family.

The hard part is being separated from family. We’ve missed birthdays, anniversaries, football games, basketball games, track meets. We’ve missed daily ‘good mornings’ and kisses and hugs before work and school. But, our family pulls together to be where we cannot. We get to see a whole different side of humanity in the chaotic life of chronic illness. We see the good in people, we see people wanting to help. We hear those four words, ‘how can we help?’ and we know our God has us. He has carried us.

He’s still carrying us.

Our son, Wade, is now 17 and a prolific athlete. He’s a marvel to me. We jokingly call him ‘Golden Boy’ and it’s stuck. It’s now his moniker and it even made it in the news. You see, he has a story just as special as Carson’s.

During the second Area track meet Wade ran in as a sophomore, Carson was in the hospital. Wade sent me a picture of his cleats. He had taken a sharpie and written CH/CF on them. Carson Halterman over Cystic Fibrosis. He ran in Area, won Area, moved on to Regionals and barely missed state. That became his thing. He wrote in every shoe he performs in. He told me that his little sister has limitations and he has none, when he’s tired and wants to quit he thinks of her. He performs for both of them.

See? Golden Boy fits him pretty well.

We are flying high on life and then we get hit with another major challenge.

Wade has been with his girlfriend, Kylie, for over 2 years. She is the beautiful cheerleader, All-District Volleyball Player, basketball player, and plays tennis. They are a stunning couple. They are true #relationshipgoals.

On May 10, 2018, Wade was getting ready to run the 110 hurdles at state and Kylie’s mother got an urgent phone call. The labs taken a couple of days before at a doctor’s appointment revealed something unimaginable. They needed Kylie admitted ASAP in Dallas. Penny told me they suspected cancer.