Loss of a Friend

One of my dear co-workers was diagnosed with leukemia in December of 2009. This was not the first time she had battled cancer. I had talked to her a week before and she had been feeling a little sick, but I had no idea. She had struggled earlier that year with kidney stones, and surgery with complications. She had just barely had her daughter about 18 months before. But she was always positive. Even when she was explaining to me all of her complications she did it with a smile on her face.


That is how Carrie was. Always positive. Everyone at my work can always find something to complain about. Whether some resident didn't listen to you, or that crazy parent who is doing something crazy! But if Carrie ever complained, (rarely) she turned it around to make it absolutely hilarious that would leave you rolling on the floor.

She was an excellent nurse. She treated her patients and families with so much love and respect. She was our "Nurse of the Year" one year and probably would have been every year if we didn't have to let everyone else have a chance. I knew I could go to her with help and suggestions whenever I needed them. She was the type of nurse that when you had a difficult patient family you could assign her to them and they would be singing her praises by the end of the shift. She was a "Primary Nurse" (a nurse who takes care of the same patient frequently because they are in the hospital for a long time) to a lot of patients and got to know so many families.

Even though I didn't really hang out with her outside of work, I consider her a dear friend. We had always planned on going skiing/snowboarding together, but she was on maternity leave, and then I got pregnant so we missed out on a couple of seasons. But, we would hang out and talk all the time on the Pods at work when we weren't busy. Her laugh and sense of humor was infectious. She always had the cutest scrub tops on! I was always asking her where she got them because they were always so adorable. When I had my bleeding scare with Max, she wrote me the sweetest e-mail, and when I struggled with breastfeeding and postpartum depression, she left words of encouragement in a comment to me... probably while she was sick in a hospital bed getting bone marrow transplant after bone marrow transplant after chemo therapy. She was that good of a friend to everyone. She was one of my favorite people at work.

And now she is gone.

She lost her battle on Sunday. Something I didn't think was going to happen. How can such a positive, perfect person who has already struggled with cancer and beaten it, not beat it again. Someone with such faith, love, support. It is just not fair. She leaves behind and adorable 10 year old son and almost 2 year old daughter. And an amazing husband that has gone through a lot. Here is her obituary:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/deseretnews/obituary.aspx?n=carrie-carroll&pid=142902213

I am so sad that she is gone and I won't get to see her for a long time. But I am grateful that families are eternal and that she is no longer in pain. She will be greatly missed. She was too perfect for this world.