By T. Scott Boatright
Spending time on Thanksgiving with family and friends has always been an important tradition for Matt Terry and his family.
But things are a little different this Thanksgiving. This year’s celebration is all about the health of Matt’s wife Dixie and the simple fact that she’s still around to enjoy this holiday season.
Dixie Terry has spent the last nine months in a fight for her life, one she and her family are pleased to say it looks like she’s winning.
“We got here in 2017 and rolled great for five years,” said Matt, who was hired by Louisiana Tech as the golf coach. “Everything was running smoothly with our family, the Tech golf team, the community; everything was great.
“And then in January, we just got hit in the face with Dixie being diagnosed with (acute lymphoblastic leukemia).”
And the Terrys’ world changed just like that — in a heartbeat.
To say that was a shock would be an understatement.
“I had actually been making fun of myself for a little while because I thought I was going through the ‘change’ (menopause),” Dixie said. “I was tired and it was just like I was getting weaker. Walking up my stairs was getting worse and worse. You’d think that if you go up them 10 times a day, it would be just a hop, skip and a jump.
“But it wasn’t, and I just got to the point where I couldn’t even go up anymore. I had gotten to the point where I kept telling everybody that I had cracked a rib, always making fun of myself and laughing, thinking to myself that I was just falling apart.”
Looking back at last Christmas, Dixie said the signs were obviously there at that point, but that sometimes realizing the obvious isn’t as easy as trying to joke things away.
“Every year I always watch Christmas shows, but last Christmas I only watched one,” she said. “And that really isn’t a Christmas movie, it’s a movie about a mother who won’t stop praying for her son in the hospital. I really wanted to watch it and my family watched it with me.
“But that was all I watched last Christmas. Honestly, I was too tired that month to do anything. I couldn’t even watch TV, really. I would just go to bed and sleep. I thought I was going through the change and that was my fatigue.”
Spending time on New Year’s Eve moving their daughter from one place to another in Auburn, Alabama, provided another sign that something had changed for Dixie.
“We were in the storage unit and I got the point that I told my family that I was going out to the car and that if I made it, I wasn’t coming back,” Dixie said. “I made it to the car and just sat there thinking to myself that they all just thought I was being lazy.
“A few days later I started running a fever and just got to the point where I couldn’t make it up the stairs anymore. That’s where I did my workout — upstairs. So I went to a quick care place and was tested for COVID. When that came up negative, they said I needed to go to my regular doctor. So I called (her doctor) — that was on a Tuesday — and they said I could not get in until (the next) Monday. I know I couldn’t make it another week. I was that bad. It was getting hard just to get out of bed anymore.”
But Dixie’s doctor’s office called on Friday saying they could fit her in, so she went.
Within two hours she started a stint as a patient at Glenwood Regional Medical Center in West Monroe after being diagnosed with leukemia.
“That was when the journey started,” Dixie said. “It all happened — changed — that fast.”
Almost as quickly, Dixie was transferred to The Blood Cancer Research and Treatment Center at Baylor Scott & White Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center in Dallas.
“I had spent time at M.D. Anderson with my mother in 2009, but those are just kinds of things you want to block out,” Matt said. “The whole fear of that, and what happens — the end game and all of that.
“So we go to the Baylor hospital and they were unbelievable. And still are. We’re just so thankful God put us there with those doctors. They were all great. Dr. (Brian) Berryman is phenomenal. So was his staff, all the nursing and oncology floors.
“When the oncologist at Glenwood told us that’s where Dixie was going, I asked him if that was the best place she could be. And he said that’s where he’d send his wife under the same circumstances. And he was right. They were the best.”
Dixie’s chemotherapy treatment went well and by late spring had her well on her way to remission, but there was still another obstacle to overcome — finding a match to donate bone marrow stem cells.
Statistics prove the best chance for a good match is from a sibling, with a one in four chance of the cells matching, so Dixie’s sister, Paula Bassham, was tested.
“It’s very rare that you get the kind of match we did,” Dixie said. “It was 100% in every way.”
Matt credits Dr. Berryman’s coach-like approach for being almost a perfect fit for Dixie in battling her leukemia.
“He came in like a coach with a game plan, including a marker board, when he walked into the room at the hospital in Dallas,” Matt Terry said. “He said this was how we’re going to do it, just like a coach. My wife played basketball, volleyball and softball in college, and we all knew about coaching. That was the way Dr. Berryman approached fighting the leukemia. And that was an awesome thing for a former athlete like Dixie.
“He told us everything he was going to do. He said he was going to get her into remission, and he did. And then he said he was going to cure her, and when Dixie’s sister was a match, he said he knew he could.”
But Berryman’s coach-like approach extended to the Louisiana Tech golf team and beyond as far as pulling together to help in the Terrys’ fight.
“The night before we went to Dallas I met with the guys,” Matt said. “I tend to be almost brutally honest with my guys. In this day and age of instant information and media, it was all right there in front of them. Dixie said I needed to, so I went and told them exactly what was going on and that they were going to have to take responsibility and get a lot of things done without me being around sometimes. I told them I might not always be able to travel with them.
“We didn’t really know if Dixie was going to make it at that point — 90% of her blood was bad, so I’m just looking at these guys and they’re looking at me and I told them that they were going to have to step up. They were going to have to bridge the gap and fill the void in everything we were doing. I have a great group of guys, and they responded tremendously. They never complained.”
Matt was able to make one golf event in February and then came down with COVID, which he spread to his entire family, including Dixie. This took him away from his team even more.
“I was able to go to the Conference (USA) tournament, and I was there for the practice round during Dixie’s treatment series,” Matt said. “I talked to the guys each day and night while they were on the road.”
According to Matt and Dixie, the entire Tech Athletic family played a crucial role for the Terrys in those weeks.
“Some of my co-workers at the university stepped up during that time and were amazing,” said Matt. “Everybody within the athletic department did what they could to be supportive and become a huge family around my family and my team.
“(Associate A.D./Compliance Services) Kyle Buffolino traveled with the team. (Senior Associate A.D./Championship Resources) Colton Primm traveled with them. Paul Smith, who’s not (at Tech) anymore, traveled with the guys.
“Robert Smith, the head pro at our club (Squire Creek Country Club) traveled with them to the Conference (USA) tournament. We got a waiver from the NCAA so he could do that. Brad Pullen and Thomas Davison stepped up. So many people at the club and this university stepped up and wrapped their arms around my family and my team.”
Despite not winning the always-coveted conference title, Matt is proud of the way his team responded to the challenges they faced last spring and continue responding this fall. In fact he was voted the Conference USA Coach of the Year by the league coaches — a true sign of admiration and respect.
However, Matt is even prouder of his wife.
“It’s been amazing watching her through this and the way she’s handled it,” Matt said. “For me, I always thought I was the tough guy, and then suddenly this made me realize that I’m not. Dixie didn’t take any pain medicine stronger than Tylenol throughout all of it.”
Dixie said support was her drug of choice in her battle against leukemia.
“The doctors told me that if I wouldn’t have gotten in and diagnosed, I would have had a week, maybe 10 days, left at most,” Dixie said. “But throughout it all, from Matt’s golf team and the Tech athletic department, all of my friends — I felt the blanket of love and prayers wrapped around me. That gave me so much comfort. I know so many people were praying for me and that means so much.”
There’s still progress to be made, but Dixie Terry is simply happy to be celebrating Thanksgiving with hopes of her battle continuing to wind down to its victorious end.
“I still can’t climb the stairs,” she said. “I can’t go out in public because of my immune system and possibly getting an infection. Hopefully by late February I’ll be able to do that. But I am looking forward to seeing my family for Thanksgiving.”
And that’s something the entire Terry family, including daughters, Mya and Alyssa, and son, Sawyer, are thankful for.
“The kind of year we’ve had puts an entirely new perspective on the holidays,” Matt said. “It makes you realize true priorities and appreciate time with family so much more.
“So we’re going to celebrate Thanksgiving, celebrate for everything we have to be thankful for and continue looking forward to the day Dixie can put all of this fight behind her and start living her life the way she wants to. That’s when the real celebration will begin.”
