A Letter from Emilie

 Dear friends and family, I have some good news! I am so excited to share.  Monday, I went to my doctor's appointment to do my infusion. The infusion is a part of my new chemo treatment. I also take daily chemo pills. One of the lab tests that they do is called the CEA. It is also nicknamed “tumor marker.” This test just gives the doctors a general idea how well the treatment is working. They tell you not to get too excited or take too much stock in this number as it just gives them a general idea.  My CEA has been very high. A month ago, it was at 135. On Monday I got the results from my test two weeks ago---it had dropped to 29! I was hesitant to believe it. Could it have really dropped that far?  I was anxious to find out what my CEA would be this week. The doctor called me Tuesday to report that my CEA from Monday had dropped to 9! It is so exciting! I really think we are headed in the right direction!  Thank you for your faith and prayers. In...

Dear friends and family, I realize it has been over a month since my last update. It has been almost two months since we had the surgery. Please forgive me for being distant. I wish I could report that all is well. That is part of the reason for my lack of reports. There is not much to report. I have not had much improvement with the numbness on my right side. It has steadily increased. I think we have finally hit bottom. I don't think we can get much more numb than this! The good news is that I am learning to navigate better with my numbness. My physical therapist says that I am getting more coordinated and stronger with every session. I hope so! Another good thing is that I am experiencing significantly less pain. We went through a season when I was using pain pills several times a day just to survive. I'm able to just use one every other day or so when I'm having really rough time. This feels like the greatest blessing. The pain was really causing me to suffer and ...