Notes from Carol

Monday, Mary and Carol in the kitchen making lemon curd

Picture taken after a "delayed", but much enjoyed Thanksgiving at Tim and Erika's...lovingly prepared by four of Carol's dear friends!

...notes dictated from Carol!

Merry Christmas Everyone! I won't be sending out a Christmas letter this year...we decided to put our energies elsewhere this year. Thank you for your understanding. Christmas is different this year. The house is beautiful, the tree is up...and I have a deeper joy than ever before as I contemplate the reality of the birth of Jesus. I'm seeing at a new level what it means to have Him born in me. My connection to Him IS permanent! ...my prayer for you as we end 2008 and are thinking about moving forward into 2009 is that you too will long to know him in increasing depth...Happy New Year!

On a medical level...I'm gaining ground. My energy level is better than much of the last three months...that will soon change...as many of you know I will go to Stanford tomorrow (Tuesday, Dec 16) for a procedure to insert chemo directly into the liver. Please pray for its effectiveness. My doctor called last night with the news that they want to give me chemo Dec 22-24 here in Pleasanton as well. This will assure that the cancer sites in my lungs will continue to be targeted as well as the sites in my liver. I had hoped to be free of chemo through the Christmas week, but I do want to keep the process going.

...back to Cathy for Carol

Please pray for perseverance through what could prove to be a hard couple of weeks. Carol will probably come home from Stanford on Wednesday, but the doctors are saying that the next week will probably be tough...nausea, fatigue, pain, chemo brain...adding the additional chemo starting Monday, Dec 22, will add to the cumulative side-affects...please pray that these would be minimized. As always blood counts will be of concern.

The chemo treatment to the liver is now scheduled for three rounds with the next round at Stanford scheduled for Jan 15-16...of course these schedules are held very lightly. Please pray for wisdom for Carol's team of doctors and nurses as they continue devising treatment for Carol.

On a lighter note...many of you have been by to help Carol bring in Christmas in the Porter tradition...Mark put the tree up on Friday and it was decorated in stages by Carol with help from Tim, Erika and the boys as well as a assorted friends. Today Carol, Mary and Chelse made up Carol's yummy lemon curd...and I got to be one of the first to taste the result!!! You all would have enjoyed watching Carol in the backyard this morning (during one of the few moments of warmth) picking lemons off the tree in order to have fresh squeezed juice for the lemon curd.

Carol expresses her deep and enduring thankfulness for all of you often throughout each day...you are loved and appreciated more than you know!