Reed and I have decided to start a blog about Carmen to keep everyone posted on her progress. I am going to go over her story very briefly first. In September of 2007 the doctors found a tumor in Carmen's brain that had metastasized to her spine. She had surgery to remove the tumor and underwent chemo-radiotherapy for six weeks. She had a break and then received six more rounds of chemotherapy. We finished that in May of this year. Carmen is doing so well. Her balance is a little off, her strength is not all back, and she still has bald spots, but otherwise she is totally recovered from these treatments. She is a very happy and full-of-faith girl.We found out in October of this year that her tumor is back. You would never know it. We are not sure how we are going to handle this. Her chances of survival with the treatment the doctors want to give her is not great. I would like to treat it naturally, but Reed is much more hesitant, because at least we know what we're getting into with the chemo treatments. So far she has had gamma-knife radiation and one round of chemo, and so we begin again with the drugs and the throwing up and the sickness. She is not feeling great as of today, and she has a cold, which we hope will stay just a cold. She is not attending school right now, and will be out indefinitely. She studies with a teacher for an hour a day at our house.
Reed, Carmen, and I feel OK with this news. We are not sure what is going to happen, but all three of us know that God is watching over us and providing comfort to us. Thank you all for all you have done so far for us. KC, thank you for the blood drive, and thank everyone for the blood donations. Ben, thank you for the dinner, and for all of you who came to join us. Thank you all for the books, gifts, stuffed animals, dinners, gas cards, meals, small and large money donations, for remembering my boys and helping them get where they need to go, thank you for the icee sales and the pancake breakfasts, thank you for visiting her in the hospital, thank you for helping at home with her schooling, thank you for the house cleaning, thank you for the lunches for my boys, thank you to our family for living with our boys while Reed and I lived in the hospital, thank you for staying with Carmen in the hospital so we could be with our boys, thank you to all the doctors and nurses that have given Carmen excellent care and made her feel special, and thank you especially for the prayers.
I will update this once a week for now, and more often if things change quickly.
10 comments:
We read the blog entry and it was informative and well done. We are praying for you always.
You did a great job on the blog! We are all praying for you every day.
I'm so happy to see that you have started a blog. It looks great! We pray for you every single day and know that God has His Hands on your family! We Love You So Much!
Your whole family is in our prayers and if Carmen needs a reading buddy please call me. We have discovered that we have much the same taste in books :)
Hello Galbraiths! I'm so happy to see your blog and to read your words, Dorothy. We have been receiving updates from the get-go, and thoughts and prayers for Carmen and your beautiful family have been in our minds and hearts constantly. We wish we were closer to you, able to be of more help. We will continue to think of and pray for you all, and will be following your blog!
My thoughts and prayers are with Carmen. Thanks for creating the blog.
Hi Carmen. Your picture is so cute. You are an adorable girl with a beautiful smile. You are so positive and uplifting -- a great role model for us all.
Please know we pray for you and your family. Keep fighting and stay strong. Heavenly Father loves you more than we can all imagine!
Matt, Deb, Zack, Jackie and Tyler Jamison
Hello Dorothy and the rest of the Galbraith Family,
What a great Blog and such a beautiful picture of Carmen. Thank you for sharing all of Carmen's successes and struggles.
The Othmans continue to keep all of you in our thoughts and prayers.
Naji says "Hey Carmen, it's me Naji. How's it going? Are you doing good? I miss you alot. Have you seen the movie Wall E or the new Star Wars movie? Hope you get better. From your best friend Naji".
Galbriath Family,
My name is Josh and I live in Atlanta. Carmen you will not remember me because the last time I saw you, you were so little.
I stayed with your grandmother Linda, my great aunt over 6 years ago now. I just wanted to say hello and introduce myself again to the family.
I understand that you have not been feeling well for quite a long time now. My grandmother Silvia has told me how brave you have been with all the visits to
the doctors and hospitals. I hope and pray that you start to feel better soon. I heard your brothers and your whole family have been helping out has much as possible.
You have a wonder family who must love you so very much. You will have to tell all of your cousins out there in California that I say hello. I really cant keep up with how many you have
so don’t tell anyone. Emma (my fiancée) and I are thinking about you all the time. I only wish we didn’t live so far away so I could give you and the family a big hug. Tell your grandmother Linda
hello for me. I will be checking back from time to time to see how you are doing. Please let me know if there is anything we can do for the family. I love you all !!!!! Cousin Josh
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