"It's Time to Start Believing Again"

Courtney is back in the hospital at North Fulton for her continual digestive and nausea problems. She has continued to have some tests run, but the cause for these problems has not been determined. The results of the CT scan I mentioned in the previous post did show that Courtney's cancer has returned both in her abdomen and also in her liver. Three weeks ago she was started on three new kinds of chemotherapy. She will have her second round of those treatments tomorrow. The new chemos have been pretty tough on her body which was already weakened by the last couple months of sickness. Eating has been difficult, and she has lost some weight but is holding at around 110. The news that her cancer had returned was, as you can imagine, quite a blow to her and her family. Courtney took the news pretty hard at first, but just this past weekend, while lying in bed due to pain and medication, told me that it was time to start believing again that she could beat it.

At this point, the doctors do not believe that the nausea and sickness are directly related to the cancer. They believe it to be more a side effect of the surgeries and medicines, but are only able to control the symptoms as much as possible with more medication. Please pray that the doctors will be able to discover a real cause and a plan for treating the nausea and digestive problems. Supposedly the first round of chemo is the worst. Courtney is hopeful that she will be able to handle the following rounds better. She has been sleeping most of the time, and those of you who know Courtney know that she likes to be up and active and living her life! Please pray that she will have a return to a better quality of life soon!

With love, hope, and faith,
Ann