By The Numbers

Tangie called from the cancer clinic with the results of Kevin's bloodwork. She'll be mailing us a copy but wanted to let us know things "looked fine." His CEA level has risen to 2.1 from 1.3 in July. That concerns me but Tangie says we don't worry unless it gets above 3.0

Easy for her to say.

I want it to go down, not up. Not even a little up--and a rise of .8 doesn't fall into my range of "little" if three is the max point.

Knowing there are other things which can elevate CEA levels, I'll try not to obsess too much on this until his next check up. For those of you who like to keep track, some of the crucial numbers are in the image here. Just click on it for a larger view in your browser. The far right box shows the previous numbers. White count is finally into a "normal" range, as are red count and hemoglobin.

Tangie called as I was settling down onto a boulder to look out across the Adirondack Mountains. It's a lot easier to let the little things stay little when you're in the midst of such grand beauty.

The mountains amaze me. Ageless. I can see signs of changes that have occured through time. Smaller rocks broken from enormous boulders. Some are cracked yet holding onto their place on the mountain. Some have fallen and settled in a new place to carry their share of the load. The scars of centuries of environmental assault on their faces, trees growing up--new life springing forth--through deep gouges in the rock. And the mountain endures.

The mountains remind me of so many people we've come to know with cancer and other chronic illness. A growing number. Ageless in the spectrum of life from infants to the elderly. Cracked,maybe broken, but holding on to the mountain. Fallen and redefining their "normal" from a new place. Scarred from treatment as well as disease, deeply gouged, yet continuing to witness to the power of life.

Grand beauty.