Today marks one year from the day Emmy was diagnosed with Leukemia.  It has been the longest and shortest year of our lives.  We’ve experienced a lot of difficult days, but we’ve also seen so much of Gods goodness and faithfulness even in the thick of it.  We are so grateful for all of the people who have rallied around us and supported our family throughout the last year.  It truly means so much to us to have friends and family who have quite literally put food on our table, watched our 3 boys, helped us pay bills, prayed with us and for us.  This year would have looked incredibly different without the many people who have helped us through it. 

Back in April we learned that our oncologist in Medford would be moving across the country and our care would be moving entirely back to Portland.  We are so grateful for the 11 months that Emmy was able to receive close to home.  We’ve had the most incredible women on her team and they have loved and cared for our family far beyond their job description.  They’ve become our family.  Everytime we go to the hospital Emmy gets excited to see her “best friends” as she lovingly calls them.  We’ve been so incredibly blessed that God put us in Medford when he did.  It was exactly what we needed as we walked through a hard season.  Time and time again we’ve seen the way God was knitting it together for good, even when we didn’t know it yet.  We know going back to Portland is the right thing, even if we’d rather stay close to home.  Please be praying for our family as we navigate this transition.  I know Emmy is heartbroken at the thought of missing our local clinic and team (truthfully we all are), but I know even so that we will be in good hands.  This may be the next thing we need in this cancer fighting journey, so we are ready for it, despite being sad about what we are missing.  This will also require some new navigating as we juggle the boys here, school in the fall, and the distance between us and Portland.  

Over the last couple weeks Emmy began having some concerning symptoms that lead us to discovering some significant issues with her blood sugar.  Over that last 2 weeks her glucose has been everywhere from 40 to 385 all in the course of one day.  She has since had a dexcom placed to allow endocrinology at OHSU to track her blood sugar over a longer period of time, but no one seems to know why her blood sugar is all over the place or what we should do about it.  As her care is in a period of transitioning from Medford to Portland, we have a lot of doctors pushing us from one to another and it seems everyone has their hands in the air unsure how to proceed.  What we know is that Emmy can’t go on like this.  It isn’t good for her little body, it’s causing her nausea and vomiting, and while she will never complain about anything, her body is all but screaming at us that something is wrong.  Emmy is going in for labs early this morning and we are hopeful that someone will be able to help us better understand what is going on and how to help our girl.  Please be praying that the right doctor is able to understand what is going on and help us find a way forward.

Thank you for being here, for loving our family, for supporting us over the last year, and praying for Emmy.  365 days ago the future felt so uncertain.  Today I’m so thankful for another year with Emmy.  Thank you for helping ease the burden of this year in any and all the ways.  We have felt it and appreciate it more than we could ever truly communicate in words.🧡🎗️

Love,

The Torres Family