Hi everyone,

It has been another exciting weekend.  I strive for a boring life, but it keeps alluding me.  Sunday, Sharmi was running into her bathroom and

slipped and hit her face on the door jam.  We only heard it.  We heard a thud, and sharp cry and then silence.  By the time I got to her she had finally caught her breath enough to let out a full on wail.  The poor girl had blood on her lip, a swollen and bloody nose and a two inch red spot on her forehead.  Within a matter of minutes her head had turned purple and she had a bruise all the way across the bridge of her nose.  We were afraid her nose was broken becuase of the swelling.  I ran to get ready to rush her to the emergency care and she quickly fell asleep in her daddy’s arms. 

I called the medical clinic several times and spoke to several people and departments.  Everyone kept telling us to bring her in to check her out because she was high risk.  We on the other-hand didn’t want to expose her to the germs of an ER because she was high risk.  I kept making calls until I got the answer that I wanted to hear from the pediatric nurse on-call which was to “just watch her for three days for any signs of a head injury.”

She seems to be doing fine.  She looks like I beat her, but she hasn’t complained about any pain.  To add to her injuries though she slipped on her bed this afternoon before her nap and hit her chin on her window sile.  After tears and exhaustion she fell asleep in my arms.

She has been happy and feeling pretty good these last two days but I am sure that will change since we started her on 5 days of steroids again yesterday.  I unfortunately was mistaken about the frequency of the steroids.  I had thought they they were going to be every 5th week, but they are every 4 weeks, with only 3 weeks off.  And since we postponed this set due to the flu shot she will probably only have two weeks off.  Yuck!  She also got her weekly dose of methotrexate last night orally so she will start feeling pretty cranky and yucky this weekend.  We hope that some friends will be able to visit to help her “play through it.” 

It has been nice that her immunity has finally stabilized again now that we are in maintenance.  We are no longer house bound and we can get out.  (However, I don’t go out much now that I have two little ones.)  It has been nice to go to church again.  Sharmi seems to be getting a lot out of the sermons.  Last week the pastor preached on Mary and Martha and when Sharmi heard Mary’s name she began to sing “Mary had a little lamb.”  She sang it several times throughout the sermon.  Luckily I think we were the only ones that heard her.  However, we weren’t so lucky this past Saturday.  Our speaker this week was quite animated and Sharmi kept responding to him like it was a Pentecostal black church.  She was loud enough that the people around us were cracking up.  When he got really loud she started saying, “bad man, bad man.”  It was funny but quite embarrassing.

I have a request to make.  Can you all please add another child to your prayer list.  We just found out yesterday that the son of one of Dean’s co-workers was diagnosed with leukemia.  He is 13 years old.  It doesn’t seem fair.  Only 1300 children are diagnosed with leukemia in the country each year.  No child deserves it, but as a parent you ask yourself why does my precious child have to suffer through this long journey.

Well her nap time is almost over so I better run and get a few more things done.  Love you and talk to you soon.

Cheris

What a blessing it is to be a parent.  Sharmi just ran into the office and told me a very animated story about her and foxy (our cat).  It is so fun to watch her grow into an interesting little person (and a busy person).  She has now settled on the floor and is putting Jesus stickers (sent by one of you) all over her hand.  She loves stickers and she even loves the cards that they come in.  I keep her cards in a box in her room and she sits and “reads” them, over and over again.  She jabbers away usually saying something that goes along with the pictures.  Thank you very much to those of you who take time out of your lives to send her a little love and enjoyment.

Her appointments on Monday went OK.  She shut down emotionally again when she got there, to the degree that when Daddy called to talk to her she refused to talk.  I kept putting the phone to her ear and she kept pushing it away.  This is not typical for her.  She usually is saying, “I want to talk…” to whomever I am talking to.  They gave her the flu shot this week, so they postponed her steroids until next week because it is just too much for her little body to handle all at once.  Some good news is that her steroid dose has been decreased.  I believe the nurse practitioner actually increased her dose last month for the maintenance phase, but the doctor we saw on Monday (not our usual provider) said that the steroid dose was too high and she decreased it (I think it is a 25% reduction).  She covered well for her clinic and said that Sharmi had weighted more earlier, but I know that she did not weight more when we started maintenance last month.  Anyway, I am just grateful that this was caught and she won’t being taking more steroids then she has to. 

She had a hard time coming out of the anesthesia this time.  She has always done really well in the past, but this time she was confused, frustrated and kept trying to sit up but she kept falling over.  I tried to make a circle around her with my arms to catch her without actually holding her, because if I held her she felt confined.  She also complained of a headache.  When we were leaving she said “mommy my head hurts.”  Pointing to her forehead.  I asked her were and she said,  “inside.”  She has never complained of a headache before so we took her back to see the doctor.  Thankfully, by the time the doctor was able to come out and see us Sharmi was feeling better and running up and down the halls. 

Sharmi and Chantel are both still fighting off a cold.  It has been almost three weeks now.  The poor kids.  Sharmi has been very tired lately.  Yesterday she was laying on the kitchen floor on her blanket and then she got up and went and laid on her bed.  This is unheard of for her.  I am hoping that the cold is partly responsible for her exhaustion versus this being an indication of what we have in store for her maintenance regimen.

Chantel is growing like a weed.  She has already grown out of some of her 0 to 3 months cloths and she is only 6 weeks old.  She is starting to plump up.  I thought she was going to stay lean, but it looks like she might take after her sister and become a rolly polly.    I love chubby babies so I hope so.

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Marysville.  It was mid 70’s and we took advantage of it and went to the park.  On the way back Sharmi let Chantel sit on her lap in the stroller.  (I haven’t had the time or energy to buy a double stroller yet.)  This was certainly easier for me than pushing one and holding the other.  Sharmi did really well, but once we got home she was really anxious to have her taken off.  I was trying to take a picture, but Sharmi kept saying, “mommy, Chantel is wiggling, pick her up.” 

I live a very small life, so I didn’t know until yesterday that San Diego and Southern Cal are going through the hell of fires again.  I am so said to see the devastation.  I hope all of your homes, family and friends are safe.  It is interesting how when you have gone through really hard things in life and felt the pain that tragedy brings you can empathize more with others pain and loss even when it isn’t the same.  Our thoughts and prayers are with you.

Cheris

Hi Everyone,

I don’t have time to fill you in on all of the medical details and the fun antidotes of Sharmi this evening, but I would like to ask you to pray for her tomorrow.  She is going back to the hospital for chemo, including a vincristine push and methotrexate in her spine.  She will also be starting another 5 days of steroids.  Please pray for her as there is always risk with anesthesia and getting “put under”, and please pray that God will perform a miracle and protect her from the emotional side effects of the steroids.  Also, she always has a harder time going back when it has been a while between appointments. 

We love you and find comfort knowing that you are out there praying for her. 

Good night,

Cheris

hi there! i know i haven’t written in a LONG time…i’ve been so busy with mommy and sister chantel. so i’ll try to tell you what i’ve been doing.

first of all, i’m still going to children’s hospital-it’s neat, they even have one up here in washington, so i can keep getting my treatments. i’ve gotten so brave, all the nurses and doctors tell mommy what a brave little girl i am. i don’t get as scared as i used to because mostly they don’t do anything new to me anymore. i still don’t like them to access my port, but we pray and jesus and the angels really help me to not be as afraid. i also don’t like the times when i can’t eat before my treatments–’cause i get hungry! the medicines still affect me, so sometimes i don’t feel like myself and that’s hard for me and mommy and daddy. grandma and papa too, when they see me. but the good thing is, i can walk and run and play, so it’s not bad like it used to be.

i’m getting to be a big girl–everyone tells me so. i really like going to the park and playing on the playground. i have a great time riding the plastic animals that bounce and rock (daddy helps!). i’ve had fresh blackberries (late summer) right off the vine and have seen more rain in these last 5 months that I’ve seen in my entire life! when the sun finally does come out–mommy tries to make sure we get outside to play. i like to play hide and seek–it’s one of my favorite games now! sometimes i hide, sometimes daddy hides, i like to play with whoever is willing and able to play! another fun thing i like to do is play with play-doh. i have a lot of different colors and even have stuff to make shapes out of it and everything. you know what else i got? a rocking horsey to ride and it’s in my room! if you squeeze his ear, he makes horsey noises and sounds like we’re really riding. i can make him rock fast. that’s REALLY fun!

i got rainboots, they’re kinda hard to walk in–but they are pink and have kitty faces on them! i can put them on all by myself too

things are kinda different with sister chantel outside of mommy’s tummy. now mommy has to hold chantel and feed chantel and change her diapers too. sometimes it’s hard because i want mommy all to myself. but when chantel cries, i know we need to take care of her too. she’s really cute and really small. mommy says i used to be that little, but i don’t remember that!

some of the things i’m learning now are how to share (sometimes i don’t mind, and sometimes it’s SO hard!), i’ve learned a lot of words and listen very carefully how to say them. i even remember stuff different people say to me and then i repeat it back to them. i went shopping with mommy and melissa last week and picked out some of my own clothes. i would take something off the rack and take it to mommy and say, “isn’t this adorable?” just like i’d heard them saying. they really thought that was cute i’ve learned how to make sentences mommy says, but i don’t really know what that means yet–but i’m glad anyway!

last sabbath, we went to a pumpkin festival that was close to our house. they had lots of pumpkins, and mommy, daddy, sister and i took some pictures together while we were there. i think mommy is going to post them soon. they also had animals-which was one of my favorite parts! they had sheeps, bunnies, goats, ducks and roosters. they also had a little train ride that we got to go on, that was neat and the one we rode in had a bear painted on the door! we also got to go on a hayride…that was longer and we sat on hay and a tractor pulled it and took us down the road and back. they had something that we could go into and bounce around in. i was a little nervous, but mommy and daddy each took me in one and helped me jump around. it was a lot of fun, except one little boy knocked me down i didn’t like that because it hurt and it made me scared. luckily daddy was there and helped me back up right away. we got to jump a little more so that was good. on the way out, they had a lot of different tractors that kids could sit on and pretend to drive. i liked that part too. it was just a really nice time i hope we get to go back again soon!

well, i guess i’d better get back to bed before mommy and daddy find me up…i’m glad tomorrow is sabbath and i get to spend the day with mommy, chantel, AND daddy! and tomorrow night, we get to got to rick’s birthday party–i LOVE birthday parties! and then daddy’s party is next month! i can’t wait!

nite nite!
*baby waves*

Good Evening,

Wow, I am tired.  Dean brought a nasty cold home from work last week.  He went into hiding this weekend (he slept that lucky dog) to try to keep from getting the kids sick.  Luckily we were at my parents house for the weekend so I had some help taking care of the girls.  This week has been hard doing nights alone still and unfortunately Sharmi got sick a couple of days ago and I started fighting it today.  So far Sharmi doesn’t seem to be feeling to terrible and I am pleading with the Lord that I will be able to beat this thing before I really get it.  As a mom, I don’t have the option of going to bed and letting someone else take care of the kids.

Sharmi is doing pretty well right now.  She had her weekly heavy day of chemo yesterday.  As a result she had a rough night with lots of tossing and turning and nightmares.  It breaks my heart when she has bad dreams that seem related to her treatments, but their is nothing better then her saying, “Mommy, hold baby please,” and having her cuddle up next to me.  That is certainly better than her hitting me in the middle of the night because I am trying to calm her down and she is still dreaming.  It seems that everything comes with the good and the bad. 

She had labs drawn this week to see how she is responding to this regimen.  All of her blood counts were good so they didn’t make any adjustments to her Chemo at this time.  I don’t remember if I told you previously or not, but she is only taking half of the dose of all of her chemo meds so I am sure that will increase those shortly.  “yuck.”

Sharmi is doing quite well at playing independently.  I am starting to see what a “normal” two year old is like.  This helps a lot with my sanity and trying to take care of Chantel.  This is good because Chantel has been fussy the last few days and nights.  Right now however, she is sleeping peacefully on my lap.  I wish she would sleep like this at night.

I have to share a cute thing that Sharmi said last weekend to her papa (my dad).  We have been trying to teach her to share to help with the jealousy, so at worship we have been singing “I have to bears and I am glad, you have no bears and that’s to bad, I’ll share my bears because I love you, and that’s what Jesus wants me to do.”  We sing this with many different objects.  Well, on Sabbath My dad noticed that Sharmi had two of her favorite blankets (she has 3 total that I rotate through the wash).  So, my dad said, “Sharmi you have two blankets and papa doesn’t have any.  Will you share one of your blankets with papa?” She responded with sympathy and said, “Oh, I’m sorry papa.  You need to go buy one.”     I guess we still have some work to do in teaching sharing. 

I hope you and your families are all doing well. Good night.

With love,

Cheris