Hello,

Last week was a really long week and so far we are starting this one out tired as well.  Last Monday evening Sharmi was taking a bath and she had gotten out of the tub by herself.  Since she hadn’t washed yet I helped her get back in and told her not to get out of the tub by herself because she might get hurt.  I washed her up and went to her bedroom to get her cloths (immediately adjacent with Jack and Jill design).  I heard a thud and a wail.  Within the second that it took to get to her, the bridge of her nose was already swelling and turning purple.  She was crying and gasping and saying, “I want to breath, I want to breath.”  The swelling made her nose so uneven that I thought she had broken it which was impeding her air supply.  Luckily she just ended up with a black nose at the bridge, a three inch black line across her cheek and a red mark across the tip of her nose.  She was quite the site, but by bed time she seemed to be doing fine.  Her only problem was that she wanted to wash the marks off. 

That night Dean became sick with an intestinal thing, so we put him in isolation for the rest of the week and I became a single parent.  It was exhausting, but I was able to keep all of us girls well.  Sharmi did get a little bit of a fever one morning but it came down fairly quickly.

By Saturday Dean was doing better and we went up to visit Rick and Melissa for the day. It was a beautiful and warm day for a change.  We drove around the tulip fields and saw some of the early bloomers and Melissa navigated us to ”Cow Town”, a place where Sharmi and Chantel pet cows, bunnies, pigs, goats, and Sharmi chased the little tiny chicks.  Chantel had a great time with the goats.  She gets really excited and her arms and legs kick and kick.  We had a very lovely day.

Yesterday, was another hospital day.  I don’t usually tell Sharmi in advance because I don’t want her to worry.  So, in the morning when I told her we had to go to the hospital I got the usually response, “Mommy, I don’t want to go the the hospital,  I don’t want any medicine.”  This was the theme for the next hour as I tried to get out the door.  I told her that I didn’t want to go either and I was sorry that she kept having to do this.  I even agreed that it wasn’t fair.  However, what shocked me was the conversation that we had in the car.  She fought me as I put her into her car seat, and I continued to apologize, explain and insist.  She wasn’t settled by my answers and she kept asking “why”, so I told her directly for the first time.  I said, “Sweetheart, you have cancer, so we have to go to the hospital to get medicine.  You used to be really really really sick. I know that the medicine makes you feel yucky, but you have to keep taking it so you don’t get really really sick again.”  There was a long silence from the back seat, and then my little girl said, ”OK Mommy, I want to go to the hospital and get medicine.”  I was blown away.  She turns three the end of this month.  How does she get it.  Believe me it isn’t just because she is an obedient and compliant little girl.  She thinks disobeying is a art form.   Somehow she really did get it and for the next ten minutes she kept saying, ”Mommy, I want to go to the hospital and get medicine.”  She is my hero! 

Cheris