Good Evening,

Yeah, we are all finally healthy!  It has been a long three months.  I was talking to one of my girl friends in California tonight and I realized that one or both of my girls have been sick for three months.  However, we are all doing great now! I am really enjoying the pleasure of being with my girls, and with the help of Beverly Hall now I am getting enough of a break to feel good and like a person again. 

Sharmi is doing pretty good, but she has been tired the last couple of days.  She doesn’t have any specific reason drug wise, so I am just watching her closely and I keep checking for a fever.  Last night when I was putting her to bed she was complaining of being hot.  She pulled up her sleeves and was rubbing her arms.  I felt them and I told her that they didn’t feel warm.  She said “mommy, you can’t feel it because your hands are too big.  You need little hands like mine.”  It was really cute.  In addition to her feeling hot she was itching all over.  This is typical when she is on steroids but she shouldn’t be itching now.  She was also itching this morning.  (I can’t help but think, “please don’t let it be shingles again.”)

Chantel is becoming such a fun little girl.  She is not the calm mellow little girl that we originally thought.  She is very fiery and she is giving Sharmi some competition.  She is learning to fight for toys.  Today she was claiming her toys and saying, “mi, mi, mi.” 

What is really cute is when she copies her sister.  Today I was in the office and Sharmi came in helling excitedly “Mom, mom, mom….!”  She kept coming in to tell me how many inches things were that her and Nana Hall were measuring.  So a few moments later Chantel comes running down the hall, through the entry and into the office helling, “mum, mum, mum.”  We laughed and told her how cute she was and so she went back down the hall and did it all over again.  It was really precious.  One of the girls’ favorite things to do is chase each other around the house and roar, laugh and giggle.  There is nothing better then watching your children enjoy each other. 

Life is such a blessing when you can enjoy it together.

Cheris

With barely four months to go I am ready to celebrate!  Tonight I forgot to give Sharmi her chemo so when she was brushing her teethI told her I had to go and get it.  She asked, “mommy, when will I be done taking chemo?”  I told her it would be soon.  I reminded her, she had only 5 more doctors visits for medicine.  She added, “then they are going to take out my port out, and I am going to have my birthday party.”  I told her we would certainly have a party.  (To her all parties are birthday parties.)  She also asked,  “Mommy, will I be asleep when they take out my port?”  I told her that she would. She then asked with a worried look on her face, “Mommy, will it hurt?  I don’t want it to hurt.”  I assured her that it wouldn’t hurt and I prayed in my heart that it wouldn’t.  She has had enough hurt in her little life.

So, JUNE 13th 2009 we are going to have a PARTY at the DEL MAR Beach in California.  You are all invited!  I am hoping Melissa can help me with an E-vite so I know who will be able to attend, but for now, just mark it on your calendar.  I can’t believe it has been almost two years.  By her fourth birthday she will have been on chemo more of her live than not.  She is my HERO.  Unless they are told, people would never guess that she is sick.  She is such a trooper.  I am very very proud of her, and I am honored to be her mother!

Cheris

Good Evening Friends,

Another steroid week is behind us.  Sharmi has downed another 16 ounces of egg noodles.  And her voice has turned back to a normal tone versus the constant steroid whine.  I am ashamed to admit how difficult it gets for me deal with her whining and crying for 5 days strait.  It is especially difficult to deal with when neither of us get any sleep.  The steroid side effects at night include frequent potty trips, itching all over, and simply laying awake for hours at a time.  I can hardly wait until this is OVER. 

This morning was a really positive morning.  Emalyn’s Nana came over today to help me and to play with the girls.  Sharmi had a blast (and I got the pleasure of going to the bathroom by myself ).   I am excited also because she will be helping me every week.  I desperately need a sanity break to catch up on everything and recuperate from the last two months. 

Chantel cut her 10th tooth today.  She woke up with a runny nose and drooling so I am hoping that it is due to teething versus another cold.  As a result of her teething she fussed for over and hour for her first nap and never fell asleep, and she only slept for 35 minutes for her second nap.  Hopefully the Tylenol that I gave her tonight will help her get a good rest tonight.

Sharmi has been talking a lot about heaven again.  A few days ago she was watching TV and she said, ” Mommy, when I get to heaven I am going to watch ’Hi-5′ with Jesus”  I told her that would be lovely and that God loves the kids in “Hi-5″ too.  Last night when she was supposed to be sleeping she was talking about heaven again.  She was struggling with the concept that Jesus was alive and in heaven.  She kept said “but Jesus dead on the cross.”  It is difficult to explain to a three year old that Jesus can die and come back to life but her Grandpa can’t.  She finally got off of that subject and she said, “In heaven, I am not going to Adam and Eve’s because they have a mean snake….”  Then I tried to explain that the snake wasn’t going to be there.  I said, “The snake was bad, so Jesus stepped on the snake like mommy steps on spiders.”  Raising children certainly keeps life interesting.  It is amazing how many times she stumps me as to what and how to explain things to her.  She is a incredible!

The girls are growing up to be typical siblings.  They are starting to fight more, but they are also playing much more.  Everyday they play tag and they just run around the house laughing.  It is so sweet to watch.  They love eachother so much.  Last night they unrolled my Christmas ribbon on the floor and then they rolled around and wiggled in 100 yards of ribbon and pretended it was leaves.  They had a blast.  It was worth the half hour it took for me to roll it back up last night.  Today Sharmi got a time-out because she wanted the book that Chantel was playing with and didn’t talk nice to mommy.  During Sharmi’s ”post time-out talk with mommy” Chantel came and reached her little arms up to Sharmi to give her a big hug.  She gave Sharmi three really big hugs and patted her on the back to show that she cared.  It was priceless!

Well, I should try to get some sleep.  I hope everything is well with your families.  Good-night.

Cheris

Good Evening,

Happy New Year to all of you!  I pray that this next year will be filled with happiness and health for you and your families. 

We had the pleasure of spending several days on the Oregon coast with friends over new years.  The weather was cold and stormy so we spent most of our time indoors.  I didn’t get to enjoy the coast like I had hoped, but the kids had a much warmer time playing in the indoor swimming pool.  Sharmi loved it and Chantel grew from apprehension on the first day, preferring to be held outside the pool, to enjoying “jumping” into the water from the pools edge on the last day.  Unfortunately, with all of the swimming, maybe in combination with eating a lot of oranges, Chantel got the worst diaper rash I have ever seen.  Her entire bottom was covered with blisters, several of them bleeding.  Friday night it was so bad that even with Tylenol she woke up every 1/2 hour to an hour.  Only 0nce did she sleep for almost 2 hours.  Her bottom hurt so bad that I would have to wait for her to fall asleep in order to change her diaper.  We were both very sleep deprived.   As of today though, her rash is significantly better.  We used “Butt Paste” on it.  It has seemed to work wonders.  I would highly recommend it for anyone with little ones.   

We drove back late Saturday night, and Sunday was a slow recovery day.  Today was back to the hospital.  Once we got to the hospital and were getting out of the car Sharmi said, ” I don’t want to go to the hospital anymore.  When do I get to stop going to the hospital? ” I told her that she would only have to get medicine about 5 more times, but I wasn’t sure how many more doctors appointments she would have.  During her appointment, I asked her provider what the post treatment plan was.  I was disappointed to learn that Sharmi would still have to have labs and an exam every month for a year and every 3 months for the second year. When I inquired as to why so frequent, she stated it was the most common time to relapse.  Which lead me to ask the likelihood of Sharmi relapsing.  She kind of gulped and said there is a 15-20% chance of relapse.  That hit me pretty hard.  I knew there was some chance, but when your child had already drawn the short stick and has cancer you don’t ever feel “lucky.”  All we can do is pray and do the best I can to keep her healthy and strong. 

Treatment today for Sharmi was vincristine in her port and we have started her on another series of steroids.  It promises to be another draining week.   Her blood counts were good.  They actually were too good, so they have increased her chemo doses again (we wouldn’t want her to feel too normal.)   Her provider also got on my case about making sure that Sharmi is getting enough calcium and vitamin D on a daily basis.  The vitamin D is important to help prevent cancer.  I know it sounds simple enough, but is it so difficult to make sure she takes all of her vitamins and drugs everyday.  The other thing Laura (her nurse practitioner) ragged on me about is my weight.  I lost more than 5 pounds before Christmas when I had the flu and I haven’t gained it back.  She nagged me about it several times. 

I would also like some prayer power for a little boy named Evan.  He looked to be about 3 years old.  I don’t know anything about him except I saw him several times today with his mother and he was scared and crying.  It looked to me like his port has already been removed so he was just there for a check-up.  But it was obvious that his mother was an awful mother.  She is certainly verbally abusive and she was not giving him any love or support that a normal child deserves let alone a child who has to fight cancer.  At one point I did make a comment to the mother that, “this is a really tough place for children to be.”  She calmed down a little bit, but two hours later I heard the same heartless words.  It broke my heart and brought tears to my eyes.  Kids don’t deserve cancer and they certainly don’t deserve loveless abusive parents.  Please pray for him. 

Thank you for your continued prayer and support.

Cheris