This has been a good week.  Life has been calm.  It makes me wonder what it will be like in two months when her chemo is all over.  I would like to think that all of her bad behavior is caused by the drugs and that she will be the perfect child when this is all done, but I am afraid that won’t be the case.   

The other day I found Sharmi sitting in her room reading stories to a wood carved bear.  She had a pile of books.  She said that she was putting him down for a nap.  A couple hours later when we returned for Sharmis nap, there was the big wooden bear tucked under her satin sheets.  He had a good nap. 

Chantel melted my heart the other night when I tucked her in. After I laid her down in her bed, she peaked through the slats and said, “night  nigh… night nigh…. slee(p) tie.  These moments make all the craziness of the day melt away. 

Love to you all.

Cheris

Good Evening,

One of Sharmi’s phases right now is to use the word “hate” and we are trying to teach her to use different words.  But I have to say, I HATE chemo and steroids.  Last week was the hardest week she has had in a long time.  I think the combination of the chemo’s, the spinal, the bone marrow draw that hurt for 5 days in combination with her ANC counts already being low at 1700, she just had a miserable week.  Which means we all did.  Our saving grace was that our friend Carl was knocking down a bunch of trees in our back yard all week so it gave her something to watch.  She also enjoyed riding the excavator.  The only other thing she did was eat, watch movies, and whine a lot.  I am counting down the days until this is over!  What a great day that will be. 

Today has been great.  Sharmi has been such a good helper.  This morning after I put sister down for a nap I came out to find Sharmi folding the laundry.  She was doing an amazing job.  I have never asked her to help me fold.  She did it on her own initiative.  She was also great with her sister.  She tried to help Chantel wash her hands, they shared a pink sprinkle doughnut, they played dress up and they both ate their dinner in the bath tonight because Chantel was caught playing in the toilet.  I locked her out of one bathroom, so she went to my bathroom and played with a bottle in the toilet while I was on the phone.  So I dumped both of them in the bath and I fed them their dinner while they played in order to save time.  I am ashamed to admit that I am raising them to be like me.  I do not sit down to eat except for dinner everyday.  I eat and multi-task.  My poor kids.  The good thing is that tonight they thought it was funny. 

Chantel is getting a good sense of humor.  It is common for us to race with the girls when it is PJ time.  Dean gets Sharmi in her PJ’s and I get Chantel in her PJ’s.  Sharmi has been known to hide or run off with Chantels PJ’s so that they can win.  Well, last night Sharmi was going potty and Chantel grabbed her PJ’s and took off running.  She had the biggest smile on her face.  When Sharmi caught up with her, three rooms away,(tipped off by mom) Chantel was laughing so hard. Sharmi was also laughing and enjoying the humor and joking from her sister.  It was so fun to watch.

Dean told me a cute story about Sharmi.  The other day he took her to Costco and when they got to the car she realized that she had dropped her binkie at the express check-out.  Unfortunately, this is something that she still can’t live without so they went back in to look.  They looked for a long time and asked several people.  An employee said that if they found it they would throw it away.  But one customer waiting in line overheard the conversation between a daddy and a very sad little girl and she said, “I think I see it behind the monitor.”  She was right. There it was.  Sharmi was so excited and they went off to give it a good washing.  When they got out to the car Sharmi said to Dean, ” Daddy, I was so sad when we couldn’t find my binkie tears almost fell out of my eyes.”  When she got home she told me the whole story and she said,  “…another mommy found my binkie and put it up where it was safe so that I could find it.”

So there are some glimpses into our lives the last week.  Remember to enjoy the little things.  They are what matter in life.  Today for me it was pink sprinkle doughnuts and dinner in the bath tub.

Goodnight to you all,

Cheris

Good Evening,

Today marks the two year “anniversary” of when Sharmi was diagnosed with cancer.  She was admitted to the hospital on March 1st 2007, and we were given the official diagnosis on the 2nd.  It seems a weird anniversary to celebrate, but every year she is a survivor is a year worth celebrating. 

It is kind of ironic that two years after her diagnosis she had her last sedation and spinal chemo treatment.  I am more excited about this being over than Sharmi is.  This life is all she really remembers, so she is having a hard time adjusting to the thought of it ending.  Today after her sedation she was really cranky and had a melt down over washing her hands.  I explained that today was the last time that she had to go to sleep and get that medicine.  She cried, “But I want to do it again.  I like it.  The white medicine smells funny and it makes me feel wiggly.”  I have intentionally never explained the anesthesia process to her, so it was interesting hearing her describe and identify the effects of the anesthesia.  Once we got home we were talking about it again and she added, ” the white medicine makes my eyes spin,” and she laughed!  It melted my heart.  She can find things to enjoy even in the tough days.  

When her daddy was putting her to bed she said, “daddy, today was a good day.”  When he reminded her that she went to the hospital today she said, “I know, but the doctors take care of me, and I get a band-aid when they are done. “ 

What an incredible positive attitude.  In reality this day was harder than usual.  In addition to the two chemos they also drew a bone marrow from her right pelvis.  Once we got home she was really mellow and just watched TV.  She complained consistently that her back and her port access sites were hurting which is not usual.  For dinner, she would not sit on her chair because she said she was hurting too much.  So Dean held her on his lap, but then she started crying in pain about her left shin.  “Medicine, medicine I need medicine…my leg hurts… I need more medicine.”  The codeine seems to have helped with the pain, but I am amazed.  After a day like today she still says, “Daddy, today was a good day.” 

I have to agree with her.  It was a good day.  It was simply mommy and daddy at the hospital loving and caring for Sharmi.

I hope you can say that your day was a good day.

Cheris