Good Evening,

Wow, this week flew by.  Just a few moments ago I was shocked to realize that tomorrow is Friday.  What a short week it has been.  I have a ton to do between now and when we leave for California. 

All in all Sharmi’s surgery Tuesday went really well.  We rushed to get there in the morning with no sleep and then we found out that they had miss-scheduled the doctor and her 7:30 am surgery was moved to 9:00 am.  In reality she was taken to surgery at 9:45.  That morning Sharmi went into her shutdown protective mode.  She talked as little as possible and just watched TV.  The surgery went well, but she was really cranky coming out from under the anesthesia.  Dean and mom took the brunt of her attitude.  I was able to get a big smile out of her when I gave her the little resin puppy she wanted, but then she just held him close and went back to watching TV. 

Sharmi was very pleased that there were so many of us there to support her.  My parents were there before the surgery and my aunt Tami and Carl and Trina, arrived immediately after she went into surgery.  Once we got her out of the hospital she started feeling better.  We had a wonderful afternoon.  We went to downtown Seattle.  She rode the Carousel, ate macaroni at Red Robin, had a strawberry ice cream cone (sister had huckleberry), and she rode the carousel again before we drove home and the kids crashed in the car.

At the end of the day, I was wipped out.  Carl and Trina once again bailed me out the last couple of days.  They helped me get the kids in bed, and Trina had Chantel all day yesterday so Sharmi could have some mommy time, and I could have a little rest.  Sharmi and I played magnets, cuddled, did markers, colored, I took a “nap” while she made me “breakfast”, we took a real nap together and we tickled.  I have noticed that just in the last two days she has laughed more.  She used to love to laugh.  It was like old times.  And today, when I was closing the blind before her nap, I saw the sparkle in her eye again.  The sparkle that the chemo killed years ago.  My baby is coming back! 

Yesterday I asked her, “How is your port doing?”  She replied, “My not-port is doing good.”  Her body has a “not-port” and “not-cancer”, and the scars are already beginning to fade.

Cheris