Welcome to the May long weekend! I am not sure that it will make any difference to us in our current situation. Everyday is pretty much the same as the last with more and more changes in our daughters every day to keep things kind of interesting. It was a hard day today. for some reason, all of us were really tired and on edge. Brenn woke up at 3 am this morning for a couple pieces of Ham with mustard...warmed up and cut up really small of course. While she will eat almost anything, she is still holding on to her pickiness by asking for things to be cut differently, or having some kind of sauce or something...it is quite funny. Already her cheeks are starting to puff out a little with the steroid that she is on, they say that she will return to normal after she stops taking the steroid at the end of the first 28 days. She is still only 17 KG, so any extra weight that she can retain might be a really good thing for her in the long run.


We had a bit of fun today. We all went down to Stanley Park and walked around for a little while. Brenn got cold really quickly, even though it was quite pleasant outside, so she and Christine went and sat in the car while Samantha and I continued on our walk for a little bit. We checked out the totem poles, and the gift shop, and ran on the lawn for a while. It was quite fun. We went on a little tour of downtown before stopping in at a Tim Horten's to get some everything bagels that Brenn loves so much. Because Brenns counts are a little low, she had to wear a mask that has the Mickey Mouse characters on it. She wasn't even self conscious of it. I think that she just really wanted those bagels. We came back to the house, and Brenn devoured a bagel, and some soup before lunch, then had a full lunch before heading upstairs for a rest. She was really tired, but sleep eluded her this time. While Christine and Brenn were in the room, Samantha and I went outside and played really hard for a couple hours. Brenn got out of bed and needed to eat the entire kitchen again, so she sat down at her table and proceeded with eating. She pretty well sat there until dinner time, when she ate all of her dinner, then a bunch of cut up vegetables, then a bowel of canned peaches, and then when we all finally thought she was done eating...she asked for a yogurt, and started planning her inevitable midnight snack. This may not sound like a lot of food, but for a 17 KG 5 year old kid with the appetite of a really small bird, it is nothing short of miraculous! That is why I keep going on and on about it I guess. I just can't get over it.


Brenns story was on the second page of the Prince George Citizen today, here is the story for those of you who do not get the newspaper, or don't live in fabulous Prince George:

A second little five-year-old girl in Prince George has been hit hard with cancer. Brenn Smith is fighting acute lymphoblastic leukemia at B.C. Children’s Hospital where she’s undergoing the first of four phases of chemotherapy that will take up more than two years of her life. Her father, Scott, said “life just stopped” May 7 when local doctors told him and wife, Christine, the white blood cells were unusual and they “suspected leukemia.”Four hours later Christine and Brenn were on the air ambulance to Vancouver where the suspected diagnosis became a reality May 10. The next day he wrote on his Internet blog, “This is my first day of waking up knowing for sure that Brenn is a very sick little girl.”Scott said the best news they’ve had about the experience is that the condition can be eliminated and it “has a low rate of reoccurance."
When Brenn first complained of pains in her bone areas, it was thought they might be growing pains, but before long the child was tiring easily, sleeping poorly, having fevers and a sore back.“We thought she might have meningitis, but the blood tests and an X-ray May 6 showed different,” Scott said. He, Christine and two-year-old Samantha are staying at the Ronald McDonald House Vancouver. The hope is that Brenn will be able to resume kindergarten at Cedars Christian school in November. A trust fund to assist the family with expenses has been established by Cedars Christian at the Bank of Montreal at 15th Avenue and Central Street West. The account number is 0802-8250-083 for anyone who would like to help out. Brenn is following in the footsteps of Hannah Parker, the fiveyear-old who is fighting a fist-size malignant Wilms tumor on her kidney which had already reached the stage four cancer level and had spread to her lungs and liver by the time she was admitted to BC Children’s Hospital about nine weeks ago. Hannah is undergoing a series of chemotherapy following which she will be re-scanned to see if the tumor has shrunk enough to remove it safely along with her left kidney.

We will now be keeping Hannah Parker in our prayers as well. We pray the she will be okay.
It is a really wierd feeling to have Brenns story in the newspaper. We are all not quite sure what to make of it. It is strange that Brenn is in a place right now that she would be newsworthy.
Anyway, we are all really hoping for a better sleep tonight. We are all tired, and pretty sick of being cooped up all the time, but it is our reality right now as Brenn does not have the energy she needs for extended time away from the Ronald McDonald house. This is our number one prayer request right now, is that we can all find the time and the peace in order to get a really good and refreshing nights sleep. Even one would be a miracle right now.
Scott