This will be my last post from Vancouver for a few days, Samantha and I are headed out to Prince George in the morning, we will be returning on Friday or Saturday, we are not sure yet, we will find out when we book our return flight. It is hard to say how I feel about leaving, we have been rushing around for the last couple days getting ready, packing up a bunch of stuff that I can take home, and just the general run around. I booked our flight this afternoon, and now it is kind of seeming real, I am excited to come home for a few days, but I think that it is really going to be hard not only to leave, but to be away. It seems like we have been down here for so long, together everyday, involved in our battle together, it is going to be really weird to not be here. I will be missing a clinic visit on Wednesday, and I just pray that the rest of the week goes by without any other problems arising with Brenns health. If she makes it through this week, it will be the first week that there has been no hiccups. I feel hopeful that she will be able to make it through, but if you could all please pray an extra prayer, it would be very much appreciated. I am pretty scared about not being here!

Any way, the last couple days have been pretty up and down, as I said in my brief post yesterday. Brenn has been experiencing some headaches that seem to be quite bad. They feel better when she is laying down, but are quite bad when she is sitting up. I talked to one of the oncologists yesterday, and they think that it is from her lumbar puncture on Wednesday. We talked to a couple of different people around the house, and from her symptoms they all seem to agree. When I talked to the oncologist, she suggested that I give her Advil. It is unusual to give a cancer kid Advil or Tylenol because they can mask a fever, that can potentially be very dangerous. When I talked to the doctor though, she asked if Brenn had been experiencing any fevers. I said that she had not, so she gave us the okay to use Advil, making sure to more closely monitor her temperature. As it turns out, we have only had to give her the Advil 2 times, so we are a little more comfortable with it. She seems to experience her headaches in the morning and they last into the early afternoon, so with any luck, Christine will only need to dose her one time, if at all tomorrow again.

We had the RMH gala last night, again this is why I skipped the post last night. It was a lot of fun. One of the donors to the house puts on the gala every year. The man who does it is very nice, he has no relation to the house, he just feels that it is a worthy cause, and so puts forth a lot of time, and energy make sure that people have what they need here. There was a magician, and a clown there to entertain the kids, and lots of food and a small bar to entertain the adults. The clown and magician were great! The clown made very elaborate balloon objects for each kid. He was working for at least 2 hours to get them all done. He made a couple of the kids space suits with helmets, and headsets, chest and leg armour, he made a school bus, 4 foot long magic wands (these were for Brenn and Samantha), as well as many other things...he was amazing. The magician was also great. Before dinner, he came around to all of the tables individually, and put on a little show. I was watching as closely as I could, and could not see how he pulled of his tricks, he was amazing. After dinner, and the clown, the magician did a full show for the kids that lasted about an hour. He made a couple of doves appear, and then turned one of them into a rabbit. His tricks were good, but I think his entertainment value was much higher. The distraction was well received by all of us at the house, and we are all very thankful for such generous people. Without the generosity of people, our present situation would be very very difficult indeed!

Yesterday was a really nice day though, we were able to see Brian and Beth Hillhouse for breakfast, and a nice walk before heading off to my Uncle Lyles to pack up some of the stuff that we are storing there. I guess that I brought a bunch of totally unnecessary things from Prince George when I came down. I can't say that I was thinking straight though. My cousin Trevor, his girlfriend, and her twin girls came out to see us my my Uncles house as well. It was really nice to see them. We all hope that we will get to spend more time with him through out the summer. They are from Naniamo, and so far, we are not allowed to go there. Maybe next month, we will have to see what the doctors have to say about that.

Today, being fathers day, was a pretty lazy day. We hung around the house, and changed rooms. It is always a lot of work to change rooms, but in this case, it really was worth it. I am going to be able to sleep in the same bed as Christine, and the kids have their own places to sleep. Brenn is sleeping on a pull out couch, and Samantha is sleeping on a window bench seat. There is a railing that is used to contain kids when they sleep there, and Samantha really seems to love it. They are always playing house, or hospital, or whatever, and she always wants to play the baby, so she is calling her new bed her crib. It is pretty funny. I think that she is really looking forward to being home for a little bit. She really doesn't understand all of this, and it really shows sometimes. She is increasingly hard to talk to, because she is really trying to get attention again, but I guess this is just another one of the small things that we will have to figure out together over the next little while. It was really hard to notice this change in Samantha, but now that we know about it, I think it might be equally hard address it. Time will tell, and I hope that the trip to Prince George will help. See you there.

Scott

PS, I played around with the setting, it should make it easier to make comments, please try it out, and let me know. Also, I have to re-activate my internet at home before my phone will work so I may not be available during the day tomorrow, but will get it hooked back up as soon as possible. They know about our situation, so it should be no problem at all.