We saw Patrick, Marlene, and Joshua today. We met them at Stanley Park this morning, went for a walk in the cold and overcast. It was quite pleasant. We were only able to stay with them for about an hour before we had to leave. We know now that Brenn can only take so much, so we said goodbye, and came back to RMH, knowing that we would see them again tonight for dinner at my Uncle Allans. Brenn is continuing to surprise us every day with her increasing energy though, after a short rest and a bit of food, we took off and went out to Uncle Allans house. Brenn and Samantha played pretty hard, which of course surprised us, because just a couple days ago, Brenn would only be able to play for about 15 minutes at a time. She is now able to play with some gusto for about an hour or more. Her medicine from the last round is wearing off day by day, and changing her back into the girl we all know and love (not that we don't all know her when she is all crazy on her drugs, it's just sad that she has to be like that, and it is a constant reminder that things are not all right in her body). Her new medicine doesn't have as many side effects as last months medicine, but it is the medicine that she will take during her maintenance round which is the final and longest round. This month, we will most likely be playing with her doses a little bit in order to keep her blood counts low, but also keep her fairly even. It is more a month of experimentation than anything else. It is a bit stressful, and she will have to keep going to the clinic here for blood tests, to make sure things are going well, and to keep an eye on her blood counts, but from what we understand, this will be a small break from her moodiness. However, the doctors assure us, that we will be experiencing lots more side effects over the next 6 months, so, we are to enjoy ourselves this month, while staying close to the hospital, and things should be okay...sounds really nice to me right now. It is a real blessing to enjoy time with Brenn right now, she is such an amazing kid, it is hard to believe now that she is back to being herself how great she actually is...

Scott