Well, I am going to catch up from yesterday and today. Yesterday was a great day at the Ronald McDonald House Charity golf tournament. 5 of us from the house had the pleasure of taking in the day and representing Ronald McDonald house free of charge for the whole day. We arrived at the Westwood Plateaus Golf and Country Club at 9 am and were treated to a huge breakfast buffet, and a free pair of Oakley sun glasses as our gift for being part of the tournament. Once lunch was over, there where two groups, one group left to play the main course 18 hole championship, and we, being part of the other group, started our golfing day with a putting contest. Once that was done, we went up to the 9 hole executive course and had two hours of group lessons, which helped me refine a couple of things. Once the lessons ended, it started to rain, but we went inside for a nice lunch before starting our round. The course that we played was incredibly hilly, and challenging, but the views were amazing. We had a lot of fun, and at the end of the best ball round, we ended up in second place on the 9 hole course, not bad, but only 4 teams finished the round, so take it as you will...we are not the best golfers in the world that is for sure...

After the golfing, we were in for a silent auction with hundreds of items to bid on and a really nice buffet dinner. We were lucky enough to be seated with Steve Darling and Christie Gordon from Global BC News as well. They were both really nice and great to talk to. They also MC-ed the evening, and provided more than a few laughs. There was a set of pink junior clubs that I was trying to get through the silent auction, I had planned to start bidding on them at the 15 minutes to go mark. When they called the 15 minutes left, I hurried out of the banquet room to where the clubs were and found a man standing in front of the clubs with his arms crossed making quite sure that no-one else was going to get those clubs. I thought that there was no way that I would beat this guy, so, I went back to the table to sit down. I told the other guys from the house about this guy guarding the clubs, and Steve Darling overheard the conversation. He told me that he had also been bidding on those clubs, and that he knew the guy who had provided the clubs for the auction. A little while later, Steve got up from the table, was gone for about 15 minutes, and when he came back he asked me if the clubs that I had wanted were pink? I said that they were for my daughter, and he said great. He had gone and talked to the guy who had provided the clubs, and ordered a set for me, and if I could write down my contact information, he would get them to me this week. It is simply amazing that there are people out there that are so giving like this. I really do have a new outlook, I now see how good people can be. In the face of adversity, people can and are so giving of spirit, it really is amazing. This is a guy, who I just met, who is a celebrity of sorts, and who was nice enough to talk to us, and encourage us, and help raise over $110,000 in one night for the house that I am currently living in, and then on top of that, he wanted to help me do something nice for my daughter, just because he could. He was really busy meeting and greeting all night, but took the time out of his schedule in order to make my daughter happy. I was simply blown away! At the end of the night, he also asked us to invite anyone who wanted to come down to the Global studios to watch the morning news, just to let him know what date we wanted to come, and he would arrange it. It was simply an amazing, and emotional day!

Today was a lot different from yesterday. We started the day at 9 am this morning in the clinic with Brenn. She had a lumbar puncture, and her Vincristine. Day 1 of round 2! It is always hard to watch Brenn when she is having a procedure done, we always stay in the room with her, because she is not really asleep, just in a state somewhere between asleep and consciousness. She is still able to speak, but doesn't remember anything when it is all over. I watched the doctor today while he was inserting the needle into her back, and through the entire procedure. They took out a couple ml. of spinal fluid, which is crystal clear just like water. It slowly drips out of the needle into a test tube, which they send to the lab to make sure that her spinal and brain fluid are still in the great shape that they have always been. They then put in some Chemotherapy drugs, pull the needle out, and put a band-aid on the small hole that is left. In total the procedure took about 5 minutes. It was interesting, but just knowing that it is my daughters back makes it hard. I am trying to learn as much as possible about how things are done, and why, so that I can understand as much as possible about how they are and how they are planning on treating Brenns cancer throughout this process. We definitely know a lot more than we did when we started.

Also in the clinic today, we talked with our head doctor. We learned that we would be in the standard leg of the test, which means that Brenn will be getting the current standard treatment. We are all very happy about this, as it means that Brenn will be getting fewer injections into her leg muscles. It was really hard last time we had to do it, and I am sure it will not get easier. Brenn did really well in the clinic today, she is always so brave, it really does amaze me. She knows what is going to happen, and knows now that it has to happen for her to get better, and stay better. She is apprehensive some times, but always goes through every procedure with no problems. She started all of her new drugs today as well. It is a pretty easy month on the number of pills as she will only have one drug every day, as well as only 4 scheduled appointments in the clinic. We learned last month however, that this is definitely not written in stone. Brenn had drugs added, and clinic days added last month it seemed on a weekly basis. We will see what this month brings, it is supposed to get better and better throughout the month. Heres hoping.

My Mom was waiting for us at RMH when we returned from the clinic around 12:30 this afternoon. We all had an enjoyable lunch and afternoon together. Christine did some shopping while Mom, Brenn, and I played (Samantha was with Uncle Allen swimming in the Coquitlam pool again today). Mom, Brenn, and I went to meet my brother at Ikea in Richmond this afternoon, but through a communication break down, they went to Coquitlam. Oh well, we had a great time. It was quite fun, Brenn finally felt free to sort of run around. I say sort of, because her run is more like a slow waddle, but it really looks like she is trying hard to run. She wore her mask, didn't really touch much, and kept well away from others, so, hopefully she will be able to get out more, and have some more fun. It was really great to see her in such high spirits, it truly is a blessing from God that she is such a great kid. I couldn't imagine what she is going through. I guess it takes a kid to show you that life is a precious gift sometimes. Thank God for Brenn.

Scott