Well today was reasonably okay....Brenn woke up smaller and better rested than the previous two nights, and she was in a better mood. The hospital stays are hard for her because she does not tolerate the constant interruption well, for any of you that know Brenn well any sleep less than 10.5 hours of uninterrupted sleep per night is a recipe for disaster. In saying this she is a trooper and she just keeps working through her days. Brenn's music teacher came to visit today and brought her some school work from Mrs. Bluemink including the life cycle of butterfly's (Brenn is quite excited to complete her activities and assignments), as well she brought some more cards and gifts from her class. We sent home with Mrs. B a small poem Brenn wrote for her class as well as a princess picture that she colored. Brenn often talks about getting back to school as she misses learning new things and her friends.

Scott spent most of the day with Brenn while I hung out with Sam at the mall and at the house. Samantha is exactly what the doctor ordered for me today, after spending 48 hours in the hospital chasing after and playing with Samantha was rejuvenating....the nap didn't wasn't such a bad idea either.....lol.

So like I said earlier Brenn woke up smaller, and the doctors thought that they found the cause of her sever water retention, the treatment they gave her last night seemed to have worked....the doctor also stated that the chemo has been hard on her liver as it has been flushing out the dead cancer and they wanted to keep her one more night to just monitor her. When I arrived at the hospital this evening to bring Scott and Brenn dinner I noticed that Brenn has again for the forth evening in a row grown in size this is very disheartening because we were thinking that after getting the albumin last night that she would not begin to retain fluid again as her protein levels would remain high, this is obviously not the case.......we will know nothing else tonight as to the doctors I assume will be running more tests to find the cause or try to treat it systematically until her body can heal itself.

I spoke with another mother in the house here and she said that the first couple of months are the hardiest because everything is new and you don't know alot about what is suppose to happen. She assured me that things will get to a level of normalcy and that we will be able to cope well and predict Brenns reactions to her treatment. This is a great comfort to me as the unpredictability of what is going to happen and what is an "acceptable" side effect and level of effect are the hardest part for me. All in all today was a better day. I am grateful to be forging new and genuine friendships in the house during this time as they are a great comfort not only to me but my entire family, we have all made valuable connections in the most difficult and trying time in our lives......I thank God everyday for giving me my husband, my beautiful, spirited, strong, amazing daughters, family, friends, the community of Prince George, and the other families that I share a living space with.......we are so lucky to be supported and surrounded by such thoughtful, giving and loving people.

Please keep the children of the Oncology units at BC Childern's in your thoughts and prayers tonight as their are many families that need it for different reasons, Brenn is truly one of the lucky ones.

Love you all from The Smiths