What a crazy day! I guess it all really started last night when we noticed a rapid increase in swelling in a couple parts of her body. We put Brenn to bed, because she was really tired, and that is when we noticed that she was swelling up. I went down to phone the on-call oncologist, told him what was going on, and he asked me to take her in to the emergency room. He called ahead for us, and we were put into seclusion right away so that we were away from everyone else, and were taken in to a room within about 20 minutes. It was extremely busy in the emergency last night, and I was surprised that we were taken in so quickly. The nurse, and emergency doctor came in right away, and looked at her, did an ultrasound, and got a pee sample. All of these tests went well. We saw quite a lot of fluid in her tummy, and that started to become a bit of a concern. the oncologist came in to see us, and we took x-rays, and tried to start her VAD. We were able to push fluid into her VAD, but were unable to get any blood return. After a couple more nurses from the oncology department came down to help, we were able to get some blood return, but not enough for her blood tests. We hooked her up to IV saline in order to clear any possible blockages in her line, and about an hour later, after some more work to her line, we were finally able to get her blood work out! Thank God, that was a bit scary. Once we were able to get the blood, Brenn was allowed to eat for an extra hour, because she had been unable to eat for a few hours, and was not allowed to eat until after her bone marrow and Lumbar Puncture this morning.

We hadn't really heard anything by 8 am when we had to go to the clinic to have her procedure done, so off we went to the clinic. Before they sedated her, she made me go out of the procedure room and make her some soup. As she called it the "chicken noodle soup with the soft chicken pieces and the short fat noodles" or, Campbell's chicken noodle soup for the lay person. Right away after the procedure, we were taken upstairs back to the oncology ward, and Brenn tucked into a whole pile of food. She was just finishing up her first round of food, when some nurse from radiology poked her head in Brenns door and told us that she can not eat!!!!!! We were not pleased to say the least. We needless to say got a little upset with this nurse, and immediately told her that this was not an option, that Brenn had to eat for at least a little while as she was already really upset that she had not been able to eat all night. We got our way, and Brenn did really well. She really didn't complain about not eating all day. She asked a couple of times when she was gong to be able to eat, but all-in-all, she did really well. I was really proud of her.

During her ultrasound, she was really calm. Christine, the nurse from the oncology ward, and I all started talking about our favorite foods, and where the best restaurants in Vancouver are, and Brenn just kind of laid there and listened to what we were saying. She was really calm throughout the whole procedure. While we were waiting for the ultrasound, I slipped out, picked up Samantha, and brought a bunch of food back to the hospital for Brenn. Samantha had gone off with my Uncle Allan for a large portion of the day, so when we got back from the Ultrasound, Brenn was ready to EAT! Samantha and my Uncle got back to the hospital as I was preparing Brenns first dish, so Samantha joined Brenn in a little late afternoon meal. Once Christine and I got Brenn all settled into her food, I took Samantha back to the house in order to get some dinner, and prepare some stuff to bring back to the hospital for Christine and Brenn, as they are staying in the hospital again tonight.

Brenns blood levels were all really great today, except that her red blood cell count was the lowest that it has been that I know of, so, we gave her another transfusion, and she was good to go. The main problem that is keeping her in the hospital, is her bowel movements. She has really been eating a lot of food, and I guess that her body has not been keeping up getting rid of the poop. I won't go into great detail here, but this did come as somewhat of a surprise to us. Her bowel, from what I have understood today, is restricting her bodies ability to get all of her fluid into her bladder. Also, there is a protein in blood that aids the retention of fluid within the circulatory system that is really low in Brenn, so her blood is having leaking fluid into her body that is compounding the problem. She is just so swollen everywhere, she doesn't even look like herself right now. She has been uncomplaining though, and just says that she is feeling uncomfortable. I rather suspect that she thinks pain has to be really bad now to call it pain, the rest is just uncomfortable. She has been poked, and cut so many times in the last month, when I think about it all, it is quite upsetting.

Christine and I are both really tired and frustrated with some things right now. We just want all the answers and we are both really sick and tired of having to hurt Brenn, and make her uncomfortable, and give her medications all the time. We just feel so helpless, and we are not even sure what is going to happen over the next couple months with Brenns protocol. This week is supposed to be a break in her medications (which we really need), and then we will have a meeting with our team next Tuesday, where hopefully, we will be able to get all the answers that we want, and try to make the team understand a little better how we would like to be informed about what is happening, and what to look out for. We are starting to really understand quite a few things that the doctors talk about in doctor talk, and now we really understand what is going on, and now more than ever, we feel a little in the dark about a lot of things. Brenn is involved in a study, and there are a few extra things that go along with the study (none of which will hurt Brenn any further than we would already have to if she was not in the study). So just getting started on the study is most likely why we don't know what is going to happen from now on. We have lived the last month through shock of diagnosis to complacency to horror of what will happen, and finally to understanding, but being scared. Now we just want to know what to expect so that we can stop second guessing ourselves. Please pray first for Brenn that her body will be able to work out the things that it needs to so that she can get out of the hospital, and maybe enjoy part of her week without meds, and also for Christine and I that we get more answers tomorrow, and through the next couple days so that we can be more understanding, and at peace with our current situation...it has been a tough 24 hours!

Scott