Good news today! We are finally back in Ronald McDonald house. Thank God that our stay at the hotel is finally over, and the kids have some room to run. Both of the kids have a ton of energy right now, and they were really starting to not only get on each others nerves, but they were driving us nuts as well. All in good fun I guess though. Arriving back at the house today was really great timing for the kids. Tomorrow all of the Halloween festivities get under way, and they are both really excited about it all. It was a beautiful day today, and we were lucky to get all of our stuff done early this morning, and enjoy the afternoon and evening. We again were the beneficiaries of more free tickets, and were able to go the Stanley Park with the girls and another family from RMH to ride the ghost train. It was really fun for the kids, and really not scary at all, so the kids had a great time. It was themed after Alice in Wonderland, and they really did a good job. I am sure that the girls didn't understand what was going on, but if you have seen the movie, I think that they did a great job with the story line and characters.

At the clinic this morning, Brenn was seen by nurses, doctors and physiotherapists in order to make sure that all was well. She had a blood test, and much to all of our surprise, her hemoglobin was really low. She is not displaying any real side effects that normally come with low hemoglobin, so we did not transfuse her today. Most likely, tomorrow she will get some red blood cells to boost her back up, as we are still actively treating her, and her counts will not be coming up on their own right now. Other than her hemoglobin though her blood counts were fairly good for right now. The physiotherapist spent quite a bit of time with her today, as her ankles are getting weaker from all of the chemo that she has received over the past 6 months. This is a fairly normal side effect, but she has started compensating for her lack of strength and flexibility by pronating. It is just another thing that we will have to keep our eye on for the next couple of years as she develops further. She will still be getting the particular drug that causes this problem every month for the next two years, so we have quite a few stretches that we have to do, and maybe in the future, we will have some strengthening exercises to do. Strengthening right now will actually cause further damage as her feet are not moving correctly, and her muscles are not ready to take strength.

It was a good day today, coming back to RMH was a real blessing. It is really nice to see all the people here, and share once again in the comradery of the house. Even though sometimes living with all these people can really get us down, it is an incredibly positive environment where everyone is pretty well in the same boat, we all know what is going on with our kids, and we are just looking for support from one another. I am not sure, now that we are nearing the end of this wild journey, how we would have made it through all of this without our new friends here at Ronald McDonald house. Thank God for all the people who keep this place up and running, without it, things would be a lot different for a lot of families!

Scott