What a wonderful day !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shania's pain in here knee has moved to her lower back also, and on Thursday we found out why. Our sweet Shania has this dreadful disease back! It has relapsed. Dr Baruchel told us that they will start her on a five day cycle of chemo every three weeks as soon as they feel that they have the shingles under control. Shania wrote a letter about half way through her chemo last year and in that letter she wrote" MY DREAM IS TO FIND A CURE" this is her dream, and dreams can be powerful things. Karen and I are hoping with all of our heart that Shania's dream will come true, sooner than later. Another dream of Shania's was to have a Fun Fair to raise money to help find a cure for this terrible disease, so that no other children will have to go through this again. And that dream came true on Saturday. That dream came true because of YOU, everyone of you that organized this Fun Fair, everyone that sponsored it, everyone that came out and had fun, everyone that supported it. Thank you for making Shania's dream come true :)
I Have to get Shan to School write now, and then go to the Hospital to stay tonight with Shania, I will go into more detail about whats going on with Shania and about the Fun Fair on Tuesday. Again thank you for making our daughters dream come true, you are everyday hero's . What a wonderful day it was !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sincerely with love from
Shayne,Karen,Shania&Shannon.

Shania just keeps on smiling :)

Shannon and I just got home from emerg at Sick Children's Hospital, Shania was admitted tonight to start on a anti-viral IV drug for the Shingles. This all started last night when Shania came to us when she was going to bed, and said that she had a bump behind her left ear. We took a look, and it looked like small blisters similar to poison ivy. So Karen called Dr Baruchel and he said to take her to our family Doctor to be checked out there just in case she had something contagious and might spread it to other immune compromised children at Sick Children's Clinic. Our family Physician Doctor Mingi said that she thought that it looked like Shingles to her and she relayed this to Dr Baruchel. Which he then in turn said to bring Shania down there to be admitted for this anti-viral drug. Emerg is the only way that they will admit you into a room and they said that she would be admitted to floor 7B. But while we were waiting for her to go from a emerg room to 7B, Shania decided to read us her Hillary Duff book and as she read the book, she was acting out the story as she went. At one part in the book she stopped reading and started to make a funny face and moving her lips all around at us. We asked her what this part meant, and she said that this was sucking face(:kissing:) oh man we started laughing and just couldn't stop giggling after that. We are hoping that the Shingles might be what are causing her to have these knee pains, but we will find out from the PET scan tomorrow and MIBG on Thursday if it is the cancer that has returned or not. Karen is staying at the Hospital tonight and we should know more tomorrow about what is going on.
I do believe in Shania I do I do !!!
Shayne,Karen,Shania&Shannon.

Do you believe in Fairies?

We watched the PeterPan DVD tonight which is the latest version of this fun tale, the girls have seen it a few times and love to sing to the part when Tinkerbell dies and everyone sings "I do believe in fairies I do I do! I Do believe in fairies I do I do!! I Do believe in fairies I do I do!!! And then she comes back to life. It's hard not to believe, when you see your children sing this song. Whiskey is getting better by the day, he is walking around the house and seems to be in less pain every day, but we still have to give him his pain medication and he can't go down stairs for now.
Shania started to get pain in her left knee on Monday, and it has gradually gotten worse every day. Karen and Shania went down to Sick Children's Hospital today to get a full check up and to start to get all the tests done to see what is going on with this and her viral, bacterial, fungal infection? Shania said to Karen as they where going to her Bone scan, " I'm not sure mommy but I don't think that the cancer has come back". Shania is a smart girl and you cannot imagine how much we hope she is right!!! We are going back down to the Hospital tomorrow to get a Ct scan for the possible infection, and she will get a MIBG scan next week. It's going to be a long wait to find out again.
Do you believe in Shania I do I do!!!!!!

Shayne,Karen,Shania&Shannon.

Two weeks today!!!

Shania's been getting progressively worse with Mucositis( Chemo caused this when she got sores on the inside of her mouth and esophagus, and was constantly spitting up thick phlem through out her Bone Marrow Transplant.) It started to gradually go away after she was discharged from the hospital, the only time it would bother her was when she would eat certain foods. But now it seems to be getting worse , we don't know if it is because she has a cold/sore throat or if she has this fungal infection coming back. She has lost some weight, from 63LBS to 57LBS which is less than her sister now. This is a concern to Karen and I because she has zero percent body fat on her to start with. Karen and Shania went down to Sick Children's Hospital on Thursday, and right away Dr Baruchel was concerned about Shania's weight loss. So he ordered x-rays to see if they could see if she has an infection in her sinuses again. They gave Karen a prescription of antibiotics just in case it did turn out to be an infection. Also Shania got a hearing test done, while she was there, and we got some great news from that, they said that some of her hearing has come back, ever so slightly. Which is huge to us because they were saying that she would most likely have to get hearing aids.(The chemo not only makes you loose the hair on your head but also the hair follicles on the inside of the inner ears, thus the hearing loss). "Another one of those moments again", but that was short because we are still concerned about this possible infection. Later that day Julie (nurse coordinator) called and said that Shania should start her antibiotics because they are seeing something there. They will let us know when she can get in for a Ct scan to look into it further. She has gained back a pound since then and seems to be able to eat her food a little better.
We are all very excited about Shania's Sunflower of Hope Fun Fair which is two weeks today!!! We just came in from the garage, where we were working on Shannon's lemonade stand. Wednesday we met the bouncy castle people at the Markham Fair grounds so we could verify the set up. One is called the Fun Fair Park and is 68 FT long, we will have six in total . Also tons of games to be played in the Chucky Cheese style, where you win tickets to be redeemed for prizes at the prize booth. I will try to do more updates on Shania's condition and the Fun Fair, for the next couple of weeks.
Sincerely,
Shayne, Karen, Shania & Shannon.

Good Friday and good friends

We went down to Waterdown(where I grew up) for the annual get together in honour of a good friend Cam Murray Whom passed away from cancer about 18 years ago. This year it was held at the hall were they had his wake so many years ago. "To know Cam was to love him" he was just that type of character. If it wasn't for Cam I would not have met Karen, and for that I will forever owe him a dept of gratitude. Also I would not have had these two beautiful girls, its incredible how sometimes the things you do can have such an impact on other peoples lives, either for good or not so good. Cam fell into the good bracket, his whole family does. His mother and father, Judy and Stew have also passed away from Cancer . Going to there house you always felt welcome and at home. They are all truly missed! This poem was out of Shania's Character Award pamphlet "What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal." By Albert Pike, Scottish Rite Freemason (1801-1891). We all had a good time, good food with good friends on good Friday. Whiskey came home Thursday and was very excited to see us when we picked him up. He is having a hard time getting up and walking right now, but that will come along when he heals up a bit. Shania and I have our Leaf shirts on, they are winning 2-1 right now, and we are hoping for them to break this 40 year drought and win the Lord Stanley. We are big on hope around here:)
Go Leafs Go
Shayne, Karen,Shania&Shannon.

Character Community Award

We are so proud of Shania!!! She won the York Regions Character Community Award. The attributes of this award are Optimism, Initiative, Perseverance, Respect, Responsibility, Honesty, Integrity, Compassion, Courage, Inclusiveness, Fairness. We went to the Markham Theatre to receive her award and had a great night out. As a parent it blows me away how Shania and her sister Shannon have come through this last year with all of these attributes.I don't want to sound like I am bragging, but we are so proud of these two sisters. They never cease to amaze us. There was 13 other winners in the other categories and it was very touching to hear their stories. We would like to thank Janet Porter (Shania's principal) for nominating her for this award. We did not know that she had done this until Shania had won. If it was up to us Janet would win the Principal of the Year Award. Thank you for supporting us through all of this. Whiskey had his surgery today and is recovering at the Vet's office tonight. They are going to keep him there for a day or so to make sure he is OK. The doctor did a Femoral Head Excision on his left hind leg and everything went well. He has to take it easy for awhile when he gets home. This will be hard for him as he likes to get into everything around the house. Luckily he is an indoor cat. And no Shania he didn't have to get a cat scan :)
Chow Chow for now,
Shayne,Karen,Shania&Shannon.