"My Sisters Keeper"

Every morning I have been going down to the exercise room with the 3 boys. They love that place and I get a good workout. Todd stays at the hospital because he is so kind and generous. He tells me that soon enough I will have to be at the hospital. The boys and I have been sleeping in and our apartment is a mess because we hurry and get to the hospital on the shuttle. We don't come back to the apartment till really late every night. Monday night we stayed at Breck and Celest's till after 11pm.

Yesterday we get to the hospital and there is Devree with her ordered lunch of grilled ham and cheese sandwich, tater tots, peas and pickles on the side. She said that everything tastes funny. She also had a red splotchy cheek. Devree has no skin coloring except white white skin with a few brown spots from the radiation where her hair will be on her head. Any coloring at all is signs of alarm. Sure enough she had a low grade fever. She only ate a couple of bites. She "conveinently" got the fever right before the Physical Therapy lady came. Devree hates physical therapy and any exercising. I got her up for a walk, the day before, but not before she got so angry at me and threw a pillow at me. I said "Oh! This is good exercise too. Here is the pillow back. Now do you think you could throw it a little bit harder this time?" When the PT lady and nurses heard about that they teased Devree and said "Oh what a terrible mother you have to try to keep you out of ICU or help you feel better by exercising!" They love to tease her like that. The wonderful thing, is they are all mothers and they know my perspective! Devree got drugged up to try to bring her fever down, so she slept all day. She did well though about getting up every two hours to do her urinating so the chemo drugs don't cause more problems in her bladder.

Todd and I went on a date with Breck, Celest, Bill and Brenda. We went to this little Italian cafe we discovered and then we went and saw "My Sister's Keeper". Brenda was worried that I wouldn't be able to handle it because it is about a 15 yea-old girl with cancer. I said "A good cry is always welcome too." Well the movie was really good but it was more about a Psycho mother and a dysfunctional family. There were a few moments that hit home to Todd and I but mostly we enjoyed it. It did bring back some feelings for everyone that watched it because everyone is related to cancer in some way and knows someone with it. I just felt so bad for the other kids in this family that were ignored. Todd and I try really hard to include the boys in everything and follow-up on things that are happening in their lives as well as Devree's.

But back to Devree. She turns 15 on Friday. We are planning a huge surprise celebration and are hoping she will be out of the hospital and able to attend her own party. If she doesn't get out of the hospital, we are bringing the party to her! We have already received many birthday presents. Thanks everybody!

Love, Shana and the rest of the Hamblins