I read a story tonight that was all to familiar. the sequence of events was a little different but the content is eerily familiar. This is the link, http://www.justonemoreday.org/. Take a minute and go there. Read the story posted by Sandy Smith, mother of Skyler. He passed away earlier this week. Go to the main page and scroll down a little and you'll see the story. It's under the picture of Alicia. She died of a brain tumor as well. Same kind as Hannah, DIPG.

Go on. I'll wait

Really, I will.

Ok, so you've read the story. What do you think? I was struck by the similarities between our family and theirs. A child diagnosed with terminal cancer. No options that will cure her. Only treatments that will prolong her life a few months at best while robbing her of strength, ability and dignity. But with Hannah, it couldn't take her spirit, courage or honor. And not even the smile from her face at the end. While Sandy faced breast cancer while Skyler was sick, Kathie faced it after. Together with Leukemia. How's that for whammy?

Isn't it time that the media, government and the big medical companies got together and acknowledged that there is a problem with the imbalance in funding of cancer research? The numbers will be different in Canada but the end result is the same. Not enough money to kids. I've been told that money is now be used to research ways to mitigate the inconveniences of some cancer meds that make the patients nauseous. I'm sure those people would probably be OK if you said, Do you mind feeling sick for a few hours if we can allocate some more money to curing kids? I know Kathie would.

So what should we do? Spread the word. News outlets are often looking for a good story, tell them one. Call your politicians. There are a whole lot of them seeking re-election right now. What better way to get some answers from them, then to corner them at a candidates meeting and fire off a few questions.

Anyway, enough of being on the soapbox for tonight.

Kathie is doing well and with some luck will be home on Tuesday! Things have been going well for her and it looks like they'll let her go. She'll have to go back on Thursday and get a port put in. She's due for a bunch more rounds of chemo and Herceptin for another 10 months so to save her veins, which are getting a little fragile, they are going to put in a port. It will be easier to give meds that way and draw blood when they need to. She's excited about coming home and we're excited about getting her home.

Well, it's late and I do need to get to bed. It's going to be a busy day with Kathie coming home and Allie heading of to school. Somewhere in there, I'll need to find some time to do a little work as well.

For those of you stateside, I hope you had dinner at Chili's restaurants tonight. All proceeds were going to be donated to Childhood cancer research at St. Jude's. As good a reason as any to go our for dinner and better them them most of them.

Lots of Love

Tore, Kathie, Allie and Beautiful Angel Hannah