Tuesday, 31 July 2012

Home Alone 2

Alisha & the girls have been down to see her mum while we had some work done on the house (no hot water for 4 days but that's another story). Having not seen her family for a while the girls stayed for another week to catch up with everyone properly.

Unfortunately, Caitlin had a temperature of 38.4 today & had to go to Basildon Hospital which is where she is now. She's had different antibiotics as a precaution but her temperature has been fine since so fingers crossed it was just a hot car ride that caused it. She'll be there for at least 2 days to make absolutely sure her temperature stays down but she's fine and Alisha is ok too. As soon as I have any updates I'll post it up.

This post comes live from a hot bath tonight. Sorry about that.

XxX

Wednesday, 25 July 2012

Traffic

Monday was a return trip to Addenbrooke's with a twist. Instead of coming home afterwards I was to drop Caitlin off at Nanny Sally's where the girls would be all week as we're having a new boiler fitted at home.


We got to Addenbrooke's at 11am and it was ridiculously busy!!! I don't think I've ever seen it so busy. We sat with some friends we'd made who had been diagnosed at the same time as Caitlin, and were currently two weeks ahead due to the setback of chickenpox. It was the dreaded "long day" for them which meant an early start for a lumber puncture and then all day chemo till very late in the afternoon. That's what we have to look forward to in two weeks!


Caitlin's chemo was fairly routine but I did get an opportunity to meet the child psychologist and a chance to go through what Caitlin has been like and what we can do to counteract her attitude. It was fairly helpful and hopefully will be beneficial later on.


The post title then becomes obvious, M11, M25, A12. I sat on all of them for quite a while getting to Grays and then eventually home. Thankfully I had the cars air con sorted a few months ago as poor Caitlin would have been so uncomfortable. Luckily, she slept all of the way home, and missed all of it.


Apart from the steroids which Alisha is giving her, she hasn't got any major chemo for two weeks now, which will be the long day...


I'll update before then.


xxx

Friday, 13 July 2012

Hard Rain

It's been a while since I last did an update on the blog, I'm sorry for that. It's truly been a busy time, both emotionally and physically for all of us.


Caitlin has resumed her chemo and on Monday we had our first trip back to Addenbrooke's. It was an early day for us as Caitlin had a lumber puncture due, as well as chemo after that. It's always an unusual morning on procedure days as I tend to creep around like a ninja until the last minute and then wake Caitlin up as she does make a lot of noise and will wake everyone else up! The trip there is usually filled with questions from behind me whilst I concentrate on the road, ranging from what chemo is she going to have today? What can she have for dinner after her special sleep? Why is it raining? My personal favourite though is when are we getting there?!!


The consultancy with the doctor was fairly routine, Caitin had put on a bit more weight which is always good, and she generally looked really well. We spoke again about her anger issues and we're due to see the psychologist in a few weeks to see which direction to take next. She went to sleep under anaesthetic really quickly which then gives me time to go and grab a coffee and something to eat. It's a running joke on the ward now that if Caitlin is Nil By Mouth, then so am I until she goes under! It sucks!! As Caitlin isn't eating as much at the moment, she doesn't tend to worry too much, but my stomach is growling by 10am!


She started a new drug on Monday called Doxorubicin which is in a small IV bag and is a scarlet red colour. She took it without any troubles which is always a relief. There's always that horrible doubt that she'll have a reaction to new drugs but it went off without a hitch. We bumped into some familiar faces while we were there and it was good to catch up with them and see the progress that they're making. A little girl who we used to see fairly regularly is only 17 months old and is now in the maintenance stage and now has loads of hair again!! It was lovely to see her and to see how quickly she's bouncing back from the treatment. 


Thursday was a trip to Ipswich hospital for Vinc and Peg. Peg is the injection, and Caitlin knows all about it!! We struggle to conceal what she's about to have so we don't worry about it now. She's become such an independent little girl that she tells you she will be brave for it! It's still not a nice experience for her or us as Caitlin does get quite upset by having a needle jabbed in her leg and who could blame her? We have to wait an hour at the hospital after having Peg as it may affect her but as usual she's fine with it. She got to play in the play room and dress as a fairy whilst daddy sat on a kiddies chair doing paperwork!!! Her Vinc was just a push into her Hickman Line so literally took seconds and we were home.


We're due back to Addenbrooke's every Monday for the next three weeks for routine chemo which is fine. We've also started giving her a familiar favourite in Dexamethasone at home. This is the steroid that made Caitlin eat us out of house and home before! She has it for a week and then has a week break before commencing for another week. We're not quite sure what the effects on her will be with this being broken up so we'll have to wait and see.


The Post Title? It was always going to be a lot deeper than a simple reference to the weather. The rain we've been having has summed up perfectly how we're all feeling at the moment with all the bad news our family and friends have had, I can only hope that at some point the sun will come out again.


xxx

Monday, 2 July 2012

Red Heat

I've been updating sporadically recently, mainly whenever we go to hospital or when something happens. I will update more frequently soon, I promise!


Due to the ridiculous weather we're having (a true British moan if I every saw one!) it's been hard to keep Caitlin cool, especially at night. Even with the fan on full blast she's still been really hot and it's been causing Caitlin's dressing over her Hickman Line to come away from her skin.  Today it was virtually off on it's own! A quick trip to Ipswich Hospital to change the dressing and everything is back to normal. On Wednesday, Caitlin is due a blood sample and that will give us an indication of the next step. Hopefully we'll be back on track, albeit, two weeks behind but back to the schedule.


It is a busy time coming up and I'll scan the flow chart in this week so you can get an idea of what we have going on.


Until then.
xxx