Thursday the 16th of September
Elijah had an MRI and the Dr phoned us the next day with the results. It was confirmation that the chemotherapy has stopped the growth of the tumour and has also considerably shrunk the cyst (a sort of fluid sack) that had grown from the tumour since his debulking operations. So praise the Lord for that! 8 months of treatment down, 10 to go.
Wednesday the 22nd of September
I took Elijah into Starship for a routine dose of chemo, carboplatin and vincristine. We must have been about half way through Elijah's infusion when he started having a severe allergic reaction to the carboplatin. He started getting white spots spread across his forehead and was being very agitated so I buzzed the nurse. He went pink in his face and all over so I took his top off. He was very pale around his eyes, nose and mouth. The nurse didn't say much but stopped the infusion and went to get the Dr. When she came back Elijah vomited and then I'm not sure if he passed out or just went to sleep in my arms but the Dr wasn't really saying anything just getting the nurse to some tests on Elijah so I was just kinda thinking 'what's going on?' to myself. Anyway, after a few minutes a few of the oncology Dr's came in and started treating him with this, that and the other thing for an allergic reaction and things started to calm down. Apparently 40% of people receiving the carboplatin develop an allergic reaction to it over a period of time and won't be able to use that drug again. They said that there's a substitute drugs to use but still haven't heard what the new plan is for Elijah.
Elijah slept for ages after that and we had to stay the night in hospital. At least we're on a ward now that provides beds for the parents to sleep on! Our days back on the neurosurgery ward (ward 26a) I'd only have a bed to sleep in if we were lucky enough to have a room to ourselves. Speaking of ward 26a you might be interested to know that they are having a much needed total refurbishment starting at the end of next year. I'm so excited about that because I know how badly it's needed. The place we go to now - ward 27a/b was redone a couple of years ago and is very flash so I'm glad we get to benefit from that.
Elijah recovered quickly from the ordeal and has had a pretty good week. He's still hard work but is doing so well at the moment. Making lots of new exciting developments that make us smile:)
My brother, Chris, has just finished designing invites for our celebration party we're having here on the 9th of October. Elijah turns two on the 4th which marks one year since we left our admission to hospital in 2009, something to celebrate for sure! Even if you haven't met Elijah or you have only briefly it would be great to see you there! All welcome! If you don't have an invite and are thinking of coming let me know (eleanor_barnard@hotmail.com) and I'll e-mail you an invite with the details. Yay, I can't wait.
P.S. I've got some cute photos I'll post soon.
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