Last Tuesday was our long day at GOS. Fran had a lumber and then the long chemo I mentioned in my last entry. In the past we had been at the hospital well into the evening but this week was great. All the chemotherapy was ready and we were able to get started really early on in the day. It made such a difference and Francesca was as good as gold the whole time. It is really great to go to the best children's hospital in the world (my opinion obviously!) but the hospital is only as good as it staff and those at Elephant Day Care are fantastic.
The picture above is of Francesca with Rochelle and Kathy. Rochelle puts up with my neurosis when I call with my concerns, she also manages a lot of Francesca's care for us. Katharine is just a star, she is brilliant and is always sympathetic. The lovely thing is that 6 months into treatment Francesca looks forward to her trips to the 'big hospital' even when she's not allowed any breakfast. The only set back we met with on Tuesday was that a blood culture taken the day before had shown that Francesca's line infection hadn't cleared. This means that she needs an antibiotic to be 'locked' into her line for 24 hours at a time to try and clear it. She has had this type of infection before and the antibiotic worked so we are sure it will be OK. Nick Goulden, Francesca's consultant, feels that, as Fran has had so many infections, it might be worth replacing her central line. I find it slightly upsetting as it just isn't very nice for Fran and I would prefer for her to not have to experience this again. However, we have to look at Francesca's quality of life and, if she keeps getting infections, we should go with the options that will minimise further disruption.
The picture below on the left is of Francesca at a local park playing in the fountains and then on Tuesday at GOS.
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