Francesca's Current Treatment

As I chatted to a friend yesterday she was surprised that Francesca is still having chemo as I had previously said in the blog that she wasn't due any treatment until January next year. To clarify, Fran still has a 'big' chemotherapy drug once a month (Vincristine). At that time she receives five days of steroids - this will happen every month until the end of her therapy in April 2009. She also gets daily oral chemo at home every day unless altered by GOS. In January she'll go to GOS for a lumbar and to see her consultant.

This week then was the week for all of the above! On Tuesday we went into Lewisham to receive the therapy and start her steroids - I have to be very honest and say that it has been a terrible week. As I have mentioned before, Francesca is sensitive to all the drugs she receives and this week was no different. She has been suffering with bad joint pain in her legs and the steroids have a horrible effect on her. Fran isn't able to rationalise things when on the steroids and everything is a BIG issue. She cries a lot and feels terribly sad and says that everything is her fault. This isn't true but that's how she feels. Stuart and especially me have found it really emotionally hard this week. Everyone very kindly says how well she is looking (and she is) now that her hair is returning and she has colour in her cheeks but, the reality is that she will have to go through this process every single month until she ends therapy. On top of this, I have had to chase and chase our local hospital to get the drugs ready on time. Some months we will cope with it better and some we won't!

I feel a little bit bad about posting a more negative post but want for you to understand that it isn't all plain sailing and, at the end of the day, if Francesca doesn't continue to receive this treatment the Leukaemia will return. We plod on and very much look forward to the Christmas break.

On a more positive note Francesca is having an AMAZING treat tomorrow. She will be meeting Sarah Jane Honeywell (the royalty of CBeebies - if you have kids you'll get that!!), she is very excited!!!!! I will post photo's over the weekend so you can see just how big Francesca's grin will be!!!