Well Done to all at Herbert Smith

The photo above is of the lovely James who, over the Christmas period nominated Leukaemia Research to be the recipients of his works raffle. They all raised £350 in Francesca's name which is absolutely fantastic.

I am planning on hosting a fund raiser for Francesca later this year - the funds will be split between research into Leukaemia and the Children's Medical Ward at Lewisham.... details to follow.

Francesca has been enjoying going to school and is having the time of her life. She is absolutely exhausted but I know already she is getting a lot from it. She had her Vincristine last week so has been slightly sore and was back at Lewisham Hospital last Friday with an ear infection and to receive a special injection to stop her from getting measles (she was exposed to a child with measles earlier in the week). It is still a bit of a roller coaster really but, we have to hope that it will slowly improve.

I am sorry for the slow posts recently - we are knackered ! Fran wakes up most nights and Charlie is awake from about 4 or 5 am each day..... I will endeavour to get back on it though!

Starting Big School

Fran was able to start reception last week. She managed three days last week and three days again this week. Unfortunately she is still on IV medicines so can only go until about 1pm each day. That said, she is absolutely loving it!!! She adores making and then taking in her packed lunch each day and is thrilled that she is in the same class as her best friend Tegan. She brings a new book home each day to go through and has generally made the adjustment brilliantly.

We hope to stop the IV's next week so she will then be able to go for a full day. I think she'll be exhausted but, if the last couple of weeks are anything to go by, she will enjoy every moment!

Here's a picture of Fran on her first day along with a few extra Christmas ones.

Finally Back Home for 2008

Francesca was discharged from hospital a couple of days ago. The results of the CT scan showed that she has some type of infection on her lungs, it could be either bacterial or fungal. She has now completed 2 weeks of antibiotics and so they decided to continue Fran on the iv anti-fungal medicines. The good news is that this can be done at home. The community nurses come in each day to set up and administer it all. Fran loves it as she gets all of their attention for at least 30 mins!

Fran and Charlie had a lovely day yesterday when their cousins in Bristol popped down for the day - lots of running around and eating of biscuits ensued but fun was had by all and it was great to see them!

Francesca is due to start reception tomorrow but we decided not to send her until Wednesday at the earliest as she just hasn't had a break at all over the Christmas period. When she does go she'll only be able to stay until just after lunchtime as she'll need to come home for her IV's. On balance I think that it is a good thing, she gets really tired at the best of times so this will give her an opportunity to break into full time education slowly. The school are really supportive which helps too.

On the 14th we are back up to GOS for a repeat CT scan then up again the following day to see our consultant for the results. We were due to be going for Fran's next lumbar but this has been postponed until she is fully recovered from the chest infection.

Photo's to follow soon when I have uploaded them!

New Year in Hospital

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We hope that you have a wonderful 2008!

Now for the update. Fran is still an in patient at Lewisham Hospital. She hasn't had a temperature for quite some time so the infection has gone. the concern most recently has been her persistent cough. Great Ormond Street asked that she had a CT scan on her chest which took place a couple of days ago. As it is with these things, there was no one available to look at the scan due to the bank holidays so it will be assessed today and we will have a better idea of what treatment, if any, Fran needs.

As far as we understand at this point, the most likely cause of the problem is a fungal infection in the lungs - this would then be treated with iv anti-fungals (she has already started these). The stumbling block is simply that the treatment is more prolonged than a bacterial infection. We will see.

Other than being really bored in hospital Francesca is on good form. She is able to come home for the afternoon most days which is great for us all. It has been a really hard time for us all as we haven't had any quality time together as a family until for nearly two weeks.

These photo's are from boxing day when Fran came home for a bit.