The Wedding

Firstly I wrote this post a couple of weeks ago so it is slightly out of date - Fran has another ear infection but all is well and we are at home..... Sorry that it has taken so long to post but I hope you enjoy the beautiful pictures.

We made it to the wedding last weekend! A sigh of relief was heard in our corner of London as for once, Francesca was able to go to something that had been planned. More often than not we have cancelled plans due to infections so it was great to get there.

As you can see from the above picture there were two princesses on the day, the gorgeous and glowing Phyllis and the lovely flower girl Fran.

It was a great day, Francesca and her new boyfriend (pictured) Ethan led the bridal party down the aisle and were perfect in every way. Charlie was as good as gold and once at the reception the children enjoyed running around and having lots of fun.

We approached Easter with Fran on her monthly dose of steroids having had chemo on previous Thursday.... it is hard for us all but for Fran I think it is sometimes unbearable. I'd like to say that she is grinning her way through it but that wasn't the case at all. Easter Day however was spent with friends who cooked for us and plied us with wine and chocolate!

Thank you to all our friends and family who step up to the mark when Fran is on the steroids - it really makes a difference.

A quick blood top-up

Goodness me, we should never assume that we will have a few nights at home!!!!! Francesca will be going into hospital tonight for a blood transfusion as her HB has suddenly dropped. The nice thing is that we will have a rosy faced little girl who is bouncing off the walls by tomorrow! Oh the joy of it all! Hopefully we'll have a quite couple of days after that as I'd like Fran to go back to school by the middle of next week.

Home and Hospital Update

We finally returned home yesterday afternoon after 8 days on the surgical ward (not medical due to measles outbreak when will people learn to vaccinate one way or another?). For some reason it has felt a lot longer and I have to admit that we really did miss not being on the medical ward. Francesca's line infection seems to now be improving and we will have daily iv antibiotics for the next week or so. Her ears are still sore and so the ENT specialists at Lewisham took a look and, yesterday she had a hearing test that showed that Francesca has glue ear in both ears and some impairment of her hearing. I feel a bit bad now for shouting at Fran to get things done after asking several times - she probably just didn't hear! She'll have another hearing test next week and then they'll decide what to do.

Fran had a good time on the ward, the play specialist Viv was great and on Tuesday bought the PAT charity dog into see her (see picture). Francesca absolutely loved that - she is such a big fan of dogs. The nurses down on the medical ward knew that Fran was in so they would keep popping up to make her laugh. The picture above is of Francesca with masses of Barbie dolls and the lovely Dr Mel (who also popped in every day even though she's no longer on the ward) and Amanda (Fran's fav. nurse). Fran took great pleasure in instructing them on what to dress the dolls in and how they were to look!!! I am so grateful for this type of commitment to Francesca because it is often the very small things like that make a hospital stay so much more bearable and 'special' for Fran.

So, we are home. Charlie has missed his sister terribly and we are just glad to all be under one roof again. Community will, as I've mentioned, come every day for the next week and then, fingers crossed we can get back to a relative state of normality. Francesca is well in herself but tired and I won't be sending her to school this week as her immune system has not reached a safe place. She is missing her friends and isn't too keen on my 'learning times' with her! The hospital do provide teachers so I am hoping that they might be able to come in to assist when Francesca's not able to go to school.