Home for Christmas

It has been amazing - we managed to break Fran out of hospital on Tuesday night ensuring we had a really special family Christmas! Francesca it seemed had had a line infection so, instead of the three iv antibiotics she was on we were able to reduce it to just one - that could be given at home by the community team - hurrah! So, with the information at hand I swiftly broke her out (along with Stuart) and bought them home to enjoy Christmas together, along with Nana and Grandad.

The children had a great day and have been enjoying the spoils of Santa over the last two days. Fran will have her last antibiotic tomorrow and then we hope we are free of temperatures for a little while. On the 5th January she'll have a MRI to look at her legs - they remain sore and we are looking forward to elliminating anything suspicious.

Photo's to be posted soon.

Christmas is Coming!

It has been an absolute roller coaster of a week! Monday saw Francesca's school nativity play - Fran was a shepherd and a fine looking one at that (as you can see). She was amazing and sung her heart out during the whole play! The whole school worked really hard to make it brilliant! Charlie hadn't been feeling too well on Sunday with a temperature (again) so I took him home just after Fran's part and left Stuart to watch the end. Once we were home Charlie seemed fine but I wasn't! This silly flu/cold virus had hit which quickly developed into a full blown chest infection. Poor Stu, I don't think he has ever had to look after me like that! For me, all is fine now and the anti-biotics have done a sterling job.

Wednesday bought about Fran's next trip to GOS for a lumbar and to see Nick. I clearly couldn't go so Stuart and Fran poodled off early in the morning. Everything went well and I think they are still happy with Fran's progress. Once they got home Fran started to spike a temperature and by tea time we took her into our local hospital where we have since been. A sense of deja vu has been looming. It seems most likely that Fran has another virus, she is currently on three different iv antibiotics which, do seem to have picked her up a bit. Yesterday she came home for the afternoon as she hadn't had a temperature for 24 hours and we were hoping that today she would be discharged. Unfortunately, by 6 last night she had suddenly spiked another temperature of 39..... It is disheartening as we really don't want a repeat of last Christmas.

Once again though, for her part Fran is amazing, jolly and looking forward to the visit of Father Christmas. Likewise, Charlie is excited about the prospect of a big stocking from Santa!

Here are some long overdue pictures of Fran and Charlie with their cousins in November, having fun in the woods and Fran at her Christmas play.

We will keep you updated but in the meantime ..... Merry Christmas to you all

Fran back home and school

Francesca was able to come home from the hospital on Friday - it seems that it was a virus that needed to work through her system. Her neutrophils have remained low so today was the first day that I felt confident to send her back to school. We were keen to get her back as the children are learning their song for the Christmas Show and, as you can imagine, she absolutely loves it!

As is usual for our wonderful trooper she has coped really well. She has been in really good spirits and despite experiencing pain in her legs over the past few nights she is happy in herself.

The countdown to the end of treatment continues as it is now only 5 months! We can't wait!