What a Day!

I promised Simon that I would write on the blog, so here goes:

Hello folks, I know it has been a while since I have written to you, it is not for my lack of wanting to share but more my finding others things to do that seem to be more important at the time. The fact that I have this evening polished off two glasses of wine and 1 bar of chocolate may give some indication of the day I have had. Well as you all know Wednesday's is hospital day, but today I did it alone as Simon was down south helping out with some abseiling and getting a well deserved break! Normally we leave the house at 8am, needless to say I found out on my own, we left the house at 8:30. On a funny note, Oliver's favourite book of the moment is "The Wheels on the Bus", which he himself picks out of the bookshelf and so whilst trying to eat breakfast this morning, in between mouthfuls, I was singing the song whilst reading to him. In fact he will not sit still for any other book at this point in time. Speaking of sitting still, that is not his favourite activity at the moment, his favourite activity is trying to walk - evidence of his broken wrist, which by the way is mending nicely and his cast will come off in 2 weeks - yay! Oliver is managing quite well with his cast on though and continues to crawl, the most frustrating thing is that he wants to constantly be helped to try and walk which can become tiring after a while.

Anyway back to our day. By the time I got to the hospital I was exhausted. We spent a bit of time waiting around to check on Oliver's arm, but not much time waiting on Ward 3B which was good. Oliver did not have treatment today as he has missed his third week of treatment for a couple of cycles and could therefore not have treatment today, however the obligatory finger prick was still taken. I dont even know what his blood results were, but Dr Angela said unless I had any concerns that we could go, so I didnt argue with that. As a side note, Oliver almost choked in the car this afternoon as I had taken his bandaid off his thumb earlier and it continued to bleed so I reapplied two bandaids which he proceeded to bite or suck off and try and swallow, luckily spitting it out and me reaching over and retrieving it at the traffic lights.

At the traffic lights you say, you might ask "Where were you headed?" Well we were headed to Edgewater to the home of our very delightful cleaning lady to get the set of keys to our house which she had used to enter our house earlier today and clean because my set and my mums spare set I could not get to work in our front door. However whilst on the way to her place, Mum phoned to say that she had got into our place using her spare set - so who knows? Simon has had trouble with his keys for a little while, but today is the first time I have had trouble with mine. So after having been out all day and getting home after 4 to find I couldnt get into our house, was none other than frustrating. I must say though Oliver is a blessing, he was so good and let Mummy put him into his car seat again and drive to Nanna's to hang out there till a suitable solution was found.

After the hospital, we had a birthday lunch for Elisa who arrived home from Sri Lanka yesterday at Kathryn's place which was lovely and the highlight of my day. Anyway the day ended with getting home at 6:45pm, Mum helped me to feed Oliver and get him ready for bed - thanks Mum and by 7:45 I had the house to myself and a bottle of wine to finish, having done precisely that whilst watching 'Criminal Minds', my favourite show, I opted to write on the blog whilst having a cup of tea and ofcourse finishing off the bar of chocolate that I started whilst on route to Mums today after not being able to get my key in the door. I know this reeks highly of my comfort eating and drinking - sorry you will have to forgive me for that.

All in all I survived the day, hospital and all on my own, so I am proud and I have plenty of stories to tell Simon when he arrives home tomorrow night.

Thank you for following our little mans journey.

Lots of Love

Karli

What Cast?

You would think that it might slow him down.

Another Milestone

By now you will have noticed our little man has a new addition - a plaster cast immobilising his left arm. You'd think he'd had his fill of medical procedures for now, but apparently not. In his eagerness to get walking Oliver has broken his arm. We think it may have happened a few days ago, but he only made any noises about it as I headed in to hospital today. He didn't seem too happy when I grabbed him by the wrist - actually, he screwed up his face and started to cry. He was happy enough using it, but didn't take to kindly too any pressure. So the lovely Dr Angela organised for an x-ray of his arm and sure enough, a nice little crack through his radius. So we headed down to see the bone ladies and got a nice big plaster put on.

Did I mention that only I went in to hospital this time. We decided that we would try to see how it went since we are weaning him off some of his breastfeeds, and mum needed a break. So for dad's first solo visit, we walked out with a plaster cast - nice one dad. It actually went quite well. Our baby is becoming a little boy and isn't quite as needy as he used to be.

Here he is with some of his new books that Sue & Bruce bought him for his birthday. Thanks Sue and Bruce - they're fantastic.

Toys & Books

It's 9pm. Karli and I have just finished reorganising Oliver's stash of toys. It's hard to know which one's to pass on, which one's to keep for later, which one's to keep for now. Is cuteness a legitimate reason for keeping a toy? It doesn't help that some are actually ours and have some sentimental attachment. I'm hoping that once he is able to dig through things himself, he will quickly help us to work out what stay's and what go's. I'm not sure his collection of books will ever get smaller though - I'm not likely to let it.

He began the second last consolidation cycle on Wednesday, so he has been a little on the uncheery side of life these past few days. Fortunately, he is still sleeping well at night, so we all get a good sleep. Last night he was looked after by Nanna and Grandad here at our house. By all accounts the evening was a success and Grandad didn't have to do too many laps of the park with the pram. This morning we headed down to Nanna and Grandad's to see some of their friends who we weren't able to invite to his party.

I have just given him his last dose of mercaptopurine for this cycle. I still can't come to grips with having to feed my little boy something I use gloves to prepare. I suppose that's a good thing. After the next cycle, he is finished his 'consolidation' phase and moves into maintenance. This will mean the end of his doxorubicin (yay) but he will be getting methotrexate by vein for the rest of the cycles. Although he has had it before, it has always been given via his lumbar puncture, so we don't really know what to expect as far as side effects go when he gets it intravenously. He will remain on steroids, vinblastine and mercaptopurine - plus the other support medicines he receives.

I am so amazed at how well he seems to be taking this. All things being equal, it's as if this is all just normal. It probably is for him at the moment - his little body doesn't know anything else. I wonder if, once treatment is finished, he will notice a difference. I wonder if we will.

Reading with Mum. The book was Karli's when she was 7.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Today is Oliver's first birthday. Last night we enjoyed a 'star' party with family and some friends, celebrating the first tumultuous year of our little star. Oliver's favourite nursery rhyme is 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star' and since he hasn't really had an opportunity to bond with any branded characters as yet, we avoided Thomas the Tank Engine and Elmo. I wonder which one will be his first crush. My money's on Thomas.
He wasn't 100% yesterday for is party, though he did pick up towards the end of the day. He was pretty miserable all morning which we suspect was due to him bottoming out with his neutrophils. I was considering disinfecting everyone before they came through the door to make sure they weren't carrying any bugs, but I was otherwise occupied most of the time. He seemed to enk=joy spending time with everyone though. Understandably he was pretty overwhelmed by all the colourful toys, paper and decorations, but he sat and played with some of the family for a while without either of us being near by,which was a pleasant surprise.
We have enjoyed having the day to play with him and introduce him to more of his toys. He has taken to his trolley with wooden blocks, and is enjoying the hammer his Nanna bought him. We are currently seeking legal advice as to whether the Fremantle Docker's gifts his Uncle jarrad and Aunty Aimee bought qualify as some form of child abuse:) Needless to say, our loungeroom is quickly filling up with toys, and Christmas is only 6 weeks away.

Oliver with his new trolley with blocks. We suspect our little man intends on skipping the crawling stage and going straight into walking.

A happy Mum and Dad with a star sparkler for their little man.

Great Aunt Tatey has been sick most of the times we've had family do's and so hasn't been able to come around. This time she was in Broome. This photo was taken last weekish while she read Oliver 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. Thanks Gatey.

Nothing Doing

As we suspected, Oliver's count was low again, so he won't start the next cycle until next week. This meant we were in and out like a flash. It certainly was nice to have a large part of the day to relax at home, and with the dirty weather we were having, it was great to hang out inside with my little man while mum did some shopping.
The positive of him missing chemo is that he won't be on steroids for his birthday party on Saturday. Mum is very excited about the first birthday party. It's hard to believe he is already one year old. The time has flown so fast, despite all that has gone on in the past year.
He is pretty keen to get walking it seems. Although he hasn't got crawling licked yet, given half a chance he'd rather be on his feet and using only two limbs rather than four. That's a little bit scary for us, but very exciting. I can't wait until he's keeping us well and truly on our toes. We might need to think of doing something with the exposed brick walls in the house though.
His little 'girlfriend' has gotten the results of her scan back. She can't be operated on to remove her tumour because it will be too dangerous, but it has shrunk by 75% and is apparently maturing - which means it shouldn't grow anymore. Unfortunately, it will mean 3 monthly scans and tests to make sure it's behaving itself. A friend who is fighting his own battle with cancer helped me to identify the overall feeling of this experience - bittersweet. Whilst you are glad you have met others, you wish it could be under better circumstances. Whilst you are glad a child has finished treatment, you wish it was for ever and a complete severance from contact with the ward. Whilst you are glad your child is in remission, you know he isn't 100% out of the woods.