8th and Final Day of Conditioning Treatment

Good Evening and Welcome fellow Bloggers!!!

My goodness, thank you all so much for all of your very touching words of love, support and encouragement for Phoebe, Ade and myself. You’ll have me crying now…..

Starting fairly late tonight, so may not be a long one, but you know me!!

Even though I always plan to start the day early it doesn’t always go to plan, but that’s ok, it's nice not to have any of the daily pressures for a while and to just purely concentrate on the moment in hand. Jo, our ward Sister, should be on leave today but came back in to help out, bless her. Again, there is a blessing for us!!! Jo has been a great help to us and this morning she made me giggle as she had completely sussed Phoebe. She gave me a little commentary about how she's now noticed that when Phoebe's in her cot, ready to have a nap, she now turns over and pretends to be asleep when she sees Jo come in with the keys to the medicine cupboard. Aah Phoebs has been well sussed!!! We started the day with Jo and had a a lovely conversation about our Mums and how lucky we are to have them; particularly how the relationship changes as you get older and you really appreciate the time together. It’s nice to get to know your carers a little more as you see them passing in and out of the room and sometimes it seems like the nurses don't go home and one day just rolls into another!!

We had a fairly late breakfast and Phoebe did really well as she managed to have a few teaspoons of Shreddies (bet you Ade will put a link here!!!) [Couldn't resist! - Ade], some toast and her usual cup of tea. Phoebs enjoyed dipping her toast into her tea making it much easier to eat - very French I say!!!

Phoebe has done well with her oral meds. today and we only have a couple of days left before they are transferred to being given intravenously. We had a visit from Shiva, one of our doctors, who is lovely and he explained why some of the meds. are initially given orally then intravenously later on in the treatment. Basically it's to avoid going into the intravenous line unless it's absolutely necessary, so reducing the risk of infections via the line.

Gwen was unable to join us today as it seems she has a stomach bug, bless her.
She didn’t sound well today so I ask everyone to send thoughts of a speedy
recovery to get her well so that we can have her back.

Well, there have been a few special moments today, for my Dad, Andrea and me!!

Phoebe and I were sitting on the bed this morning after breakfast and she often likes to have a look in my vanity case. She started to pull out all of my jewellery and new hair bands, then proceeded to put on all my necklaces and played with them for ages. It reminded me of the Mother and Daughter scene in the film 'Mamma Mia' when she reminisces of years gone by. It was lovely just to sit and have that quality time with her, seeing her smile when she was checking if I was watching her!!! It brought a tear, bless her xxx

Next was my Dad, pure and simple, to receive the biggest beaming smile from his granddaughter to show how pleased and excited she was to see him; it moved my Dad to tears bless him. I must admit I do give my Dad some stick when he completely forgets about me and it always makes us both laugh!!!

And the final special moment is for Andrea. The nurses allowed us to have visitors as it is OK for the moment, but the strict isolation starts on Thursday unless her blood counts show as neutropenic (immuno compromised) tomorrow. Andrea, Bert and Rob came to visit and Andrea stood by Phoebe’s cot. Phoebs was still awake so Andrea started to sing ‘Round and Round the Garden’ at which Phoebe started to really chuckle and this touched Andrea; she said that was a special moment for her too!! It was lovely to see you all as always and thanks for making the trip. Molly sent a lovely home-made picture for Phoebe and saved 3 chocolates from her advent calendar for us…aaah, thanks sweetheart !!!

We had another friend, Andy Phelan, pop by today as he was working in the area and it was lovely to see him. It was also nice for Ade to be able to pop down to the canteen and have a coffee, or as Andy's daughter Rebecca likes me to say….cwaaaafeeee!!! Thanks for the lovely cards, hope you are all well xxx

Mum and Dad spent some lovely time with Phoebe who didn’t really want any lunch today. Mum has been helping with Phoebe’s nappies and we have moved onto the next stage now in terms of cream for Pheobe’s bum. Thank you to Ann for your help and advice on this, it was really appreciated and seems to be helping.

The final day of chemo. today, what an achievement, and when the line was taken down from the machine we all gave Phoebs a round of applause. She wasn’t quite sure what was happening but looked pleased with herself knowing we were praising her for something!!! She has done tremendously well so far and Rob is really pleased with Phoebe and her continuing progress.

We have a rest day tomorrow, although then Phoebe will be starting an immunosuppressant drug called Ciclosporin as the term 'rest day' refers to the chemotherapy conditioning only. The transplant will go ahead on Thursday, but I won’t go into too much detail about this tonight as I will focus on it more tomorrow along with the blood counts.

Hi Denise and thanks for your question hun,
We know that Phoebe’s donor is female and aged 46 but no further details will be given and I’m unaware as to what knowledge she has of the bone marrow recipient. We are able to make contact with them through the Anthony Nolan Trust for the first two years. We will not be able to give any personal details regarding Phoebe or our family in any correspondence until after the two years and then it is up to both parties should we wish to continue communicating in more detail.

A very special 'Hello' tonight is for Margaret (one of Phoebe’s godmothers). She has a very special bond with Phoebe and she sends all her love and kisses. Phoebs really likes it when you sing Iggle Piggle’s song to her and I won’t tell anyone that you sing it when you are at home Margaret xxx :o)

Thanks again for all your lovely well wishes, you are all playing a huge part in helping us through this journey and it will be nice to see you all again and give you a huge hug of thanks.

For now my friends….

‘This life as we know it will become something else. And when we
cross over, we will suddenly see all the angels who held us and helped us. They
will be cheering at the finish line and filling us with love.’

Much love xxxx