Transplant Day +12 - The Road to Recovery

Hey Bloggers….or should I say….Ho Ho Ho!

We would like to wish you all a warm welcome, especially those new to the blog. I must say we have had a truly lovely day today…how about you? Maybe it’s all the good vibes everyone is sending our way and the extra vibe for Christmas too!!

We have had a very positive day which started really well this morning and Phoebe was in a great mood. She is falling asleep a little later each night and therefore she is still tired in the mornings. When Phoebs finally awoke, a huge grin greeted me as I ran some water for her first nappy change of the day. Much to my surprise, her bum has really started to heal well and it looks as though she has turned a corner with this. Phoebe is still saying its sore, but in comparison to skin without the effects of chemo, it’s a peach!! We have noticed that now that Phoebs understands and can tell us where its sore, she enjoys telling us rather a lot!

Phoebe’s speech over the last few days has just come on at an amazing pace and she is repeating everything we say…we’ll have to watch our p’s and q’s even more so now! As she is learning everyone’s name it's great when the nurses come in, it really brightens their day when she says "Hi!". All of the nurses want to look after Phoebe and we usually have the nurse in charge; how nice is that? We are so lucky!!! The care here is absolutely fantastic, second to none.

Phoebe wanted to play with her wooden shape sorter as soon as she woke and without prompting she successfully inserted all of the shapes correctly. I could actually see her looking for the matching colour, even turning the shapes around if they didn’t fit…it was amazing!!! Maybe she had been practising in her sleep!!

Rob popped in earlier than expected this morning before his usual ward round, Ade wasn’t here at the time, and he came in with bountiful energy and started to talk blood counts. It was a lot to take in and my brain doesn’t compute that early with facts and figures, that’s Ade's department!! Saying that, Rob is very pleased with Phoebe’s progress and her white blood cells have increased which is fantastic!! Ideally, Rob would be happy for Phoebe to be now semi-isolated but due to the usual winter bugs that are currently doing the rounds, we think it is best to keep her in here for now. We don’t want to rush anything, we're just happy to be where we are and taking one day at a time. Maybe we'll go out onto the ward for Christmas Day, now wouldn’t that be a gift!!!

Shiva and Nuti came to see us a little later and examined Phoebe; they too are really happy with her and talked to us about the next stage of Phoebe’s recovery. For the next year we will be keeping a close eye on Phoebe and watching for any signs of GVHD – Graft Versus Host Disease. This is a condition where the donor cells can sometimes reject the recipient as alien instead of familiar. The docs. have a full treatment programme in place if any symptoms should occur and can treat accordingly. We have been advised what to look out for and hopefully if we can get through the next 6 months, we should be on the home straight.

As the counts start to increase now, Phoebe’s care plan will start to change a little and we will need to focus more on her food and fluid intake. We will start to reduce the special IV feed and all of the meds. that she is currently taking IV; these will then gradually transfer back to oral meds. We will be discharged home on these so we need to help Phoebe get used to taking them again. At the moment we are not focusing on returning home just yet, like I said just taking one day at a time.

Oh my goodness, how pleased were we today to see the troops. Mum, Dad and Nan came today. Gwen still has her laryngitis; her voice sounds so much better, we look forward to seeing you soon and hope you are feeling better. It was great to see the guys today and aaah, they excelled themselves to the max bringing BLT sarnies and a cooked Sunday roast, awesome!! To top it all off, Nan made some of her fabulous milky coffee, in a flask too...just perfect! Mum made some of her gorgeous bread pudding; sorry Paulette, couldn’t save you any!!! It makes such a difference to the day having the folks here for Phoebe and us. She wore them out today and it was a new step too as Mum, Nan and Dad were allowed into Phoebs room…the day couldn’t get any better!! Or could it??

Ade saw Sarah in the corridor and she recommended we go for a run out. I took the plunge and forfeited my walk for a visit to Slatterys which is a Patisserie and Chocolatier Shop, of course!!! There is a restaurant on the first floor although we didn’t make it that far with time being of the essence but …you know how much Ade enjoys shopping!!! I am pleased to say there was nothing plastic and on special offer for £4.99!!! (for Th'ut boys!!). We treated the nurses and staff to some nice goodies!! Bless them. They are all Angels in disguise you know!! Check it out, its well worth a visit.

Phoebe took some time to settle again tonight (left) and she's been going to sleep much later over the past few days. We are slowly bringing her bed time back but as there are so many changes for her, we have to go with the flow. She has been very overtired as she was unable to nap earlier due to her Hickman line dressing being changed. She does very well really.

Now… Lissa, thanks for your question….it takes approx four hours for a blood transfusion to take place. Phoebe’s drug regime has a really tight schedule; it takes a fair amount of planning especially when we need to give anything additional.

Thanks Debbie for the lovely angel you sent, it was very thoughtful, we have placed this on our whiteboard in the cubicle.

Lovely to hear Parsnip that you will be over next year, I know there are lots of people talking about your entertaining comments; maybe we should arrange a gathering for dinner, like erm..straight away….as you know what the Whitehurst and Gour social lives are like!!!

Anyhow, as Christmas approaches I’m sure you are all gearing up for the festivities!! It’s nice to at least be celebrating it a little here, having a few decorations up etc., but it does feel as though we are on the periphery of the normal celebrations. It would be lovely to know what you are all up to…

A special "Hi" to Estelle who is visiting her folks over there in Portugal, having Christmas in a warmer climate this year, hey…get you!!!

A peaceful end to a really positive day...here’s to a new dawn...and Christmas Eve. Santa is popping by late tomorrow evening to leave a present in everyone’s hatch. He stops by all the hospitals on his sleigh before doing the rounds, hope that’s ok with all the Bloggeroonies!!!

For now...

Tonight, I would like to dedicate the Angel quote to a special family we met today visiting on the ward and who will be coming for a stay very soon. We are thinking about you.

‘The feather, whence the pen was shaped that traced the lives of these good men, dropped from an angel’s wing.’

William Wordsworth

With love and wishing you a restful sleep.
Lynn, Ade, Phoebe and Spirit Eleanor xxx