Transplant Day -7...good progress continues...

Hi Everyone,

Happy Friday and hope you all have some lovely plans for the coming weekend.

Another good day here in Manchester and we continue with excellent progress and press on with further treatment tomorrow. Rob and his colleagues were extremely pleased with Phoebe during the ward round this morning and are watching her very closely, ready to anticipate anything showing in the daily bloods taken and treating with appropriate medicines.

We will be stepping up a gear tomorrow, adding two further treatments called Treosulfan and Fludarabine to our initial dose of Campath (Alemtuzamab). Here are some links if you guys wish to have a further read.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campath
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fludarabine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treosulfan

Now, interestingly enough, when Alison our nurse today was administering the chemo, it astounded us how little chemotherapy Phoebe needs to each day to reduce her immune system. We have taken a couple of pictures which may gve you some idea how powerful these medicines are using coloured water. The dosage is 0.1ml per treatment and if you think, its 50 doses of chemo just to make up one 5ml teaspoon...as you can see in the pictures.....amazing stuff!!

Now, keeping in this frame of inquisitive minds today, one of the nurses showed me the art of good handwashing and the information displayed by the sink as you walk into the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit. Everyone who enters the ward needs to wash their hands and use the anti-bacterial gel. All visitors should be wearing gloves and a plastic apron when entering any of the cubicles to avoid cross infection.

Now I would say I do a pretty good job of washing my hands so I decided to test this theory...or how good I think I wash my hands. On the unit we have a special infrared machine which sits on the corridor of the ward and every new admittance on the ward needs to be shown this little exercise to help explain and confirm the paramount importance of handwashing.

Whilst doing the test, you are asked to apply some cream to your hands and then place them under the UV light, this represents germs and bacteria on your hands. Once you have wash them, we place our hands back under the UV light and it shows areas of your hands which still need cleaning and where germs can potentially lurk when we believe we had washed our hands.

Well, that was it...once the folks arrived I had them in the corridor like little guinea pigs, they were intrigued and surprised by the results too...Here are a few photos of Mum and I experimenting!! Kia's mum Carol joins us...so I go through the scenario again, she was so funny, reliably informing me this is not going to help her OCD at all!! So folks, many of you know me, can you image, I could have stood there all day, like one of those reps in the supermarket, encouraging everyone to 'have a go'...it was really interesting watching their reactions...so for you guys heading over here, get those scrubbing brushes out..inspection at the ready!!




By the way, Carol received the good news today that she is able to take Kia home after only three weeks on the transplant unit, she has done remarkably well and we just want to pass on all our love and best wishes, it's been lovely catching up with you all in the parents room!!

Talking of passing on all our good wishes, Phoebe's dear friend Macie was 3 yesterday, here Phoebe and Macie are at circletots having a hug. Macie's mum Helen and I have been great friends since we were three...we both have a picture of us sitting together when we were young too...will have to dig that one out for you all. Happy Birthday Macie, hope you had a wonderful day sweetheart and we look forward to seeing you all very soon. xxx

Now, over the last 24 hours, it feels as though Phoebe's medicines have increased hugely and we are giving doses all throughout the day now, it was quite late by the time she settled off tonight but before Ade left for the evening, Phoebe and I sat and had a cuddle whilst Daddy Ade completely re-made Phoebe's bed, with hospital corners and everything...bless him he did really well...reminded me of the generation game!!

So folks, having had about an hour sleep last night due to the mass midnight marathon munching session Phoebe had, I will say goodnight and catch you all on Sunday night, taking a break tomorrow so I can watch a film and catch an early night..

Best Wishes to Jan this weekend, she is celebrating a very 'special' birthday. Have a wonderful weekend Jan and hope you receive lots of birthday donations for the Donna Louise Children's Hospice...xxxxx

Have a great weekend!!!!
Much love
Lynn, Ade, Phoebe and Spirit Eleanor xxxx