Sun burn and Scrabble

In the last blog post, you will remember that Tabby spent all Christmas Holidays in Hospital. When she got home, things gradually returned to normal – back to school, tennis lessons etc – but Tabby’s cough never really settled. Frustratingly, on the penultimate day of school before the mid-term break in February  Tabby’s temperature rose up towards 40C. Her blood tests showed she really had no white cells so we were back in hospital with a recurrence of her chest infection.  A “Ground-Hog Day” sort of moment.  We were beginning to wonder if she thought of Ward 2 as some sort of “Holiday Club”

Any way we passed the days  making things out of lego and playing scrabble. I have to say that she is pretty good at Scrabble and has a good vocabulary. The big problem, however, is adding up the scores at the end – as you can see in the photo.

Running out of fingers

During the consultant’s ward round at the week-end, the duty consultant came into our room and we had a long discussion about Tabby’s chest infection, her anti-fungal treatment and  her blood results. At the end of this he turned to Tabby and asked “Well Tabby, is there anything you would like to ask?”

Tabby looked up from her iPad and replied “What’s the longest river in America?”

Well, he did ask!

Following our half-term blip we once again got back to our relative normality. It is ironic that having sailed through 16 months of “maintenance therapy” up to Christmas 2013, it has been  the last 4 months which have been the most problematic. I suspect it relates to her recent fungal chest infection, which despite appropriate treatment is unlikely to go away until her chemo finally stops. One (of many) of the problems with Tabby’s antifungal medication is that it causes significant photo-sensitivity, i.e. she gets sunburn very easily. I suspect she is the only child in her  year who is already using  sun lotion and sun-block on a regular basis. Even after a bit of sunshine she gets very red. Anyone else had sunburn here in Edinburgh so far this year??

With the appearance of our first dry, sunny,  spring day  (and appropriately sunblocked) we went for a cycle around Dundas estate. I should point out that Tabby cycled while Donella and I jogged along beside her. A woman walking her dog suggested that Tabby was our trainer.

A week later we were invited to cousin Jessica’s 18^th Birthday party at The Blytheswood Square Hotel in Glasgow. A chance to catch up with friends and family and for Tabby to chat with Charlotte over pre dinner cocktails.

Okay so its not Courcheval - but at least its not crowded!

As the Easter Holidays began we were keen for Tabby to do something different. It has been four years since Tabby was last on skis so we booked some lessons at Hillend dry ski slope. The weather was grey miserable and wet but this did not seem to put Tabby off.  

Looking good

We obviously were concerned that in the last 12 months Tabby has broken both wrists falling of her bike then falling at tennis. Skiing, therefore may not seem entirely sensible. Anyway she came through unscathed and is keen to do more. Result!

 So what next?  Well as I mentioned at the start, Tabby has been on her maintenance chemotherapy for the last year and a half. This is made up of 20 x four week cycles. The last and twentieth cycle starts today!  7^th May Tabby has her final spinal chemotherapy as well as, hopefully, her final bone marrow biopsy. We will then have a nerve wracking follow up appointment on 4^th June to hear the results of her bone marrow biopsy. We all hope and pray that this will be the end of two and a half years of chemotherapy and the last of her Leukaemia. In good old “Blue Peter” tradition “We hope we will have some very exciting news in the next post!”

As ever, thanks for reading,

We’ll keep you posted

The Lawsons

Hair and nails done