Doing better

Abigail is now doing much better, after spending Wednesday night in hospital with fevers. Seems that beginning her immunisations a week after having some sort of virus/infection was a little too much for her. Her white cell count was over 15 and neutrophils above 7, so a bit of a personal high there for her immune system! The doctors think that the high level of these had her 'primed' to respond to any perceived infection quickly, and perhaps this lead to an over enthusiastic response to the vaccine. That said the flu shot she had last year also sent her into fevers, landing her in the ICU, so it might just be that this is the norm for her system.

Luckily this time around things were not as bad, with temps of 38+, but only 48hrs of anti-biotics and one night in hospital sufficient for her to recover. She was still very flat however, and had problems keeping much of anything down. However, yesterday things improved markedly, so hopefully she is over the worst of it now. Some ground now needs to be made up, as she has clearly lost some weight, but is now feeling a little better as you can see.

Bad news is she'll need another two shots over the next two months, so we're hoping a night in the clink doesn't accompany each one. It is a good reminder however of how sensitive she is at present, and a good chance to remind all that might visit that now is a good time to get your own flu shot up to date.

Day +200

Above: Running amok in the backyard and pretending to be the Easter bunny, carrot included.

Fantastic news today as, unbelievably, it is 200 days since transplant! The time has simply flown by, and looking back through some of the old photos Abigail has clearly come on in leaps and bounds. All indications are very good and she is clearly feeling a lot better, so much so that the terrible two's are starting to put in a belated appearance. Stubbornness is not, apparently, confined to her contempt for illness...

Sadly, we didn't manage to get away for a quick break, as one of Emily's friends at pre-school passed on her virus on Friday. By Monday we were all sick so no trip on the Tuesday. We did manage to have a relatively quiet week at home though, and by today everyone is doing pretty well. Abigail developed some croup with the virus, and we had to get a swab taken in case things got worse, but thankfully it seems to have all resolved itself now. Megan and Abigail still have a bit of a cough, but other than that all is pretty well.

When the weather warmed up some we went to a local farm on the Sunday so that the girls could have at least a little bit of a play. I'm sure we came across as damn city clickers, given that we changed clothes and shoes afterwards, wiping everything down with anti-bacterial wipes! Still, better safe than sorry.

Abigail loved feeding the chooks, but was less sure about the horse-riding, saying it was 'too bumpy' and bailing out very early on.

Emily on the other hand wanted to ride the pony (Jellybean) all day, and impressively held on by herself the whole time. She clearly loved it, but did have the good grace not to ask for a pet pony for at least an hour afterwards. We also managed to finally indulge Megan's craving for a devonshire tea, and clearly Emily loved the scones too. So, not really the week we'd envisaged, next time I think we'll avoid telling anyone we're going until about an hour beforehand!

Em enjoying a scone and chocolate milkshake (the salad sandwich she had beforehand is just out of camera shot...)

Latest tests all good

Apologies for the delay in updating the blog, has been a combination of no new news and busy times at work and home.

Good news is that the latest bone marrow aspirates and chimersism tests have both returned with the desired result: still in remission, no sign of leukaemia returning and basically only Emily's cells in her blood (i.e. the transplant continues to be successful). So, exactly what we wanted to hear. Health wise she continues to improve, and has all but been weaned off nutritional supplements. Sleep is slowly improving for all, and her immune function tests were all positive. She will also begin getting her immunisations in the next month or two, hopefully before flu season begins in earnest.

Her results were deemed good enough that we can start venturing out of the house again. She has been to two sessions of Gymbaroo now, which lets her play with some kids her age and do some singing, dancing and play on climbing equipment. It also means that we can now do simple things like go to the shops briefly if it is quiet, so slowly returning to some sense of normality. We are also taking advantage of this by taking a break next week and going on a small holiday. We're only going an hour up the road, but will be good to have a break and go on a proper holiday for the first time in well over a year.