1 Down...29 To Go

One session of radiotherapy down...twenty-nine to go...or 3% completed as PJ has said tonight. Today could not have been more difficult in sooo many ways, except we could have got a puncture on the way to the hospital, or got lost, or overslept (not that this would have happened given neither PJ nor I slept last night).

We arrived at the hospital with time to spare which was handy as the doctors needed to cross-match Leo for blood. Then there was a delay as his Hb levels indicated he was anaemic and possibly too much so for radiotherapy today...but they've gone ahead with the first treatment and then given him blood afterwards. Then once we left the hospital for home, Leo was very sick and we ended up back at the hospital for three lots of anti-sickness drugs. Poor Leo..it's only the first day of radiotherapy and everything that could have happened, has. Most children tolerate radiotherapy well but given he was so sick today, it looks likely that Leo will need lots of anti-sickness drugs over the weeks to help him tolerate the treatment.

The major heartache came upon Leo waking up from the general anaesthetic and it just does not agree with him. Two hours later, he was still kicking, screaming, growling and generally quite peeved to say the least. Not impressed at all, but this was not just his behaviour or personality. Some kids, not many, but some just don't get on well with the anaesthetic and so we're having to look ahead to another 29 days over the next six weeks of this type of thing. The anaesthetists are going to give Leo another drug on top of the normal one tomorrow which should hopefully sedate him for longer which should give his body time to secrete the anaesthetic before he wakes up..that's the theory anyway.

For all those who've asked if there's anything we need or anything you can do, all we ask right now is perhaps to give blood. Already Leo has had three blood transfusions which enable him to continue with the treatment and be 'well' enough for treatment. We've all seen the adverts about how blood can save lives and now we're seeing first hand that Leo and other children like him rely upon other people's blood to keep them going.

So if you're interested, this link will take you to a page where you can check for local sessions for blood donation;

http://www.blood.co.uk/SessionSearcher/search.aspx

Giving blood takes about an hour in total once you've done the forms, given blood and then had your cup of tea and a biscuit or two. So easy really when you consider your blood can and will help children just like Leo (am I sounding too much like an advert??)

Tomorrow is another day and let's hope it brings different challenges.