Another Week...Another Cycle...

So Leo starts another chemo cycle today after a very difficult week. Luckily, we're here in Surrey at the Royal Marsden for the chemo so we won't have a repeat of the four hour journey on a Friday evening like last time around. I cannot believe this is his 7th chemo cycle and we're only now six weeks from the end of this protocol. We're also only five sessions from the end of his radiotherapy so all being well, we should be back in Bristol soon, which in a way will be fab but also quite scary. Fab because we'll be back in our own beds and house, but also scary as it signifies the near-end of this part of his treatment and reality has to come back into our lives. We've been living in a bubble the last few months and if we decide not to continue his treatment with the maintenance chemo protocol, then the bubble will be burst and real life in the UK will hit home.

Leo's drinking has gone off the mark as he gave up eating food properly two months ago. His infected eye was also looking worse this week, so we allowed doctors to put a naso-gastric tube down Leo's nose yesterday for oral meds to be administered. Despite help from the play therapist, the nurses, and PJ and I, Leo was not a happy boy about it at all.

Before he had his general anaesthetic yesterday, he even said, 'no medicines in my mouth or nose, just medicines in my wigglies', and he wasn't talking to anyone in particular, but he knew we were listening. Then when he woke up, he repeatedly screamed, 'I told you I didn't want it'. To nobodies surprise, he pulled the tube out which was upsetting but not crucial as the doctors have decided to try him on a different eye ointment.

This weekend's chemo would have been upset by the oral anti-biotics down his tube, and then surprise, surprise, Leo started drinking milk again last night, and all night!! He'll probably still need a tube put back down next week whilst he's still able to have it under a general, as a few weeks after this radiotherapy finishes, he may get so tired and lethargic, his appetite will go off again. And even if he only stays on milk, as he has been the last eight weeks, he's not getting anything more in terms of vitamins or minerals. We're fortunate his weight is the same now as it was when he was diagnosed but it's the vitamins and minerals he's missing out on which can make him poorly later on.

We've been able to book a week away thanks for Clic Sargent who have a house in Scotland for families of children with cancer. We're going for New Year which hopefully means we can start 2009 on a positive start, alongside other families who will be feeling the same way. We never knew what 2008 would hold in store for us, never mind 2009, but at least a trip to Scotland will see us meet new people who totally get where we've been and perhaps where we're heading...