I'm Not a Man....I'm a Big Boy!

Daa-daa....do you like my magic tricks?
Leo and Auntie Lily, Saturday, Sep 6th, 2008
"Watch very carefully as I make the socks disappear and make as much noise as I can!!!"

We treated Leo to a 'normal' afternoon in London yesterday after a week where we've all been feeling super-tired and run down. PJ still has a cold so is trying to stay away from Leo as much as possible as if Leo were to catch it, the general anaesthetic would not be allowed and so no radiotherapy!

After a long morning at the flat, Leo was restless, as were we, so we jumped in the car and ended up at the London Eye! Not quite sure that was the plan or even if Leo would want to go on, but he did and very excited he was indeed. You can tell it wasn't planned as I didn't even take the camera with me!!! The only pics I have from the London Eye are on my phone and who knows how I can transfer them over to the laptop?!

So as we're walking along the South Bank after the London Eye trip and a policeman says 'Good afternoon, little man!' to Leo, to which Leo retorts, 'I'm not a man, I'm a boy!' Fair point. The policeman persists, 'Hello, little boy!', and Leo is then quite taken aback so says, 'I'm not a little boy, I'm a big boy!!!!' The best thing was Leo had his hat and new fleece on and so if the policeman didn't look too closely for no eye brows or eye lashes, he was just being nice and sociable and not treating Leo any different to any other child.

We've been lucky to see family again over the past weeks which has kept us going. My Auntie Lily from the US is over en route to Spain and also my brother has been back from Dubai with his wife Julia and baby daughter Sophie. Leo has also enjoyed seeing Auntie Denise as 'she buys me Hotwheels and knows how to play with them properly!!!' It'll be great to get back to Bristol to see people again and it will also feel like we're nearly on the home straight once we're back on the M4 motorway heading west in a couple of weeks.

These last four weeks have really brought us together as a family and enabled us to get our heads around many things such as travel insurance for the future (prohibitively expensive for the USA so no Disney World for a while then, and no planned family holidays as we won't be covered for cancellation unless we pay massive fees...no spending a few years in the USA in years to come as we'd not be able to cover Leo for healthcare.....do we or don't we head back to Spain as soon as Leo finishes his treatment or are we actually too paralysed by fear that his cancer will return and we'll be in a country where we don't know the health system and protocols?...would the Spanish healthcare system pay for the hormone treatment Leo needs in the years to come at a massive cost of £30,000?...If we had to come back to the UK, would the NHS pick up the tab for future treatment if we've not been resident here for a certain amount of time so does this mean we'll have to stay in the UK forever?....

All these questions and more, and no-one can help us make these decisions. It's going to be a real balance between making sure Leo has the best life ever and reality; if the cancer has not gone or indeed if it comes back, PJ and I need to know that Leo has enjoyed all the best bits of life and we've made the bad bits as easy as possible.

I'd best go enjoy the good bits whilst Leo wakes up and plays in the hospital playroom for an hour or so before we head back to the flat.

Tomorrow's a new day...