Very weird fortnight and probably the most stressful since the end of Leo's treatment in Dec 2008. His eye started to swell in a similar way to before he was diagnosed with cancer and so his docs decided to do an MRI which isn't really scheduled for another month or so. It really looks like nothing very much if you look at the picture above but given the speed at which the tumour grew last time, it was crucial we made sure nothing untoward was happening behind Leo's eye to make it swell again. Luckily, and thankfully, nothing is growing again and the tumour bit left behind is behaving and not doing anything which is cause for concern. So we're not sure why his eye is doing this but hey, let's see how it goes.
To say we've had little to no sleep this last two weeks is an understatement but at least we can move on - although now it's a case of working out what's going on with Leo's eye that it's like this. But it's not cancer so that's a huge, huge relief.
I put the other pics on to show what Leo gets up to on the oncology day beds ward at the Bristol Children's Hospital whilst he was waiting for yet another general anaesthetic on Friday. He was even given a lovely certificate for being brave when having his general which is really nice.
We met a new family who have joined our family of those with childhood cancer - a lovely one child family like ours whose son, 7 year old Felix, had his left kidney out 3 weeks ago as he had a Wilms Tumour.
Thankfully the cancer had not spread but Felix has to undergo 6 months chemo to make sure. He has an excellent prognosis with over 98% of children at stage 1 going on to live a full and healthy life which is fantastic.
However my thoughts, feelings and prayers are all with Felix and his mum and dad this week. He had his central line put in whilst we were down having Leo undergo his general for the MRI, and then that central line was going to give him his first dose of vincristine, followed by another ten doses every Friday for the next ten weeks, and then more chemo. It really brought home that fear you have when your son first has chemo pushed into his veins. His parents were completely shell-shocked as you'd imagine and there will little I could say apart from small words of support.
The strange thing was that this family were staying at Clic House where we spent over 3 months at the beginning of this journey - not only that but they were living in room 6 which is the same room we had, so I felt a real affinity with them. It was also the first time we met a family newly-diagnosed since we finished treatment with Leo. All the dread and worry came flooding back and I hope I didn't transfer those emotions to them. We went from thinking the cancer had returned at 12 noon to confirming it hadn't with Leo's oncologist and radiologist at 5pm - phew. But the Felix family were just starting their new life with cancer now a major part of it.
I am sending all my positive vibes in their direction as in the next 10-14 days, Felix's hair will start to fall out in clumps and they enter that whole new world of temperatures, infection, chemo, central lines,bugs, hospitals, chemo, cancer, fear etc etc etc.
