Time flies, normality slowly returns

We're now 12 months post treatment, and Vicki continues to attend hospital at monthly intervals for reviews and on-going treatment. She's also embarked upon a series of inoculations to help get her immune system back to full strength so it seems at the moment that we're always at one NHS site or another. Fortunately it's never for anything like the ordeal that she used to endure.

At her last visit to her consultant, he said whilst she will continue to require venesections once a month to reduce the excess iron in her blood, she is, to all intents and purposes, a normal healthy teenager. This is of course marvellous to hear, but as ever, I'm mindful of the fact that we're not out of the woods yet. Another 4 years of checks before we get the all clear, and of course the spectre of the disease returning looms distantly on the horizon. It's quite hard not to panic every time she coughs, or is overly tired, but as time goes by, this slowly subsides.

She's continues to attend college on a catering course and her progress here is good. She's even been talking about working abroad at some stage in the future. Future, did you hear that, she said future. Good to know she has one, 18 months ago, that didn't seem possible.