They made us wait but finally it's happened!

Despite the fact that Vicki's treatment finished in February, it has taken until last Friday for Vicki's Hickman line to be removed. I cannot stress how big a deal this is; it's a significant milestone in her recovery and will now allow her to have a near normal life again.

Vicki continues to progress well, and is gaining in strength all the time. She still needs regular venesections to reduce the iron levels in her blood, but the levels are coming down well. Her immune system is gaining in strength too, and whilst we're some way off normal levels, the improvement is significant.

Vicki's in the middle of her GCSEs at the moment, a stage in her life I thought we might not reach 8 months ago. I can't get my head round the turn around in her life sometimes. It's quite miraculous that she's able to aim for 7 GCSEs at all, so well done her for not letting her education slip too much.

One milestone reached, another looms large on the horizon

Vicki had an appointment with the Genetics Nurse yesterday to discuss the implications of the Robertsonian Balanced Translocation that she carries. As my own research had already concluded, there are no implication for Vicki's own health, but for any children that she may have later. As with any other 15 year old, this isn't something that she's overly concerned with now, so we'll revisit this when the time come.

Far more pressing and immediate now is Vicki's GCSE exams which start on Monday. Over the next 5 weeks her short term educational future will lie in her own hands. The target is simply 4 GCSEs to get to college, and as she's taking 7 the percentages are looking good. To think that she's able to achieve any GCSEs is pretty amazing considering that she's spend about 2.5 weeks at school this year. So I take my hat off to her determination and resolve. I know she'll do well, I can feel it in my bones, and from I know of her, whatever the outcome, she'll succeed at whatever she chooses to put her mind to.

Good luck Vicki, I'm sure you will get all 7.

Study, study and more study

Vicki continues to get stronger, and back to her old self. Last week she had her 2nd venesection, and this treatment will continue until her iron levels return to normal, though this could take 18 - 24 months. We're still waiting for her Hickman line to be removed, which we'd hoped to have done by now, but c'est la vie. The week after next we have an appointment with the geneticist so hopefully we'll know more about that side of things.

In the meantime she's got her nose to the grindstone for her GCSEs which take place in in June.

Normality returns, whatever that is!

This is the biggest break I've had between blog posts. Since my last post, we've started to do some of the normal things that everyone takes for granted. Easter was spent visiting family in Bath. My birthday weekend followed and we spent the day at Woburn Safari Park. I've also returned to work, phasing my return over the coming weeks.

It's hard to realise how much you miss and crave the strict formalities of life until you have to do them after a period of abstinence. Basic things like getting into a routine of getting up, going to work, surviving the trials and tribulations of the working world, returning home to discuss the ludicrousness of it all over dinner, settling down to an evening's banal televisual output, then retiring to bed only to start all over again the following morning is something that had been so lost from my life that I'd forgotten what it is like. I'd forgotten what it feels like to have office banter, in-jokes, put-downs, nick-names and the like. I'd forgotten what it feels like to belong. But more importantly, I'd forgotten how good all this feels.

This week, now my 2nd back to work after a 6 month absence, I've experienced another one of those Stephen Covey Paradigm Shifts. Where once I would return home tired, frustrated, fed up, angry, and desperate for change, I can now see how reassuring all those things really are. I missed 6 months at work, but missed nothing at all. Like an old pair of shoes, thrown to the back of the cupboard, then rediscovered, I found I fitted in like a hand in a glove (or perhaps a foot in a shoe!).

So enough of me, how's Vicki? She continues to make good progress. We're still awaiting a date for the removal of her Hickman line, but she is quite well, and is slowly starting to work her strength back up. Removed from the burden of visits to Leicester we're both much more at ease with the world. We're also still awaiting news from the genetic specialist, but I've been researching this myself, and I'll probably blog some info on this once I've learned a little more.

Talking of returning to normality, it's not escaped my attention that there is a General Election looming. I would ask you all to question any politician that visits you over the next few weeks about their policies on health, and examine them closely.

Bye bye Leicester

Today is a significant milestone in Vicki's treatment. At long last we've been transferred to the care of our local hospital. You cannot imagine how wonderful that feels. Driving to Leicester was a real drag, especially for the shorter appointments, and after all is said and done, it's a pretty alien world. No offence to the good folk of Leicester, but Leicester holds lots of emotional daemons and some pretty unpleasant memories. If I never saw Leicester again it would be too soon, but I'm sure we'll have to revisit it at some point.

Vicki continues to do well, and today had the first of her 'after' treatments. We're awaiting news of the removal of her Hickman line which should come some hopefully. This will be the next significant milestone. Vicki is quite restricted by this, and of course it presents an constant infection risk.

A mixed bag

The news from Leicester was largely good. Vicki is in remission, her blood is clear of Leukaemia. It's important to stress that she's not cured, yet. However Dr Madi said that the chances of a cure are very good. Personally I am a percentage man, but he wouldn't be drawn into figures. OK, I'll accept very good.

A minor niggle that has come out of this is that as a result of volume of blood transfusions that Vicki received, she now has too much iron in her blood. Essentially the way to deal with this is take blood from her. Over the next 6 months, about once a month she'll need about 250ml of blood removed, then the excess iron in her body will be used up making fresh blood. I guess that's what you call payback time. Ah well, easy come, easy go!

Part of the detailed tests that have been done on Vicki include a detailed DNA test. This has revealed that unrelated to the Leukaemia she has a Gene Translocation. I'll spare you the technical explanation (you all have Google) but it means that Vicki, along with her brother, me and her mum, will have to go to see a genetics specialist to discuss what this means in practical terms. To be frank, I've no idea, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. The irony of course is that without the Leukaemia we would be none the wiser about this, and living in blissful ignorance, so we're parking this issue as we've no idea what it really means. There is a high possibility that it means nothing, so we'll try not to dwell on this.

Vicki will also have to have a heart scan. This is because the Chemotherapy can affect the heart muscle. She'll also have to go back once a month for a year for regular check ups.

I will of course keep the blog up to date once tests, diagnostics, or any other significant events occur, so as ever, please keep reading.

The day approaches

Soon all the waiting will be over. Tomorrow Vicki and I have a date with fate. Fingers crossed we'll get the news we've been craving and we'll find out what's in store next.

As far as Vicki is concerned, she is quite well, and remains quite upbeat. We've spent loads of time catching up on all the school work that she's missed out on. She's still on track for 7 GSCE's which is brilliant considering how much school that she's missed. She has her sights set on her college course and what she needs to achieve to get her place and she's already 25% of the way there. You go girl.

I'll post updates on here as soon as we're back from Leicester.