Another cycle down...

So, Meg's unexpected cycle of chemo is over and done. We're still in the hospital, and hooked up to fluids etc,. but with a bit of luck the docs will be happy for her to go home as long as her nausea is under control.

I should have posted this blog earlier because I know people were waiting to hear how things were going, but something was stopping me.....probably not wanting to truly confront the next phase of our journey. I'll come to that later....

We came in on Thursday morning which as you know was Meggie's 11th birthday. She had a lovely couple of hours at home opening her pressies (pics to come on a separate blog) and then it was off to "Hotel 3B"! We had a wonderful welcome from everyone on the ward; they sang Happy Birthday a few times and she received more pressies from staff and other patients which was lovely! The Camp Quality puppets even sang to her which she found very embarrassing! Her chemo was started in the evening and she did amazingly well for two days; no nausea or sickness and her craving for Subway sandwiches was strong! Late on the second day, her nausea and vomiting kicked in and stayed there until this afternoon. The chemo has a cumulative effect so the further into the cycle she goes, the worse the nausea is and the more medication she needs to control it. Thankfully, everything is under control now and we have our "Oncology show bag" full of medications to keep her feeling well. She's now feeling much better and we're going to be discharged tonight. Yay!

Our next stay is due on March 11th and the thought of it at the moment is quite traumatic. The story so far on Meg's test results is that the tumour on her liver that is causing most concern hasn't changed at all. It hasn't grown and it hasn't shrunk. This could mean that the tumour tissue is necrotic. However, the last time her tumour was biopsied, it showed that the tissue was necrotic, but a few weeks later it sprang back into life again. The oncologists, radiologists and surgeons all felt that it would be best for Meg to remove this problem tumour as it just doesn't react as they expect it to. So, the upshot of this is that Meg will have a partial hepatectomy (removal of the liver) on March 11th. Her surgeon has spoken briefly to me about the surgery and it'll take between 4 - 6 hrs, followed by 2 - 4 days in intensive care, then up to 2 weeks on the ward. It's a huge operation and she'll have two more large incisions on her abdomen in an upside-down T shape. They won't know until they "go in" how much of her liver they'll need to remove, but it could be up to half of it. The tumour is very high in her liver, and close to her diaphragm, and they may have to remove some of that too. The surgeon who's doing the operation is a guy who's a specialist in liver transplants in adults and works from a private hospital here in Perth.

Meg, as usual is taking this news in her stride, but I'm going to try and get her to post a blog on here to "talk" about her feelings. She does keep things quite close to heart at times, and she's been too sick this week for us to really talk about it. I'm feeling very apprehensive about the operation. I remember what it was like waiting for 4 hours for her when she had her open heart surgery in 2000, and it was awful. The waiting is the hardest part. I just want to get back to her and hold her, and kiss her and let her hear my voice.

So, we're sitting here patiently waiting for the doctors to say we can go home. We can't leave until 7pm (it's all to do with the timing of her last dose of chemo and needing to be on IV fluids for 24 hours afterwards). Then we get to stay home for a couple of weeks, apart from a few more day visits for blood tests, a PET scan and cross matching of blood just before her operation. Meg can't wait to get back into her own bed and not have to get up a couple of times for a bathroom trip during the night!

Thanks to everyone for following our journey and posting comments. I know that some of you are having real problems posting comments, and I'm sorry that I can't help....it seems to be very temperamental! We do know that you're all "with us" and we'll be keeping you posted on developments.

Jane xxx