Next Dose of Chemo

Tomorrow, Fintan goes into the John Radcliffe for his second dose of chemo. Hopefully this time will go as well as his first dose, but I guess we have to expect the effects to be worse this time round as we are told the medicine is accumulative.
Tomorrow afternoon, Archie and Barnaby are coming to the hospital to see their little brother, but also to see that it's not all that bad and that he is in really good hands. We are hoping it will reassure them, and make them feel a little less scared when he goes off for treatment.

Since his first dose, Fintan's has had his blood counts taken regularly, as Fiona mentioned in her last entry. When they take the counts, they look at the haemoglobin, white blood cells, neutrophils and platelet content in his blood (I'll let you look them up on wikipedia for an explanation!!). If any of these are too low, they may decide to either give Fintan some antibiotics, or do a blood transfusion in order to give him a boost and help fight off infection, or stop him bleeding etc. Thankfully he's proved to be a strong little lad, and his counts never really got too low. Let's hope he continues this way throughout the rest of the treatment.

Fintan has had a cold the last few days, so as those of you with kids will know, this means loads of snot, but as always, Fintan has still been smiling and giggling through it...nothing seems to faze him.

Things are starting to get a little more normal at home now. I have been getting back into work (btw, thank you to everyone who has been covering for me while I've been out, it's been a real help), Fiona has nearly done all the Christmas shopping, it's a good job she's organised, if it were down to me I'd be running around the week before, for sure; and the boys are being nagged to switch off the TV and to finish their dinner...so business as usual really.

Finally, thanks to everyone for their comments and emails. Your thoughts really are a help and very much appreciated. I shall update you all again after Fintan's day at the hospital tomorrow.