A update from the Boss!

0020 24/10/09

All going well Anouks has hit the bottom of this 1st cycle & is starting to shows signs of recovery..all be it small ones. She continues to react ..'as expected'..which is good news.

Since the last post she has had a number of checks to make sure the chemo isn't playing around with things it's not designed to. She has had an abdominal ultrasound & a Chest xray which both came back all clear which is good news. The main thing at the moment is getting her high temperatures uner control. Various antibiotics have been tried & the latest was Anitfungal which may have done the trick. Her temps have got as high as 39+ deg on a regular basis but it has also dropped back to normal levels as well. As a result she is much more animated when her temp is down & sleepy & pissed off when it's up...not much difference to us really.

She actually had her final amount of chemo for this cycle today which is what she had on day 7. This wont be the norm for the next cycle but it will be for the 3rd. Her update MRI scan has been booked in for the end of the next cycle. This will tell us what effect the chemo has been having on the Tumor.

On a good note her white cells have started to regenerate a bit..0.5 of a cell when we on average have 10! Stergios (The Consultant) was very happy with the way she was going & said that she should actually be a lot worse according to her stats. One thing they expect is mouth sores & so far Anouk hasn't had any. She has however been looser her hair the last couple of days & asked Catherine for a clip so it would stop falling out.

She has been allowed to have about an hour each day free of wally the trolly & his lines. This is the time when we escape, in the 60's style 4 wheel pusher & into the streets of Sutton. You do get some wired looks especially when we headed out at 7pm last night.

The clown doctors turned up today but we weren't in any mood for them so they had to perform form the door as they were not allowed in!

We continue to be very lucky & have many visitors, some Anouk will look at, some will get the time of day & some are basically told to bugger off..in a non verbal way. Luckily you are all very understanding. However she is not liking to having her photo taken so apologies Jeff but I can tell you she really loved the balloons & Alan the Teddy as well...thankyou both every much. Yesterday was a different matter as she loved the wand & fairly cape she was given by Jessica.

All going well Anouk will start to climb out of this low point in thenext few days. Once she has had a good 48hrs of normal temperature they will take her of medication for that. We don't expect to start the next round of chemo for another 10 - 14 days but if she continues to slowly pick up there is a chance we may get a few days at home before she does.