Day 4 - a good day

The chemo has all been given and Anouk is attached to fluids for the next couple of days until the last lot of drugs has cleared her system, she is doing well.

We have had a good day today, i took over from Richard last night and we had a lovely visit from Uncle David - Anouk appreciated his cuddles, and eventually fell asleep. Today Claire visited and Anouk was very happy to spend time with her to the extent that she nagged me into disappearing for a shower and leaving Claire and her to play in peace. Anouk has been keen to walk outside today and was determined to find snow, i was quite relieved initially to find a semi melted snowman, as Anouk is - quite determined - to get what she wants - however the relief wore off quite quickly because Anouk then insisted that we kept going outside to get handfuls of snow to bring back inside and throw at the nurses... fortunately they were tolerant and she was then kept amused for quite a while with lots of paper towel, cleaning the melted snow from the hospital floor.

Claire's husband Phil is running the Brighton Marathon and has chosen to raise money for the appeal for a new children and adolescent unit here at the Marsden - he will have an on line page at justgiving.com but it does not appear to be up and running yet, the Marsden provides treatment for cancer for adults and children and also has a huge research facility and if anyone does want to give to a charity, this is a good one, they will channel the money to whichever arm of their work you would like to support, ie the new building or children's cancer research on general or research into children's brain tumours.

Anouk's "big girl" friend Claudia arrived to restart her chemo this afternoon and we sat around the table in the playroom with the school teachers and made hot air balloons - Anouk enjoyed it. She is asleep now and i am waiting for my gorgeous sister Julia to arrive to give me cuddles...