No More Chemo

The past couple of weeks have seen a series of happy milestones in Celia's long Leukaemia journey. On June 4th we had her last hospital treatment - one final dose of chemo through her port. The final one was just as traumatic as all the other recent ones - Celia really panics as soon as she sees the needles come out and Lydia has to calm her down as usual.


Laughing gas keeps me calm for final intravenus chemotheropy

Once the final treatment was over it was celebration time. Another cancer charity - Koala Kids - provides a giant chocolate 'Smash Cake' full of sweets, together with a hammer to allow children finishing treatment to smash their cancer once and for all. We went for a lovely family pizza celebration in McKinnon before smashing our cake at home for supper.

Leaving the Childrens Cancer Centre after final treatment (with celebratory Chocolate Smash Cake)

The last hospital visit was not quite the end of the drugs however. There was the small matter of five final days of steriods and oral chemotheropy at home. These steriods seemed to impact her as much as any dose in quite a few months, with the tiredness, grumpiness, teariness and agression seeming to be just that little bit more accentuated than in recent months. Still, with only 5 days to go, we could just about have handled anything for those final few days. To take our mind off the steriods we headed to the hills for a day trip to the Dandenongs where the temperature was so freezing it was a good opportunity to give our ski-wear a first outing of the year. Max and Mabel were very excited to check if Percy the Possum was still living at Sky High.

A winter Sunday outing to the Dandenongs

 

The final final chemo was on Tuesday 9th June 2015. As Lydia posted on Facebook - 2 years, 2 months and 10 days of Leukaemia treatment was finally over. Deep breath. Huge sigh of relief. Lots of hugs and smiles all round. Maybe, just maybe, the second half of 2015 will be our happiest, funniest and most relaxed period for a very long time...let the holidays, travelling and future life planning begin.



Last day of chemo

Group hug - no more chemo!

You made it Celia. We are so proud of you!

Family Cancer Camp

Picnic in Botanic Gardens

Back in February when Celia was admitted to hospital for 8 days with her unexplained fever, we were meant to be going to Philip Island for one of the family camps that the wonderful charity Camp Quality hosts. Celia and Max were very disappointed that yet another holiday had to be canceled but as Camp Quality run a family camp every couple of months we were lucky enough to be accepted for the next one in Bendigo.

Celia making a bowl at Pottery World

 We also had the added bonus that accompanying us on this camp were our good friends Amy, Glen and their twins Jasmine & Dominic (who is also in treatment for leukemia) so it ended up being a blessing in disguise as we all had a wonderful weekend.

As you can see  the winter sun shone for us the whole time we were there and it was jam packed with activities that the kids absolutely loved - Pottery World on Saturday morning, followed by a picnic lunch in Botanic Gardens with accompanying gold treasure hunt (Bendigo was at the heart of the original Australian gold mining boom), the most amazing play center in the afternoon, then a quick dip in the camp pool. After a delicious dinner provided by outside caterers the fantastic volunteers took the kids away for games and DVDs while the parents had a few vinos and got a chance to chat.

Hunting for Gold!

Then on Sunday we all headed off to the Discovery Center where we got to lie back on bean bags and watch the planets and stars at the Planetarium, I plucked up the courage to 'drop' down the vertical slide which was terrifying and the kids performed lots of messy experiments.

We all left on Sunday afternoon feeling refreshed and very lucky to be in a country where people's generosity provides such wonderful services for families and children living with cancer. And this is just one of the many charities that have helped us over the past 2 and a bit years.
Now that we are approaching the end of treatment I can feel the urge to start giving back so be warned that some fundraising requests will be coming up in the very near future!

Relaxing on the hammock while Mabel earns her keep swinging me!