Time to move on...and a BIG holiday

So the 20ft container has departed with all our worldly belongings. The stresses of working, packing, finances, job searching and hospital visits are behind us and off we go.

The whole family has really loved Melbourne. It has a vibrancy, relaxed friendly attitude, eating and coffee scene par excellence, healthy outdoor lifestyle and a climate we love. Beautiful for families in so many ways. It is not a surprise that it has a reputation as one of the best places in the world to live.

But Northern Ireland is calling us home. It is a great wee country too and we are looking forward to a whole new chapter.

But first....

Time for Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand (south then north), Cambodia and Vietnam. For the next 6 weeks leukaemia blog has changed to a much happier SE Asia travel with kids blog. Should be fun.

First stop. Legoland Malaysia. Initial impressions...entertaining the children will NOT be a problem here.

Let the fun begin!

Countdown is on....

So only 3 weeks to go and the To Do list is still growing. Who knew how time consuming and tedious selling things on Ebay could be!

Andy has been working in Perth for the past few weeks so we have been trialing him working away on weekdays and so far it has been OK although he gets a bit upset that the children aren't missing him more! This will be the most likely scenario when we return to Coleraine as it is very likely that Andy will be working in Dublin.
We managed to fit in a lovely weekend away where we met Andy's cousin Louise and family. The weather was perfect as you can see (although not as hot as it is here right now - 35 degrees!) and Mabel spent the week after our return constantly saying that she missed Lilly.

Last week Celia had her monthly check up and all results were fine which surprised me as she frequently complaints of having a sore head, tummy, sides and still cannot sleep. She is however, happier at school these days (she has made a best friend at last) which at first was a relief but now I'm worried that leaving Maddy behind will lead to more upset and just tonight she started saying that she didn't want to leave.      
The hospital visit also involved more injections and once again Celia was hysterical and the nurse asked if she had seen a psychologist.
We have also noticed a few other behavioural issues (for example she refuses to tie her hair up even when it was stipulated by the school for the school play and swimming etc) She has a complete meltdown about it and when we eventually got her to opened up she said it was because it made her look like when she had no hair. Physical treatment may be over but the psychological effects still definitely linger.

So next on the calendar is a Northern Ireland football match in Helsinki for Andy (!!), a birthday party for Mabel crossed with a leaving / give stuff away barbecue with our Aussie friends, Andy's work leaving party and my girl's leaving do - I hope it is not all too emotionally draining!   

More Milestones....

There has been a lot going on over the past month and I would imagine the next few months will be pretty hectic too so I will resort to bullet points as updates!

16th August - Andy and I booked a babysitter for the afternoon and we headed into the CBD for a slap up 4 course Sunday lunch at the amazing middle eastern restaurant Maha followed by drinks on the banks of the Yarra - worth waiting 5 years for!



















23rd Aug - I completed my first half marathon to raise money for the Leukeamia Foundation. It was a stunning morning and I amazed myself by achieving a time of 2 hours bang on.

27th Aug - Celia had her first school concert and was very cute dressed in her army uniform and dancing to the Andrews Sister Bugle boys.










29th Aug - Celia invited 13 of her friends to Bron's Art studio for an Arty 7th Birthday Party which was lots of fun (apart from the last minute dash to the party shop as I'd forgotten the candles)















10th Sept - Celia had her first set of re-immunisation jabs which was not pleasant. The chemo wiped out all previous vaccinations so she has to get everything again. She had 4 injections and has another lot to get next month  - it never gets any easier.

So that doesn't sound to manic but when you add into the mix the fact that we have set a date of 28th Oct to leave Australia you can imagine the length of our to do list. We plan to travel round south East Asia for 6 weeks and arrive back in Northern Ireland by 7th December - exciting times!

The final step...and a new nationality

It has been a fairly fast moving couple of weeks chez Kerr.
The week before last we got a call on the Monday telling us Celia would have her port out on Thursday 6th August. Whilst we did have a little celebration back in June when treatment ended it was really only this final milestone that signified the true end to her treatment journey. The removal of the port (where they used access her bloodstream to administer the monthly chemo) during a short 45 minute operation felt like everyone was saying that our major hospital trips were over.
We celebrated with an end of financial year party at a Deloitte partner's house on the Friday night, properly letting our hair down together for the first time in a long while.
There was little time to dwell on parties however as this week saw a couple of huge milestones. On Wednesday we all became Australian citizens at a lovely ceremony at Brighton Town Hall the highlight of which was Max's decision to pass wind in the mayor's face during the official photos!
By Friday we took another step towards our future plans by finally selling our flat in London. We started that particular journey back in January and now, 6 months on, we are no longer home owners anywhere in the world but at least we have a little bit of cash left over to think about what to do next.
I expect the coming weeks and months will continue to be hectic and hopefully the focus will continue to be on future plans instead of hospitals and medicine.
Keep smiling

Andy and Lyds

Ups and downs post treatment

So another month has flown by and it has been a mixture of ups and downs.

a cold beer on a sunny winter's day at the Opera house bar Sydney

I had a wonderful weekend in Sydney for my friend's 40th birthday however I developed the most annoying tickley cough which kept me awake at night for more than 2 weeks. Of course I then passed it on to the kids so tempers have been frayed and Celia in particular has been very down and teary.

Mabel and her potty support crew (who also want fed sweeties!)

This has actually been going on for a few months and it has become apparent that there are also school playground issues plus anxiety problems. Andy and I were so focused on getting her to the end of treatment that we naively thought we'd get our happy-go-lucky 4 year old Celia back as soon as chemo stopped but it has actually been like she's on steroids for the past few months she has been so moody and volatile. I guess you cannot underestimate the psychological effects of cancer on a child even after treatment so I think we may need to take her to a therapist as her worries are keeping her awake at night.

Mabel started potty training this week and true to form the stubborn little madam wouldn't look at a pair of pants and screamed blue murder if we tried to take her nappy off. As she is a sweet fiend I knew that sweetie bribery would work and of course now we can't get her away from the potty - she wants to go every 5 minutes as she knows there's a treat at the end of it!
 Socially it has been a quiet month since I got back from Sydney which suits me fine as I really need to ramp up my half marathon training (its on the 23rd August). It has been very wintery in Melbourne the past few weeks so it's actually been a struggle to get motivated and run 18kms in freezing winds, But I am raising money for the Leukemia foundation so it will of course all be worth it.
Celia continues to have her monthly check ups and blood tests and so far so good.
Next on the agenda is our Citizenship ceremony on 12th August and then sometime in September an operation should be scheduled for Celia's port to be removed - hopefully her last general anesthetic for a long time!
  

Celia's Make-A-Wish trip

Skiing!

 What a perfect way to celebrate Celia finishing treatment! By coincidence, Celia's Make-A-Wish trip to the snow was scheduled for the end of June and it turned out to be prefect timing weather wise too. Although it was the opening week of the season in Queenstown, the snow conditions were perfect so we had 4 wonderful days at Coronet Peak. Andy and I got time to ski on our own while Celia and Max had private lessons in the morning and Mabel went to creche at Skiwiland (cute!)

Coffee break time after a hard morning in ski lessons

We also managed to catch up with Andy's old uni friend Julie Brown and her family who are lucky enough to live outside Queenstown. They and their children are of course all top rate skiers so I should have known better than to accompany them on a little tour of the mountain - 2 black runs, an impromptu off piste detour and numerous tumbles later, I was shaking with fear and anger as I had made it quite clear I was not confident or experienced enough to keep up with them. Anyway, all was forgiven after a well earned mulled wine!

clinging on for dear life

We were there for a week so we had plenty of time to sight-see too. We took the cable car up to where they have the luge track, a round of mini golf was fitted in and we found a rope swing which even mummy had a go on (I didn't fall in much to everyone's disappointment).
Andy took Max on the Shotover jet boat which they (Andy) enjoyed - he claimed it was for Max's birthday but what 5 year old claims to want a breakneck speed boat ride through a narrow canyon as his birthday present?!

Max and Andy on the chairlift to the luge

Julie sorted us out with one of her regular babysitters so we manged to have a night out with her and her husband Julian. We had an amazing meal (and cocktail) at Madam Woo followed by drinks at a bar with yet another roaring open fire - every pub, restaurant and hotel has a fire that would make Mr Kerr Senior jealous! It was a bit of a blast from the past for Andy as he remembered it was the same bar that he spent his 30th birthday in - small world!

Beautiful Queenstown

The final part of Celia's wish was ice skating and I think she actually enjoyed that more than the skiing. They had little penguins to help them balance on the ice and Mabel sat on a push along seal which I of course couldn't let go of!

We are so grateful to Make-a-wish as it really was the holiday of a lifetime. When we requested a trip to the snow as Celia's wish, we thought we'd be sent to Mount Buller, 4 hours drive away, for a long weekend. We never imagined they would fly the 5 of us to New Zealand for a week and arrange skiing, ice skating, hotel, transfers, the lot - amazing!

Ice skating with the penguins

And as if that wasn't enough gallivanting for 1 week, I then flew to Sydney with 7 girlfriends on Friday for my friend Andrea's 40th birthday.
It has been a long time since I took 4 flights within a fortnight and I can safely say I am now well and truly exhausted, but in a good way!

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!