It's all about Celia

Celia and Leukaemia has not surprisingly become the main focus of this blog and that is pretty much a reflection of our daily lives right now. Max has dealt with it amazingly well but I have learnt that just because he isn't complaining or talking about it, does not mean he's not affected.  For example, I found him striking up a conversation with a stranger in the park last week and when I listened in, he was telling them that I'd cancelled his birthday party because Celia was ill (his birthday was almost 2 months ago). On his actual birthday I remember going into his room and saying "Guess what day it is today?!...." and his reply was "lumber puncture day??".
Celia is with me constantly and he gets left with babysitters when we go to hospital and it has naturally led to him playing up more. On the first day that Andy took Celia to the cancer unit Max was an angel for me. He was just so happy to have me to himself (well, share me with Mabel at least).
Last week he kept saying he was ill and one morning he shouted at me to pull over cause he needed to be sick so I did and he pretended to vomit in a sick bag but when I said that we couldn't go to crèche if he was sick he miraculously felt better.
It is very common for siblings to fake sickness as they see their sister getting all the attention and want in on the act. I have talked to a few of the mums with older children and they have much worse than me to deal with - 7 year olds who say they hate their brother and teenagers who have gone completely off the rails since their sibling was diagnosed.
It is hard to know what to do to prevent these reactions because cancer treatment if VERY time consuming and as a parent you must be with the sick child at all times.

Celia is not bouncing back after coming off the steroids this time around. She is still quite weak, lethargic and very teary. She is very bloated and the pains in her thigh are keeping her awake at night.  She is also neutropenic so probably just as well we are not leaving the house as the dreaded gastro bug seems to be doing the rounds again.
Hopefully her blood counts will recover next week as the following round of chemo and next lumber puncture op will be delayed by a week otherwise.