After a very quiet weekend we were back in hospital on Monday as Celia needed a blood transfusion. All was going smoothly until Celia got up from her chair and forgot she was attached to the drip (she was too engrossed in her craft activities with play therapist Liz as you can see) and the tube got disconnected from the bag of blood. I heard the screams and ran in to find Celia very distressed as there was a lot of blood on the floor. I initially freaked out as it took me a few seconds to register where the blood had come from! We calmed her down but it meant starting over with a fresh bag of blood as the original one had to be thrown out due to risk of contamination. They assured me it wouldn't delay things too much as her blood group was in stock but it took nearly 3 hours for another bag to be brought up from the blood bank so we ended up being at the cancer centre for over 8 hours. Max went to a friends but I had initially told her he would only be there for the morning and it was after 6pm when I collected him. Mary was of course fine with the situation but I felt very guilty. I also hadn't packed any dinner for Mabel so I stole a Weetabix from someone which was of course something else for me to feel guilty about. Mind you, on the positive side, she was so hungry that she actually said her first words as she started shouting "mama, mama...." repeatedly until I fed her!
The blood transfusion has been very successful as her blood tests on Wednesday showed that all her counts had risen which is very positive and means we may be able to start the next phase this week (Interim maintenance). Around 50% of children experience a delay but tomorrow's blood tests will confirm if we can start this protocol on Wednesday.
Celia has been so content staying at home and playing with Max and thankfully so has Max. We can go out to the park but I am wary of taking her places where there are too many people as she is still so neutropenic. They have developed so many new games over the past few weeks it really is a joy to sit and watch them play together. Making pixie dust and berry cakes in the garden is the favourite right now.
Her creative side still amazes me as she most certainly doesn't get it from me. I found her making these jewellery people from her bracelets and necklaces the other day and it was a jewellery butterfly the day before which was fantastic considering she wasn't copying from a picture.
I finished the week off by having a girl's night out. It was a friends birthday and I even managed to end the night on the dance floor. Must be a good few years since that last happened!
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