Happy Holidays

Christmas Eve +88
Well we have a room full today as Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Nick have landed to try and bring some sort of normality to Christmas. William continues to have high temperatures and is shaking a bit, the paracetamol does not seem to be doing much to control the temperture and William is off the scale on the thermometers. It was rounds today as tomorrow the consultant will be tucking into turkey at home and the ward will have weekend staffing levels. William is going to start milk feeds later on in the week but his fluid balance is a problem as he is holding onto too much liquid from his TPN so they are going to give him diuretics. This has made him very heavy and puffy and put his blood pressure up too. William has spent most of the day in his cot only to sit on mummy’s lap for a little while. This is the poorliest that he has been.

Christmas day +89
Merry Christmas
Well it’s raining and William rose late so we were not ready for the arrival of the Battam troop at just gone nine. He has been more chipper this morning but his temperature keeps breaking through the paracetamol. Father Christmas filled William’s stocking and a hospital pillowcase as well and then returned during the morning with dancing reindeer and another present. Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Nick left for Christmas lunch at one of the local hostelries. William fell asleep and Cath and I had a quiet lunch. For all of you still getting over the stress of cooking Turkey and all the trimming here’s our menu: Veggie haggis, potato gratin, honey roasted carrots and parsnips served with port and cranberry sauce and not forgetting the bread sauce total cooking time eight minutes. No room for pud, which was good as Waitrose had run out! The best present we had was a norovirus negative stool sample only another two and the virus will be gone. Fingers crossed the next test is Thursday followed by Monday (New Year’s Eve).

Boxing Day +90
William continues to improve and the antibiotics seem to be doing the job. Grandma and Grandpa took Cath and Uncle Nick out for a nice lunch and a few drinks so William and I had the place to ourselves. Grandma brought back some cute min jam jar sized Heinz ketchups for Rob that were acquired (Lisa style!!) from the hotel and I think that they were his best present! We had lots of fun in the afternoon balloon modelling (that’s shaping them, not wearing them!)

Thursday +91
Milk feeds have started at one ml an hour for those of you still using old money that’s a teaspoon every five hours. This means we had the addition of another pump on the IV stand, bringing the number of machines to eight, putting the pouches of TPN almost out of reach of the nurses. We are also running out of electrical sockets as a number don’t work anyway. It was my turn to go out for lunch today as Grandma and Poppa came up and took Cath and I out for a burger. We stopped at the DVD store and spent some of William’s Christmas money for him on Curious George, which seemed to go down well. William awoke from his lunchtime nap and was delighted to find both sets of Grandparents in the room as Sue and Doug had baby sat while we were out.

Friday +92
Well we are not quite pacing the room but I sure the nurse was getting a little annoyed with us constantly asking whether the results were back yet. We have been waiting all day for the results from the stool sample taken yesterday and for engraftment test as well. Cath and I went down to Fat Face to spend vouchers and Christmas money and to make uses of the Battam Baby sitting Service or BBSS, before they pack up and head off back to the seaside. William’s temperature is around 37.5 for the last two days which is much better than 40 but not 36.5 which is normal but you find yourself being quite happy with any reading below 39 and it quickly becomes the norm. The milk feed continues to go well and is being increased at a ml an hour.

Saturday +93
We went outside!!!!!!!
Second stool sample norovirus negative!

Sunday +94
We went outside again!!!! With Granma and Poppa.

Monday +95 New Years Eve
We went outside again and saw Tasha!!!!
We are allowed out as long as we avoid strange people who might have lurgies and busy places. Fortunately there are a few small squares (with grass in!) around here that are not too busy, there are even wooden tractors in one of them! William was not at all fazed by his first trip outside but pointed excitedly at the cars, trees and lights. He even walked a little bit. It was amazing to all go out together as a family. His antibiotics are down to one and his platelet levels are recovering nicely after dipping down to a scary pre transplant 30. His neutrophils have been boosted a couple of times with a bit of GCSF so they are quite numerous at the moment. Rob and I saw the new year in with a little bottle of champagne.

Tuesday +96 New Year’s Day
HAPPY NEW YEAR!