Ready for No. 10

Monday 11th February, Reid and I will head back to Brisbane for Round #10. These past three weeks have been fabulous. Reid seems to be getter stronger with each hit of chemo. Its as if his body now knows that there isnt any cancer left and it can handle the chemo easily! (touch wood). Reids blood counts remained above the criteria and so we did not need a transfusion this time, yay! And by the third week, Monday 4th Feb, Reid made it back to school. He was so excited. He lasted for 2 hours on the first day and then on Tuesday, WIN TV came and did a story on him, so that was really exciting too. By Friday, he was up to staying a whole day, but we had physio first so we didn't get to school till 10am. Reid has the most wonderful teacher, Mrs Coman who says that Reid hasn't changed much from last year...still doesnt know when to stop talking! He also has a carer, Kym Murray (funded by Catholic Education) who looks after Reid whilst he is at school. Kym is a beautiful person who has made the seperation anxiety (only felt by me I might add) much easier. I am so indebted to Mrs Debbie Bassingsthwaite from Mater Dei who pushed me to fill in the forms so Reid could be assesed favourably for care. And Cath Ed has been so very supportive with our request. I never realized the support network that was out there. Repeating Year one is wonderful, the children in Reids class know all about him as they watched all his trials and tribulations with the year ones last year from their Prep room. Reid knows a lot of the kids and one of Reids little friends from last year is back again too. Max was fantastic for Reid in these first few days!
Reid is now walking a little more and for the first time in a very, very, long time he took himself to the toilet....I stood close by, but he got there all by himself and back to bed (after washing hands of course) all by himself. He was so proud of himself too.
He knows we have to go back to Brisbane tomorrow, and his only fear is the GCSF needle he has to have before we leave on Wednesday. Bloody Needles. But this needle is so important to the recovery from chemo, so I can't not fight for him not to have it. Its such a clever needle as it tells the bone marrow to start producing again and not to give up. In America each one of these injections costs close to $2000. Here in sunny Queensland this injection costs me $5!! Who says we have a rotten health system??? Reid has had to have 24 of these injections so far, 14 of which I had to draw up and give to him before his Stem cell harvest.
On Friday afternoon we get out of RCH and I will meet Dave at Blacksoil with Reid and then I will return to Brisbane for a meeting with Childhood Cancer Support. I came up with an idea a little while ago to start a charity that deals with granting carers of children with cancer a Time Out. I told the idea to a dear friend I have made since being at RCH and she came up with the name...Clear Day. After many hours Dani and I put together a profile, Anna (my very talented Artistic friend) designed a logo and we presented it to Childhood Cancer Support. They were impressed, and want to know more. They maybe interested in taking us on as a project! I am so excited. The meeting on Wednesday is to iron out a few issues and try to get some sort of plan to get started. Majority of the funds raised at Reid's Benefit dinner will go towards Clear Day. The name came from an anagram of CLAY (Dani's little boy...see past photo) and REID...but we changed the 'I' to an 'A'.I will keep you all posted.
On Thursday we will go back to Brisbane for an appointment with Dr Steadman. Reids' Orthopaedic Surgeon. I am hoping to find out when we can have the frame removed. Once again I will keep you all up to date. I cannot thank you all enough for your support, love, phonecalls, letters and prayers....they seem to be working xxx