chemo round 4

Maeve's counts were very good yesterday, so as a treat, we took her out for lunch at Holland Village to celebrate her birthday. She was so excited as we've not been out at all, except to the hospital, since July. In fact, her counts were so high, they exceeded the normal range, so I guess plenty of people were praying for her! We start the 4th and final round of chemo on monday (if there is a room for us) and this round will last 8 days/nights. So once again, we ask for prayer support. This chemo protocol is quite "heaty" so it may result in a fever, mouth sores etc, so please pray specifically against it. She will also be doing 2 lumbar punctures as usual, and MTX (which means finger pricks every day as usual). Pray for courage, patience and a cheerful heart. If you'd like to visit and spend time, she'd like that, and once again, we'll probably need dinner cooks if anyone is available to do so. pls leave me an SMS or a message here on my blog if you are available. If you can come by and play for about 2 hrs or so, it'll be great, as it does get very lonely in hospital...and also because i can take a break to shower/pee/pump! Without another adult, I can't leave maeve to do anything, even use the toilet. so here's to the very last round, and prayerfully, no fever round after!

Baking Gingerbread on Maeve's birthday with Christabel Jie Jie!

Maeve really liked her baked goodies - she ate 5! she's also wearing Christabel's wedding ring =)

Mummy likes it too!

Maeve showing off her gingerbread creations!

Maeve is hard at work rolling out the dough! Happy Birthday sweetie!!!

Earlier pics

These pictures were taken from Part 2 of Maeve's birthday celebration when Aladin and Jasmine from 'Singapore Disneyland' came to visit!

Its good to be home! We brought the 2 girls downstairs to walk (we walk, they sit in stroller) around the neighbourhood with their lanterns last night. It was lovely, looking at the full moon, embracing the joy of being at home. i realise we've been very spoiled by our ability to get a single room most of the time. this time round, we didn't as the ward was at its maximum capacity, so we shared a room with 3 other kids (plus their caregivers). What was nice was being able to see other parents bustling around so we don't feel so lonely and isolated. However that obviously comes with its fair share of minuses, the top being the noise level. the little boy in the next bed (we are separated by a sliver of a curtain) cries all day and night (actually shrieks is more appropriate) and I'm thinking, he's either in a lot of pain, or a real drama king, or both. Turns out he's got real bad bum sores (the chemo can cause that because it can cause diarhoea) AND he's a drama king. So he screams when the nurse takes his temperature, screams when they take his BP, when his mother leaves the bedside, when another parent smiles at him...and here's parenting at its worse...his mother alternates between ignoring him (and hence allowing her son to disturb the other 3 kids throughout the night) and screaming back at him and/or smacking him. She could have just soothed him (why didn't she??) but didn't. So my poor feverish and very exhausted little girl couldn't sleep for 2 days and 2 nights, making her extremely irritable (well, make that, us). Despite that, when i complained how noisy the little boy was, Maeve admonished me, "don't say that mummy or you'll hurt his feelings". My little considerate angel. I guess being in a 4 bedder shows me how blessed we are, in that, while Maeve does get some side effects, its not that bad considering. the little boy had real bad bum sores, mouth sores etc.
So praise God for His protection, His provision and His grace towards Maeve. She's playing happily today and we're going to make some gingerbread cookies later!

Home sweet home!

"Going home today! No fever the whole night."

Praise the Lord! He answers our prayers!

Still have fever

"Fever is up and down but mild. Doing transfusion now. Given a different anti biotic because the first one did not work."

Keep praying!

"Fever still on. Counts very low for everything. Probably need transfusion later."