This is such an unpredictable illness/course of treatment. We will not be sure how long we will be in hospital and how long we will get at home. It is pretty certain we will be in hospital at some point during the more intensive treatments. The risk of infection is one of the biggest threats. This is due to the fact that Catherine will have barely any immune system. She will still be able to go out and about, but we will always need to keep an eye on whether she gets a temperature or not. If she does, we need to come into hospital immediately for intravenous antibiotics for a few days. Unfortunately, some of the infections might come from bugs that are normally harmless in our own bodies but which can have an effect when the immune system is very low. We have also been asked to avoid farms and some other animals due to the threat of infection, as well as some foods and tap water. She will need to drink cooled boiled water, as tap water has one such bug which is harmless to us, but not good for those with no immune system.
We have been told that Catherine will keep most of her hair until the next major block of chemotherapy which is a bit more intense than this phase. We also had a visit from the Dietician yesterday and have been given a lot of information about feeding Catherine through her treatment. It was a bit sad really because, having spent her early years feeding her fruit and veg, things need to change through the chemotherapy treatment.
It is likely that she will lose some weight during the treatment through sickness or loss of appetite, so to combat this, we may need to give her lots of 'empty calories' (ie, cake, biscuits etc). She may also need a drip at home that she will use at night times. This drip is a 'feeding bag' which will replace the nutrients and calories that she does not eat during treatment.
Please continue to pray that she will get through this without infections or side effects from the chemotherapy.
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