Dexamethasone and Catherine

Dexamethasone is the name of the steroid that is being used to treat Catherine at present. Yesterday afternoon, the Dexamethasone really hit her system and it was almost like our little girl had a personality transplant. The only time she has ever had any mood swing like this was when she had treatment for an infection as a young toddler and she head-butted me!

Poor Catherine was a mixture of being aggressive, inconsolable, stressed and snappy. When I told her that I loved her, she said 'No, you don't love me' which she would never say otherwise. Normally, I can calm her down with cuddles and talking but all she wanted to do was 'be on her own', so much so that she shut herself in the toilet and wouldn't come out. Poor thing. It was such a sudden reaction, and even though we knew it was the medication, it was hard to see. Thankfully today she seems much brighter, and is chatting to us again while playing with Mr Potato Head. The nurses looked sad when they saw her as they knew how polite and gentle she had been before the meds. However, they have said that once her system gets used to it, she should be able to tolerate it better.

Catherine is now off her drip, so thankyou for your prayers for this. She is also drinking much better than usual so hopefully she will stay off for a while. If her bloods are within safe limits today, we may be allowed off the ward to our accommodation with her for two hours. This will be a lovely treat for her. She is like her mummy and daddy and gets cabin fever.

Catherine's mummy