Catherine is doing well on her maintenance treatment, and day by day is starting to be more her old self. Her sense of independence is coming back and as she feels better after the intensive block, she is starting to push the boundaries again! She has also had problems getting to sleep at night, mainly because she just doesn't feel tired enough. Someone suggested to me that when you become very anaemic, like Catherine has been, the heart muscle overcompensates. So if that is correct, now that Catherine is not anaemic, she has a powerful heart muscle, lots of oxygen rushing round her body and not enough muscle strength to run off the energy - that should be enough to keep her awake!
On Thursday we are going to hospital for another general anaesthetic and intrathecal chemotherapy to protect her central nervous system. Please pray that this goes smoothly as her last one was a bit concerning as they needed to try several times to get the needle in the right place for the lumber puncture.
This is Catherine's story: Expect Miracles
This is Catherine's blog. Catherine is now six years old and is in remission from leukaemia (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia - ALL). Leukaemia is a rare yet treatable form of cancer that affects the bone marrow and blood. This blog began at the start of her treatment in August 2008. The treatment lasted until October 2010. She went into remission remarkably early and the treatment was focussed on making sure the disease never returned. Over 15000 people have prayed for Catherine during the past three years for which her parents are deeply grateful. So many people love Catherine that it was hard to update everyone, so her parents began this blog to keep everyone updated. Catherine is the daughter of two Salvation Army Officers in the UK. This blog is a place to be updated, to send wishes to the parents and basically for everyone who knows Catherine (or doesn't) to be able to find out more about her progress. Feel free to post comments, concerns and questions. All prayers for Catherine at this time continue to be warmly received by her parents and Catherine's extended family. Catherine is now receiving blood tests and will be monitored regularly until she is ten-year-old when she will be give the official 'all clear'. Her parents especially welcome readers who are experiencing a child dealing with any form of cancer. Their prayer is that this blog will help them in their journeys.
Catherine aged 3
Doing her favourite thing - eating fruit!
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More photos of Catherine when younger...
Having fun
Our family
1 comment:
Hi Dawn, Just read this entry and felt that I had to write to share that Mia is also finding sleep difficult... I am pretty convinced that it is drug related, she was very poorly on her intensive and therefore settled easily, then the steroids make her tired (and wired) so she found it easy to crash out. Now with only the mercaptopurine she finds it very difficult to settle, and you are right about the increse in energy and yet inability to over exert due to muscle weakness. I do also think that Mia uses bedtime to take back a litle control too!!! If I give her an inch she always takes a mile :-)
It' so hard to be firm when you are so happy to see them being cheeky and lively isn't it!
Take care XXX
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