Feeling good and upbeat!

Catherine is doing really well, and since the last time I posted on here, she has enjoyed a camping weekend and a trip to the local swimming pool with her nursery. She is feeling good and is very upbeat about life. She is looking forward to going to 'big girl school' and doing some ballet lessons when we move. She has wanted to learn ballet ever since she was three-years-old, and we had started her on lessons, but her diagnosis changed things. It was during her first ballet lesson last year that I first thought something was not right, as she got very tired easily and complained of aching legs. Obviously she was poorly, but we didn't know at the time. So she is very excited that she will be able to start learning again and putting all her ballet outfits to good use!

It is hard to believe that next month it will be a year since her diagnosis. What a rollercoaster it has been! But it also been a year of miracles and answered prayer. Catherine still finds it odd that she is the only one of her friends with a portacath, and that she is the only one that has to keep having chemotherapy. The other night I told her that there are hundreds of children in the UK who are being treated for Leukaemia (naughty blood cells) and others who are being treated for other Cancers (naughty cells). This seemed to make her feel less unusual, and she settled down to sleep.

Catherine seemed to think that when we move house it will be the end of her treatment, but we had to explain to her that it will be next October before her treatment ends. We will still need daily chemotherapy, monthly intravenous chemo and steroids and a lumbar puncture and chemotherapy three times a year. But she is doing very well, and we are just so thankful for that.