Radiotherapy Day 1 (32 to go!)

Niamh had her first radiotherapy treatment this morning. We arrived at the Cancer Centre around 8am and she was asleep by 8.10am! Very kind and efficient team. She went to sleep very peacefully in the radiation room. I thought she may be a little scared of the big machines but she didn't seem to notice them too much. She was too busy smiling at the anaesthetists.

Today it lasted about 50 minutes as they had to check her position very carefully and do more images. She has 6 fractions of radiation each day, 2 high doses and 2 small doses in the brain and 2 high doses on the spine, the radiation time altogether must come to about 60 to 80 seconds (guessing, I tried to counts the seconds each time the radiation light came on). We haven't really been told exactly how her treatment has been planned yet. Hopefully later in the week.

The wake up was a bit traumatic, Niamh cried a lot and she was sick. She eventually calmed down and went back to sleep in the pushchair for about 20 minutes, but she was sick again when she woke up. We left around 10am and made our way to the Children's Hospital via Alex' work so we could drop him off. Niamh was sick a couple more times in the car. I thought I would be fine from Alex' work to the Children's as it is only 5 minutes away but no she was sick again. Still feeling traumatised by the experience. Concentrating on driving on the Queensway while attending a sick child in the back and pushing her NG tube back in was a little bit too much (and there was me thinking I was good at multi tasking)!

Once we got to the Oncology Clinic she settled, they gave her some IV ondensantron (antisickness) and she was fine. We found out that the blood cultures from Saturday came back negative. It would seem that Thursday evening's blood cultures had been contaminated after the blood had been taken. As a precaution the Oncologist Consultant said it would be best for her to complete the course of the antibiotics. Luckily the community nurses will be doing it from tomorrow so we won't need to do the two hospital visits.

By the time we got home, 1pm, Niamh felt better but very tired and probably starving. She had a pleasant afternoon, lots of 'Peppa Pig', some walking and climbing stairs with Emilie, the assistant.

Hopefully a better day tomorrow. We will now give her antisickness a couple of hours before the General Anaesthetic and hope that it works!