Radiotherapy Days 15 & 16 (17 to go)

Almost half way through!

Let's start with some good news. Niamh is now standing unaided. She is loving it. She still wants someone near her but she can actually hold on her two legs by herself. Stronger leg muscles combined with greater upper body balance have given her the confidence to let go. She has spent most of the afternoon standing, enjoying some new found half independence (only half as someone still needs to be next to her).

Niamh hasn't been able to stand or walk unaided since she fell in France on 28th August 2010 so it is a big day!! It would be amazing if she could walk soon too.

Niamh's treatments yesterday and today have been relatively smooth. There is now another little girl who needs general anaesthetic after her so the team have to wake Niamh up a little quicker. She is not too keen on waking up so she stays asleep all the way till we get home.

The team at the Cancer Centre all say she looks great (despite her red eyes). I had a long chat yesterday with Helen, the specialist nurse. She believes the treatment is also to blame for the red eyes as the radiation beams are going close to the back of her eyes. So it is not just the tape.
She was a little confused as to why Niamh was sick so many times over the weekend. She says children are usually sick during the week and not so much over the weekend. Niamh has actually not been sick since Sunday night. The radiotherapist has increased her dose of ondensantron, the anti-sickness medicine.
Niamh is touching her head more and more, especially when tired. She doesn't cry though. Helen thinks her scar may feel a bit tight and she may get shooting pains every now and then.

At this stage in Niamh's treatment, we can expect nausea, tiredness and headaches. The headaches are caused by swelling in the brain. As Niamh had an empty hole (tumour removed in April), they think that she shouldn't suffer from headaches too much as there is space for swelling to take place. Hmmmmm! Hopefully that is the case.

After a couple of weeks of sleeping kind of well, Niamh has started waking up in the middle of the night again and is unable to get herself back to sleep. We end up having to resort to 'Peppa Pig' dvd in an attempt to get her to fall asleep. Last night she was awake between 1am and 5am. I mentioned this to the radiotherapist but he is not concerned. We are concerned that she may be losing out on important and needed sleep.

Niamh's blood counts today were:

Hb: 10.4.
Wcc: 1.8.
Neut: 1.2.
Plats: 74.

Everything is a bit low but fine for now. Next test on Friday.