Missing Doctor Anne

Thank you also to Gillian and Greg Tansley for their donation to the Funrazor initiative. All the generous donations really mean so much!

This morning we saw another paediatrician in Doctor Anne's absence. I really miss Doctor Anne.

This doctor is possibly a very good paediatrician, but I thought he was a bit business-like and didn't really try to interact much with Bianca. We were told that Bianca's platelets should be at 0.75 or above before we can continue with chemo and that they are currently sitting at around 0.68. He also told us that Bianca doesn't need to be on IV antibiotics anymore after the initial morning dose and then he left. No further explanation. I then tracked down Bianca's nurse to try and find out what it meant.

Basically we were allowed a visit home, but couldn't be discharged yet. I have no idea why we still have to stay in hospital. Bianca's platelets aren't too low - I mean then she would have had a transfusion. She wasn't admitted because of the platelets, she was admitted because of an infection which I assume they managed to sort out, because why else would they take away the antibiotics? She doesn't need to be on fluids and is eating and drinking fine. She is also not neutropenic. So she is not at a big risk of infections at the moment. As far as I am concerned, Bianca could have been discharged and then just returned as an outpatient for a blood test to determine if chemo would continue or not, but it seems we are not really included in this decision. Like I said, I really miss Doctor Anne - at least we would have had a more detailed explanation...

Tomorrow afternoon Bianca will have a play date with one of her friends. On Saturday we plan to attend the CCF Christmas party. And possibly on Monday we will continue with chemo. I still don't have a definite answer yet as to whether chemo will be in Wellington or in Christchurch. It is frustrating, because tomorrow is already Friday. They keep saying that they are in discussions to try and arrange it so that a paediatric oncologist does the treatment in Wellington, but until they confirm it for sure, I will keep "bugging" them for an answer.

Then I recently met a wonderful lady at the CCF named Juanita. She is from South Africa, but lived in several other countries including Hong Kong and has been living in New Zealand for a bit. They have two children - the one is four and the other five. She came to visit us in the hospital today and brought a really big present for Bianca. Wow, thank you so much, Juanita. You really made her day!

Medicines today:

• Tazocin (through IV)
• Omeprazole - 1 capsule a day
• Fluconozole - 10 ml at night
• Metronidazole (through IV)
• Erythromycin (oral antibiotic)
• Co-trimoxazole (three times a week, twice a day)