A happier day

I spent the day with Bianca at hospital and today was definitely a happier day for Bianca. She had quite a bit of fun playing with some of the toys and activities she has in the room and the highlight was when she got a visit from Kate from CCF and then also "Playing" Kate (the play specialist) and of course it is just as exciting when Megan (the other play specialist) pop in as well. Bianca watched some videos and later in the day she came with me for a drive in the car to get Terence from work.

On the way back from Terence's work, we were discussing that I will be driving home and then Bianca said "I'm going home too" and Terence said, "no, you are going back to the hospital" and she then replied "but the hospital is my home".

The shingles finally seem to be disappearing. She'll still be in isolation until at least Friday, but her counts are starting to come up, so that is great news! Thank goodness! There are talks that possibly this Friday (but most likely next Friday) we'll continue with our chemo again. That will then be a theatre day for us, so quite a long day, but with any luck, just an outpatient procedure and not still as an inpatient.

It's been pretty okay staying in hospital even though it was isolation and even though it is tough not having our family together under one roof, but Bianca quite enjoys spending time there and I must say we have such a great team of professional, competent and fun nurses that we work with. After 10 months of walking this journey with them, it feels as if they have become our family. We also really like the locum (Doctor Ingram) and Bianca gets along really well with him. I am so pleased that they managed to hire two oncologists who will join us a bit later this year. Then hopefully Wellington patients won't have to travel to other centres anymore. I remember when we traveled to Christchurch - that was the most exhausting experience and Bianca found it quite traumatic for various reasons. We are just so pleased that we won't really have to travel anymore. After having been to Christchurch and also having been with Wellington, I definitely prefer being at Wellington. Christchurch was okay, but Wellington is our home, the place that we feel comfortable at and the place where we feel Bianca is happy, love the staff and all in all we feel that Bianca is getting the best possible care she can get right now. Right now we wouldn't want to be anywhere else and a big big thank you to all the wonderful staff we deal with on such a regular basis. You are doing an excellent job!

I noticed that Bianca's flowers are growing really well and even her sunflowers are starting to bloom. Bianca will be so excited and I can't wait for her to see her sunflowers!