Thank you and goodbye to some wonderful people

Today was our very very last hospital visit at Wellington hospital. So it was once again a time to say thank you so very much and goodbye to some wonderful people we met the past year. Watch our tribute here (you will need sound).

Bianca was so excited to go to the hospital. Finally Bianca was allowed in Ward 18 again. I guess they feel fairly certain that the shingles won't suddenly come back again and for now Bianca is still off Dexamethasone and still on oral Acyclovir every single day. So she had a great time playing with the different toys in the day room.

Time for a quick check-up.

Today was a bit of a long visit and after the quick check-up, Bianca received an IVIG transfusion as well as her IV Vincristine. I'm happy they are still doing these IVIG transfusions and we suspect that she has been pretty well since she's been getting these to help her fight infections. At the last visit, there were talks that the blood bank suggested Bianca wouldn't need to continue getting these, but I guess it will come down to whether Bianca is well because of the IVIG or whether she is finally getting settled with her maintenance treatment. And certainly if it is as a result of the IVIG transfusions, then I would really like for them to continue. I mean after 106 days spent in hospital as an in-patient, I would say we've had our fair share...

Bianca's counts are great at the moment, but she is for now still on 50% dose oral chemo. Jo was going to confirm this with Christchurch during their video conference, but for some reason the Christchurch doctors couldn't make the video conference. We will get feedback tomorrow, but I suspect the dose will be increased. It doesn't matter too much even though her counts will definitely drop a bit (but then that is the aim so that they can keep her counts at a certain level) and of course we will have to get used to the new dosages that we will have to give every night.

So all in all today Bianca received 3 different chemo drugs, her oral Acyclovir (400mg, 4 times a day) and a blood product transfusion.

Then it was time to go home and one final goodbye to Jo.

On the way home we quickly went to the CCF offices to also say goodbye there. Today was a great day treatment-wise, but a very difficult day as it is never easy to say goodbye to people who mean a lot to you. We never thought we would ever meet these people, but since Bianca became sick, we couldn't have asked for better people to walk this journey with us. These people not only became our friends, but they also became our family! We will miss them so much!!

This little photo montage is our tribute to them and features some of the wonderful people we met the past year and thanks to them we will be able to take some great memories on the road forward! Thank you for caring for our little girl and for making her smile!