I am afraid this is one of those occasions when our sense as parents of Isita’s condition should have trumped medical protocol. Thanks to Marta’s insistence she was transferred back from St Mary’s to GOSH this afternoon. Tomorrow she will resume the anti-viral treatment that saved her last time. 

As the loss of appetite, loss of energy, temperatures and diarrhoea have slowly worsened over the past few days we have been telling the doctors in Paddington that the symptoms match what she had before. Clinically, they agreed with us, they said. But they wanted the results of blood tests before prescribing the anti-viral treatment again.

I don’t really know why this was: concern over the side-effects, focusing more on bacterial infections, strict adherence to the rules? Whatever the reason, it feels like we have wasted several days, and allowed the virus to take hold again – an outcome that we all knew was possible. Now the situation will be dealt with, which is a relief. But there is no way we will all be at home for Easter.