We have made it down to my mother and twin brother’s in Surrey. Just to keep it interesting, Isita had a temperature after we arrived on Saturday evening. It approached the level at which we would have had to take her straight back to St Mary’s for intravenous antibiotics. The medical protocol insists on this in case it is an infection in her central line that would rapidly lead to sepsis.
We spent a nervous and watchful night and by the time I checked in the early hours of Sunday morning her temperature had fallen. It was most probably a reaction to the flu jab. So here we are all together for Christmas, relaxed and happy, and a bit over-excited.
I am writing this in bed on Christmas morning and amazingly, Isita and Jamie haven’t burst in and woken us up yet. Heaven knows what is going on in their bedroom.
Even more exciting is that I don’t have to go and check. On Christmas Eve Isita went to bed without the TPN intravenous fluids, so there is no line to disconnect this morning. That is a Christmas present in itself! We are weaning her off the paraenteral nutrition. With any luck she will have a good appetite for turkey and all the trimmings today. The target is to have stopped them entirely by mid-January.
This is also about when she will finish the three weeks of radiotherapy that starts the day after Boxing Day. After a few more tests they will be able to take her line out and then, providing she stays healthy, that’s the very end of treatment. Thank God.
With this hope in our hearts we wish all our friends and those who have supported Isita and us so much over the past two years a very happy Christmas and New Year.
Isita 