Samuel 'graduated' from his pre school Buttercups on August 1st, he is such a lucky boy that his mama and cousin Darien were both able to attend, along with Russell, Paige and I :-)
On August 3rd - Samuel and Paige were christened at the St Peter's church by vicar Susan Allman, it was a very special day for all of us. We were joined by family and close friends at a bespoke ceremony, vicar Susan did a very apt sermon and the day's events were captured by our photographer of choice Celine. This is one of my favorite pics with the kids taking the light into the world. Both Paige and Samuel looked so beautiful......
On August 10th Paige attended her fist taster ballet class, which I think was a bit overwhelming for her but she did some minor bits. She'll start the autumn term on September 10th. I figured this would be slightly easier to cope with than swimming! I am determined that she is able to have at least one activity that doesn't require any medical staff.
On August 11th we said goodbye to grandma and Darien who spent an amazing five weeks with us, the kids certainly enjoyed having then around, and it was wonderful to have so many extra pairs of hands, not to mention all the quality time that we all spent together....we'll miss them terribly :-(
On August 12th Uncle Richard, who is also Paige's god father arrived to spend the next three weeks with us. Paige was treated to her first afternoon tea at Standstead house and Richard took some fantastic photos of us. This was during a week of the demon dexamethazone, which is clearly not as dreaded as it used to be. Paige loved being able to run on the grass freely, something that she really hasn't been allowed to do either because it's been too cold or I'd been too afraid to let her run wild for fear of picking up any unhealthy bacteria!
Her neutrophils by this stage had fallen to 0.3 so that chemo has ceased and we were due our holiday .......
On August 20th we set off on our journey firstly to visit Russell's Uncle George in Shrewsbury. Paige had been signed off by the consultants and we had a hospital within 20 minutes of each stop that had alreday been notified (by our specialist nurse Wilf) that Paige would be in the area. As we were due to set off she was a bit warm but never got hot, (I sat in the back seat and took her temp every 45 mins!). The kids loved spending time with George and June at their lovely home. It's always great to see how quickly the kids warm up to family, even if they are meeting them for the first time.....George is very unique individual.
We were enjoying the visit so much that we didn't set off for the Lake District till 7 pm, we got there at 10ish and both kids were still wide awake :-) We spent four days there and by Day 4 Paige had developed an ulcer on her tongue... and we took her to be checked out at the Lancaster hospital....lets just say that given the choice I will NEVER take her to that hospital again!! Anyway the good news was that she was fine, but her neutrophils has fallen even further to 0.2, but again we were advised that she was clinically well and we could continue on our journey to Scotland to visit Joanne and her new baby boy Ciar.
Sam and I took a train to Glasgow, while Russell, Richard and Paige drove. Her ulcer kept getting worse and you could see that she was uncomfortable when the Difflan spray wore off. It didn't stop her from enjoying being with her cousins though! Paige was completely smitten by Ciar, she held him and would stroke his cheek saying "don't cry little one". Both Joanne and indeed Ciar were very patient with Paige...
Unfortunately by Sunday morning Paige had a temp of 37.6C under her arm and 38.2C in her ear, we made the call to the Royal Hospital for Children and headed down, knowing that we would be there for the next couple of days. By the time we got there she was 38.9C and bloods were being done, along with anti biotics, paracetamol and a room was already assigned. We spent the next 5 days there on the "Scheillion Ward" a specialist hematology centre for children. Of all the stops for her to be ill, this was absolutely the best place. Paige was EXTREMELY well looked after by a team of doctors and nurses that even I couldn't find a single fault with! They were very good at what they did, along with being very thorough, and sensitive to Paige's needs. They also provided free accommodation for Russell and Samuel at a CLIC house a mere 2 mins walk away from the hospital. All of Paige's blood and line swab cultures were negative, and she did not present with any viral like symptoms so that her high temperatures of 39.6C which didn't respond very well to paracetamol remains a mystery. She was discharged last Saturday morning at 10.00am and we made a fast exit to Fareham. 8 hours and 5 pee breaks later we were safely home and she was absolutely fine, she even managed a 4 hour nap on the drive home :-).
So all in all a very eventful and busy month for us, with lots of firsts and spending time with our loved ones....
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