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27 July 2008
MICHAEL LAWS
LUCY'S DADDY
UPDATE
on LUCY - Sunday 27 July 2008
Today is a good day. It is the last day that we (well, Leo
actually) are required to take Lucy to Wanganui Hospital
for her daily injection of cyatarabine directly into her
upper leg. She had 4 injections in a row, a week’s
rest, and then this last four.
It is part of the “delayed
intensification” regime
that is almost over – the third round of chemotherapy
in her ongoing fight to defeat the leukaemia. Soon she heads
into the “maintenance therapy” phase where she
takes only four chemo drugs a week and has a spinal tap at
the conclusion of the 12 week phase. Then, as I understand
it, that phase is repeated over and over for the next two
years.
Providing everything goes well.
All these drugs and I really
do wonder upon the effect upon the physiological and mental
development of our wee
girl.
There cannot not be a lasting effect, I keep thinking to
myself. Visibly she is a bald waif, but her intellect seems
unimpaired and her psychological condition seems both stoic
and optimistic. I guess we’ll find out the true effects,
years down the track. Every drug comes with its stated
side-effects and worst case scenarios. For the moment,
we seem to have
escaped the odds, or rather are running with them.
Meanwhile
Zoe is thriving: she was always independent but there is
now a benign stroppiness to her character. She
won’t
be bossed by anyone, and that includes her older sister.
And yet the two are inseparable. I dread to think what
this trial might have been like, had it not been for Lucy’s
sister.
On a personal note, Leo’s pregnancy seems
routine at this time. Unlike Lucy and Zoe, he is head down – Lucy
got into the right position only at the last moment and
Zoe stayed transverse breech until her delivery by caesarean.
We’re assuming Theo will be delivered again by Caesar,
but … who knows?
Sadly, Wanganui’s maternity
services are crippled and inadequate at this time – not
unlike 2006 when Zoe was born. So we are planning to have
Theo delivered privately
in Auckland and Leo to relocate herself there for the last
2-3 weeks before the due delivery day. We have that option:
it is a tragedy that so many Wanganui women do not.
I sit
on the local DHB but the planning for maternity has been
beset by organisational and personnel disputes and
difficulties, and everyone else in Wanganui is suffering
as a consequence.
Not the DHB’s finest hour.
Apart from that it is
just the same busy-busy-busy. Those ‘flu
shots (touch wood) seem to be working so far and (touch
wood, again) Lucy has not succumbed to any extraneous infections
for weeks. They built her tough. Tougher than me, that
is
for real.
Best wishes
Michael
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