Emily's Journey

Hi everyone,

Had a brief meeting again with the Oncologist and care team to discuss Emily, who is doing amazingly well at this stage I might add : ).

We discussed the pros and cons of doing the urine test to check for disease progression and have decided that for now ignorance is bliss, and rather than do any screening we will commence low dose chemo when symptoms eventually appear. If the chemo proves to be too difficult for Emily or affects her appetite we will not hesitate in stopping it. She will not lose her hair though thankfully. The Oncologist could not give us an indication of when symptoms are likely to appear and said they could appear in a couple of weeks or a few months.  Talk about mental torture for us as parents!  It is all a very grey area so we just want to enjoy doing more fun things while we can and cross that bridge when it happens. We are all in a good space and do not want to dwell on this cancer rubbish til we absolutely have to. Gary and I will be liasing with the Oncology team and contacting them whenever we feel she is starting to decline and needs medical intervention/pain relief etc.

Last weekend we had the most amazing family holiday in Kaikoura thanks to Kylie Emily’s wonderful Camp Quality companion (and now special family friend) and will continue to do lots of fun activities and give Emily and the other kids lots of fun experiences. Suggestions welcomed : ) By the way Kylie has just donated in excess of $3000 to www.chaseafteracure.com following a head shave and raffle organised by herself and various individuals and companies in Kaikoura. Thanks!

In terms of Emily’s relapse, I’d like to say I am sorry for not being able to give people more info but I am not : )… I love telling you all that she is doing well and the truth is no one knows exactly how this is all going to pan out and sadly dying can be a long process so the care team tell me ( SIGH :( )… so we continue to LIVE and enjoy life while we can. Something we should do with or without stupid cancer invading ones life. So now that you’ve read this.. go and do something fun.. cos I am.. I’m going to pick Emily up from school. She has been at the Antarctic Centre today for a field trip so will have lots of news to tell. She wasn’t interested in coming to my 19 week pregnancy scan today! She is far to busy for that, and, like us, will be waiting til the baby is born to find out the baby’s gender :). Baby is perfect by the way . Right off to school pick up. Busy, happy Mum : )

Will update again in a couple of weeks.

Kath and Gary