2.5 Months Post-treatment and Cancer Free!

A lot has happened since Ellie was released from hospital on 30 July 21 and she is now 2.5 months post-treatment and cancer free!
 
We are now in a routine of only doing monthly bloods and check-ups. It is actually a very strange feeling. In some ways, the last 9 months has felt like a life-time and in other ways it feels like Ellie’s treatment went so quickly. It is still hard to believe that the worst of it is well behind us. I don’t think Ellie feels the same way; she is truly forging ahead and she’s left that 7 months in hospital behind her.
 
While having our check-up on Thursday, our oncologist asked Ellie what the worst thing about being in hospital was. Ellie didn’t really have an answer for her. I explained that I think it’s because she’s just chosen to move on and forget about it as much as possible. Our oncologist said that was understandable considering everything she has been through. She said that they often think of Ellie and speak about how hard she fought.
 
Overall, the doctors are very happy with Ellie’s progress. We’re aware that a lot of kids don’t necessarily progress well post treatment and can have several issues transitioning back to normal life with socialisation, play, schooling etc. We’re pleased to say that Ellie hasn’t experienced many issues at all, and she is thriving being at home. She is still taking a broad-spectrum antibiotic regularly and that will continue for another month. Her blood results are all fairly good, though there are some lower readings which need to be monitored and they will be looking closely at her liver function over the next few months as those readings were also not ideal. But holistically, we are happy.
 
Lock-down has probably helped with Ellie’s transition and home schooling definitely helped her ease back into things. She is now saying that she can’t wait to get back to school properly when schools re-open which, in NSW is scheduled for 25 October.
 
We have been told that we shouldn’t be too concerned about COVID when Ellie goes back to school and when she starts to socialise with more kids. We’ve been told that while paediatric oncology patients could theoretically get three-times sicker than healthy kids, most kids have very mild symptoms so the expectation is that paediatric oncology patients should be ok. They also said we should be more concerned about things like measles and chickenpox, so if there is a case in her school, we need to remove her immediately until it clears. Due to the affect chemotherapy has on the bone marrow, Ellie’s childhood vaccinations have essentially been wiped out, so she needs to have all of them again. I think until Ellie has completed all her vaccinations (which can’t start until 6 months post treatment when she is deemed healthy enough), we won’t be entirely comfortable with her in school. That said, she will be starting on 25 October.
 
Speaking of schooling, mid-way through Ellie’s treatment, we made her do the NAPLAN testing (National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy for our American friends) even though we were told it wasn’t necessary as she had an exemption Ellie she wasn’t thrilled about but we wanted her to do it as a way of measuring her progress over the next few years. We weren’t too concerned about her results, given she practically hadn’t had any education all year and was obviously very sick. We were blown away with her results. Ellie scored right at the very top of the highest band across every one of her assessments! We are incredibly proud of her to achieve those results despite everything she was going through at the time.
 
Since being home, we’ve taken the opportunity to go to our local beaches every weekend. Ellie could not wait to get back into the water after having her central line removed and she is loving the beach, sun, and feeling like a normal kid again. But most of all, she is LOVING the new puppy! Chewie is almost 4 months old and providing endless entertainment for the girls.
 
PC