New Year, New Ellie

New Year, New Ellie

Happy New Year friends and family! We wanted to give you an update of the past couple of months. First of all, Ellie celebrated her 10th birthday by the arrival of my Dad and BK arriving from Maryland on the morning of her birthday! She had breakfast in bed (as per our family tradition) and she selected banana bread, banana strawberry smoothie, and mango for her special meal. We unfortunately had her weekly outpatient appointment that day but she was spoiled by Music Matt playing Happy birthday and the nurses singing and was even given wrapped birthday presents from the hospital. Dad and BK miraculously managed to stay awake all day and we then had baby back ribs and cornbread for dinner (again, Ellie’s birthday request!). We opened presents, sang happy birthday again, ate some delicious gourmet cupcakes that were a surprise delivery from Auntie Jen, Uncle AJ and Auntie Jody, and then all collapsed into bed with full hearts and full bellies.

Three days later, on the Saturday, we had Ellie’s party down at the beach foreshore with about 10 of her friends. It was the coldest, windiest and rainiest morning but we toughed it out. Annabelle kindly offered to do a balloon animal-making activity during the party, and she also looked after Chewie. BK was the hostess with the mostest and engaged with all the girls, ensuring they had drinks, enough to eat, and asked them all about their likes and dislikes ;) Meanwhile, I had a chance to connect with some of my Mum friends and chat to new ones. Dad and Paul managed the technicalities of ensuring the decorations and food didn’t blow down the street and that the chairs and presents stayed semi dry whilst also managing an emergency when Lilly injured her paw and they dashed her off to the vet in the middle of the party. It was GREAT! But the main thing is that Ellie really enjoyed a great catch up with her friends 

We then had a beautiful Christmas with Dad and BK, Santa came and there was much eating and drinking and beautiful sunny skies. In this time, Ellie continued to feel very well, albeit a little tired from all the festivities. We maintained her normal medications with the only change being in steroid reduction, which we were avidly looking forward too. On the 28th, after Dad and BK left to go home, Ellie was then dropped to 1 ml of prednisolone daily for the next week. This would be for one week and then on the 3rd January she would stop altogether. 

On the 29th AJ and Jody and Marilyn arrived from Perth and we hosted them for a fun filled week. Ellie really enjoyed seeing her Uncle AJ and meeting Auntie Jody and as a family, we all went to lunch at the Boatshed one day and went to the Taringa Zoo. In between that we had some fun chill time at home playing with the new Ocular Virtual Reality headset that AJ and Jody got us for Christmas. It’s amazing!

All had been going well and Ellie stopped her steroids as planned, with the last dose being on 3rd January as planned, but we knew that once we stopped the prednisolone things could get dicey. This is the period where we really need to watch Ellie to see if she is still maintaining an appetite, drinking enough, and not experiencing any GVHD symptoms. So, we managed to get 3 days in before something happened…

On Friday night, 6th January, after Paul and I had an amazing day out seeing Kirby and Chris for Kirby’s special Pink Day Test Cricket Match at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Ellie came to us at about 9 PM, just before bed, holding the thermometer and said “I think you’d better check my temperature”. Bless her heart, she knew she had a fever. So, last night, Paul drove us in and Ellie has been admitted and antibiotics started. So far, her regular blood counts are good, but it’s the blood cultures and viral cultures we need to wait on to see what bacterial infection could be the cause, and or viral infection. The viral studies can only be run once a week, Wednesday or Thursday, so we won’t have that answer for 5 more days.

So, friends and family, that is our update. Our little legend has mostly been doing really well, happy and chatty, up until being back in the hospital. But, we continue to be extremely optimistic and are praying (and I know you are too) that 2023 is a year filled with health and vitality for our Ellie.

Much Love,

Kara and Paul