Pippa has just completed her 7th cycle of full strength chemotherapy (after having also had the 42 days straight of low dose in conjunction with radiation). 7th of I’m not really quite sure how many.
Between the last cycles Pippa had 3 weeks of being a normal 10 year old with no trips to hospital either planned or unplanned in between cycles and no pains or discomfort. She enjoyed the holidays, went to school, had plays and sleep overs with friends and made the most of everyday life. All with what seems like an almost complete smile across her face.
So normal were we that when we were due to go to Melbourne to the hospital ready to start the most recent cycle we both had trouble leaving. I seemed to wander around the house aimlessly for 2 hours! It was a beautiful sunny Sunday; Mothers Day in fact, and Pippa was playing James & Patrick. She came to me to say she didn’t want to drive to Melbourne and leave James and Patrick again. At the same point I found myself ironing James’ school tie (what??!!). We hugged. The stalling for 2 hours was just a feeble attempt at trying to put off the inevitable and not reenter the life we’d been able to ignore for the past 3 weeks (sort of).
Of course we made the trip down the highway. This time Pippa read her book out loud for 2 of the 3 hours. We went to the hospital on Monday, all was good, collected the medication and came home that night to start the chemo routine again. Like last time Pippa breezed through the week of treatment with no side affects.
Pippa Rea 