Early days

Charlotte had her fourth day of treatment today. She is now in the routine of going to SCGH and knows what to do when we get there.  She loves the staff there and one of the ladies, Jess, brought her in a homemade chocolate cake today.  Jess had promised to make her one last week, so each day Charlotte asked if it was chocolate cake day yet.  Doesn't forget things like cake easily!  

(Kat and Charlotte) 

The staff at PMH and SCGH are really good and help her a lot.  Charlotte decorated her tratment mask with pretty stickers and Kat painted bright pink for her.  The mask bolts onto the "bed" thing that she lays on to keep her perfectly still, as the rays are zapping within 3mm of the tumor.  The machine moves around her "bed" to specific points and the bed also twists around to specific points.  Kat is in and out of the room changing the machine around constantly, so Charlotte has a bit of company in the room as well.  She also listens to her Fairy Queen Caroline CD and takes a different teddy in with her each time.  I think she tries to let each one have a go with her.  The staff think everything is going well so far.  Charlotte is very tired and very hungry all the time, but apart from that hasn't had any other side effects as yet.  Thank goodness!  The worst may still come of course, as this is only the very start of the treatment and we have been warned things get a lot harder near the end of treatment when there is a buildup in the body.

I have explained to Charlotte that she has a lump in her head that isn't supposed to be there and is causing her lots of problems, like headaches and making her left eye turn in.  The machine that does her treatment shrinks the lump with x ray beams of light by zapping the lump.  Once the lump has shrunk enough it won't cause her so many problems.  The medicine she has to take helps the lump stay away and stops the things like headaches from being so bad.  The eye drops are to stop her left eye drying out because it doesn't close so much.  For those of you who have kids that want explanations, this might help if they around the same age as Charlotte.  As we go along and see how things progress we will obviously have to explain a few more bits and pieces, but for now there isn't any point in stressing her out unnecessarily.  

Charlotte went to school after treatment today. She was a bit nervous, but once there she sat with her friends and started chatting away. So far so good. Her teachers are very helpful and will look after her well while she is there.

(Pictured:  Kat, Daddy,Pete and Charlotte)