Firstly, unfortunately i am at home alone today as I seem to have picked up a bug yesterday :(. I've drank about a month's worth of vegie juices and am feeling pretty good, but i don't want to risk putting charlotte back in hospital so she is with mummy today. From what I hear she is having fun, but I obviously miss her. So today I have almost completely disinfected the house to make sure she doesn't pick up anything when she is here next..
Here is Rachel's update from yesterday - it's all good news!!
Charlotte had her regular weekly PMH appointment today. Her blood count is all good still and her weight was the same as last week. We have noticed the swelling in her cheeks has already started to decrease and her tummy is a bit smaller and she is slowly getting more like her normal size again now. And she is really enjoying eating normal food again. We did a bit of an experiment last night and I told her that if her blood sugar levels were in the normal range all day, she could have a kinder surprise chocolate egg after dinner. Everything was normal and I tested her after the chocolate and all normal, so diabetes has definately gone now.
At PMH they were getting ready for the ward Christmas party, which was today. I didn't realise it was happening, so we stayed after Charlotte's appointment and it was amazing what was organised for the kids. We walked outside and there was a big marquee set up with Santa inside and heaps of huge wrapped up presents. The helpers gave Charlotte a hand-knitted rug and toy (from the PMH volunteers) and a goodies bag from Office Works with a Stitches the Bear teddy and football and some stationery bits and pieces, there was another present of a play dough tub, eraser, pencil and card, present from Santa was a Barbie laptop. She got to sit on Santa's knee and had her face painted by the most awesome face painter I have come across (got his card if anyone wants one for a party!), the best balloon animal maker (got his card too!) I have seen made her a bug for her wrist, a penguin and a big dog. There were also cute cupcakes with bees on the top made by another volunteer - she told me she made 100 of them for the kids. They had party food coming out as we left, but we had already been there for an hour and a half and we were supposed to be going out for lunch to Sienna's with Jamie and his friend, Marg. Its amazing what they do for the kids.
We met Jamie and Marg for lunch and the waitress remembered us. I think we are regulars now! Charlotte had her usual spaghetti bolognese, but got to have apple juice with it and chocolate ice cream with chocolate sauce afterwards. Unfortunately, her appetite has decreased dramatically, but that would be her body trying to adjust to normality after steroids. Hopefully she will find a happy medium with the appetite, so her weight remains stable and blood count isn't affected. She is getting stronger and stronger now and is very excited about her special bbq on Sunday. She helped organise the sausages and rolls with me and we bought heaps of chips and lollies, plates, forks and serviettes. We had an idea tonight on something else we might be able to do as well for all the kids, so will look into it tomorrow.
We took some photos of the face painting and balloons when we got home. I didn't take my camera with me today, so couldn't get any photos at PMH. They will hopefully email them to me.
