Treatment begins
She started a regime of intensive chemotherapy which would see her change from my bonny little girl with flowing princess hair, to a sickly bald and fragile child who would withdraw from the people around her and at times just didn’t want to speak to anyone. It took a while to recognise that this was her coping mechanism and with everything going on, I was seeing a different side of my cute little girl. A side more akin to a warrior. A side of her personality that showed how stubborn she was and how determined she was not to let this get to her. The tests showed that she had a rare form of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia – one with a corrupted chromosome called Philadelphia positive ALL. It meant a regime change and another chemo to take – this time tablets that made her sick.
For five weeks we stayed in hospital before we were allowed to come home. We were thrilled to be out of hospital but the reality hit home when I tried to schedule her medication – she was very very sick an awful lot. We spent the first week out of hospital at Ellie’s grandmas house because we were having building work done on our own house and it didn’t take long before she was back in hospital because of a temperature. Gradually though over a couple of months we became more accustomed to the ebb and flow of hospital visits. We live next door to Ellie’s school who were really supportive and she would come home when the home nursing team would visit to flush her line or administer chemo.