Tuesday 27th July 2004 ( Day 22 )

Alex had a fitful sleep until about 2am when he woke and wanted to play. This I knew by the way his was smiling and throwing toys at me. After an hour of making Lego towers and scrunching paper, he toppled over and fell asleep. Thank God. At 6 I had to wake him so the on-call doctor could say he was fit to travel. David rang just before 8am to say he was at reception waiting to give us a lift. Nurse Julie was just finishing removing his lines and taking blood samples but we rushed down after that.
It took about 45 minutes to fight our way through rush-hour traffic to LGI. There was no other reasonable method to travel since we would have had to book a ambulance 48 hour in advance. I did not know Kirsten was going to have flu and so the car was not here. Taxi and bus are out of the question for a one-year-old with Leukaemia. David came and saved the day.
At LGI Alex was pushed to the front of the queue for ultra-sound imaging of his heart and an ECG. Babies have priority. After that it only took a few minutes to get back to Jimmy's. One of the drugs used in chemotherapy can change or damage the heart muscle so his heart has to be monitored in detail to make sure this is not happening. He will have to go for tests for many years to come.
His temperature is down, around 36.5C so his energy levels are up. Even so, he was tired from a late night and early start but he fought sleep until 12:30. He managed to stay wake for an interview and photos with the Evening Post but was asleep for the Calendar New camera crew's visit. Little Sam next door is the star of the show and always steels the limelight in his pink dress and wig.

Wednesday 28th July 2004 ( Day 23 )

My birthday. I was at hospital for the morning. Kirsten still had flu so could not come in to help. It was nice to have Alex to myself on my birthday. Lunchtime Joan came in to relieve me. Joan stayed with Alex, who was very happy to be with his Nanna.

Kirsten, Tom, Andrew, David and I went up to the sailing club with the intent to do some sailing and have a picnic. It was quite a sunny day but the no wind. We had a lovely picnic, Tom ate loads and had great fun playing on the sandy beach.

That evening Kirsten and I went off to the pub in Burley to meet friends: Becca (back from Aus for a while), Jan, Helen, Jenny, Arianna and Elenor. We had to divert via a few shops and petrol stations on the way to find the Yorkshire Evening Standard, which had the article about the new children's hospital, an interview with me and a photo of Alex.

Thursday 29th July 2004 ( Day 24 )

We had a lazy lie-in and ambled off back the hospital for lunchtime. Joan had had a good night with Alex and he was in really good spirits went we arrived. Thank you Joan.

Alex is well on the way to recovery after chemotherapy. Much more energy and looks much better. Stable temperatures means no infections.