We took Christian in for an MRI scan today at the Royal Marsden. It was done under a general anesthetic as he needed to stay still for over an hour as it was done. He always finds general anesthetic a bit upsetting but has recovered well and is now in a good mood. We will get the results of the scan on Friday when we go back to see Kathy Pritchard Jones. It is an important result as we will find out if there has been any spreading of cancer since the treatment began. He has had some aches and pains recently which are, apparently, common when on chemotherapy but each one is clearly a worry.
Tag Archives: Christian’s Story
MRI
Posted in Blog, Christian's Story. Tagged with Christian's Story, Kathy Pritchard Jones, MRI, tests, The royal, The Second Round.
Red
Christian had his chemo last week which means there is only one dose left of this stage. After that, at the end of April, he will have the intensive chemo. We will be admitted to the Royal Marsden for it and Christian is likely to be very ill for at least two or three weeks after. It is at this stage that he will be given the stem cells that were harvested a couple of months ago. He’s in quite good spirits generally at the moment but his hemoglobin levels are low which makes him feel a bit poorly and means he will probably need a transfusion by the end of the week.
The sponsorship money is coming in well, thank you very much again to all those who donated. There is a full list of donors and a link to the payment page here. Please contact me if you should be on this list and are not.
By the way there is a photo of Christian in page 96 of April’s Digital Camera Magazine!
Posted in Blog, Christian's Story. Tagged with Chemotherapy, Christian's Story, Sponsorship, The Royal Marsden, The Second Round.
The 10km Run in Battersea Park
Fortunately, we came home Saturday evening and got a good night’s sleep ahead of Sunday’s run.
It was a fantastic event, the photographer Jonathan Cook has taken loads of photos, it will take a bit of time to process them all, there a few here.
If you are one of the people who have generously pledged then you can pay either by cheque to me or online here. If you meant to pledge something but didn’t get around to it, it is not too late. Either way please forward the payment confirmation to me at peter@christianblandford.com.
Posted in Blog, Christian's Story, Fund Raising. Tagged with 10km, Battersea, Christian's Story, Claudia, Peter, spons, The Second Round.
At St George’s
Christian had been given his antibiotics and a blood transfusion and he was all ready to go home. The community nurses would finish the course of antibiotics by visiting us once a day at home. Claudia then noticed that the scar on his leg were the autopsy was done was red and inflamed. We showed the doctors who said that, as long as his temperature didn’t spike he would be allowed home as the antibiotics would sort it out.
Right on cue, Christian started to look a bit flushed, they took his temperature and it was 38.5. He will now probably have to stay for 48 hours as they blitz him with “first line” antibiotics, the one he was on before and two others.
He is, however, in fine spirits. It’s 8.45pm, he has finally stopped chatting and is peacefully asleep.
Posted in Blog, Christian's Story. Tagged with antibiotics, Christian's Story, St George's Hospital, The Second Round.
St George’s
Christian’s Hickman line is red and sore, it is probably infected so we have brought him to St George’s. He is in good nature but is neutrapenic and his Hemoglobin levels are low so they have put him on antibiotics and he is going to have a blood transfusion.
If he remains happy and doesn’t spike a temperature we hope to take him home tomorrow.
St George’s have set up a credit card payment site for the Christian Blandford fund. If you wish to sponsor or have already pledged this is an efficient way to pay, they only charge 3% as opposed to the 10% justgiving charge.
If you forward me your confirmation e-mail from the donation I’ll be able to keep tally of what we have raised and I’ll add your name to list of generous donors.
Thanks again to all those who have sponsored so far, we are over the moon with how it’s going.
Finally I’ll leave you with the question, “Is the world ready for another super-hero?”
Posted in Blog, Christian's Story. Tagged with Christian's Story, Infection, St George's Hospital, Superhero, The Second Round.
Home
Christian came home on Thursday and has had a good weekend at home. He’s back for chemo at the Royal Marsden, this Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It is the one that needs him to stay in overnight for so Claudia will be in Thursday night and I’ll do Friday night.
The run is going fantastically well. I have ordered 150 T-shirts with a nice design on the back and have assumed everybody who is running will want one. I’d like to thank Jonathan Cook for his help in designing the T-shirt. Jon has also volunteered to come and take photographs on the day. So make sure you’re looking good as you cross the finish line…
Still at St George’s
TWe were hoping to come home today but Christian isn’t well enough. He still has a slight temperature and his blood counts are low. He had a platelets transfusion and had a bad reaction to it which made him itchy and uncomfortable, He’s been given piriton which seems to have worked and is now sleeping peacefully.
I got an E-mail today from the organiser of the run and there are only 100 places left. So if you wish to run and have not entered yet please do so now.
Could you please tell me if you have entered and are raising money. All the people I know about are also listed on this page.
If you are planning on sponsoring and haven’t done so already please send me a pledge by e-mail, I’ll chase up payment out later! Again all the sponsors I know about are listed in the yellow box on the right.
If you are not running please consider coming along on the 4th March and cheering us all on. It should be great fun day out.
Posted in Blog, Christian's Story. Tagged with Christian's Story, St George's Hospital, The Second Round.
St George’s
Christian has been on very good form for the last couple of weeks. On Wednesday he even went into nursery for the morning, they have made of photo montage for the wall of his day in!
The last few days he has had a bit of a cold and his temperature spiked to 38.5 on Saturday afternoon. Because it was a week after chemo we had to assume he was neutrapenic and took him down to St George’s. One of the children at nursery came down with Chickenpox later in the week so Christian had to have an injection to protect him as, even though he has already had Chickenpox, the chemo will have killed his resistance to it.
He has probably got a viral cold which is relatively harmless, but they have to follow protocol and treat it as an antibacterial infection. He is on intravenous antibiotics and they will keep him in for 48 hours while they try and grow cultures on a blood sample. If nothing is grown in that time and he doesn’t get another temperature and he seems well in himself, he will probably be allowed home.
Danny, Claudia’s sister, took some photos of Christian last week while he was having his stem cell harvest. Here is one…
Dans is off to Montenegro to turn around the local property market. Our boys are really going to miss her. Here she is doing what she does best, making them laugh and spoiling them rotten…
Posted in Blog, Christian's Story. Tagged with Christian's Story, Danny, Harvest, St George's Hospital, Stem Cell, The Second Round.
Stem Cell Harvest
Claudia and Christian came home from the Royal Marsden today. Christian had a stem cell harvest done yesterday which went well, they got all they needed in one day, not two. He had a vascath fitted, which is a special line for the blood but that has already been removed. He is due for chemo and will be back at the Marsden tomorrow, Friday and Saturday as an outpatient. Once this is done we will be half way through this stage of the treatment.
Posted in Blog, Christian's Story. Tagged with Christian's Story, Stem Cell Harvest, The Second Round.
Scan Results
Christian had a temperature on Tuesday so we have spent the last couple of days at St. George’s. It looks like it was an infection in his leg that caused the temperature. He has been on intravenous antibiotics which have done the trick and has been allowed home today. He will need to continue the course of antibiotics until next week but, as it’s a once a day dose, it can be given by the community nurses at home.
The bone scan which was due tomorrow was brought forward to today and he and I were taken down to the Royal Marsden for it by ambulance. It was very exciting for both of us…
We are seeing Kathy Pritchard Jones tomorrow to discuss his treatment and get the results of the bone scan. Kathy did pop into the radiology department this afternoon and at first glance, the scans looked good with no sign of the cancer spreading and a good reaction to the chemo so far. Good news at last…
Posted in Blog, Christian's Story. Tagged with Christian's Story, Kathy Pritchard Jones, scans, St George's Hospital, The Second Round.
