Chapter 4 - Treatment

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“The room looks like an open book and there are lots of people. I don't understand, perhaps I’m imagining things, it's very scary.”

I calmed him down and gave him paracetemol which brought the temperature under control. He told me the following day that he could see lots of dying people falling to the ground from the pages of a huge book. As they hit the ground their ghosts rose to the ceiling.

During the course of the night the infection had spread in two fine lines across his foot and started moving up his leg. The speed of the infection was frightening. It took a week of first line antibiotics to clear it. At the time we were well into our second treatment and yet I was still very wary of this particular situation. Throughout I felt cautious about the course of the infection but was confident of the doctor's ability to resolve it.

Looking back, this, like many of the other incidents, seems so unbelievable. At that stage we had been through so much that this was just another hurdle for us to get past. Looking back, I realise how distorted a view of the world you have while nursing a cancer stricken child.

Complications are many and various. There is amputation, blindness, meningitis, drug intolerance, blood transfusion reactions, infections, organ breakdown. The full list is very long and may or may not affect a child during treatment. We had many other complications during Max's illnesses and in this respect were no different to many other families in the Unit.

There are also often lots of complications from treatment which go on for many years after treatment has ended. Chemotherapy is a vicious treatment and can cause a lot of damage to a young growing body.

The costs can be enormous. I knew a child who had had a transplant and complications of meningitis and problems with his lungs. When I first knew this child he was one of the most spirited and mischievous children I have ever met. I met the same child two years later. He was a shadow of the child I had previously known. His growth was impaired and he had learning disabilities. His vital spirit had also been so damaged. I know other children who had transplants who also had some of these problems together with difficulties walking, arthritis and many other complications.

As a parent there is a very natural need to have something to cling to throughout a childhood cancer. You want numbers, chances, some framework for your fragmented world. You need something you can mull over and come to terms with, something to tell people in order to make it all real and tangible. These are the percentages and they are yet another cruel irony in this sorry saga. These percentages are the percentages of survival. What is the chance of my child surviving? They are instinctively required by all parents. They are also probably one of the most difficult pieces of information for a consultant to provide. "The room looks like an open book and there are lots of people. I don't understand, perhaps I'm imagining things, its very scary"

I calmed him down and gave him paracetemol which brought the temperature under control. He told me the following day that he could see lots of dying people falling to the ground from the pages of a huge book. As they hit the ground their ghosts rose to the ceiling.

During the course of the night the infection had spread in two fine lines across his foot and started moving up his leg. The speed of the infection was frightening. It took a week of first line antibiotics to clear it. At the time we were well into our second treatment and yet I was still very wary of this particular situation. Throughout I felt cautious about the course of the infection but was confident of the Doctor's ability to resolve it.

Looking back, this, like many of the other incidents seems so unbelievable. At that stage we had been through so much that this was just another hurdle for us to get past. Looking back, I realise how distorted a view of the world you have while nursing a cancer stricken child.

Complications are many and various. There is amputation, blindness, meningitis, drug intolerance, blood transfusion reactions, infections, organ breakdown. The full list is very long and may or may not affect a child during treatment. We had many other complications during Max's illnesses and in this respect were no different to many other families in the Unit.

There are also often lots of complications from treatment which go on for many years after treatment has ended. Chemotherapy is a vicious treatment and can cause a lot of damage to a young growing body.

The costs can be enormous. I knew a child who had had a transplant and complications of meningitis and problems with his lungs. When I first knew this child he was one of the most spirited and mischievous children I have ever met. I met the same child two years later. He was a shadow of the child I had previously known. His growth was impaired and he had learning disabilities. His vital spirit had also been so damaged. I know other children who had transplants who also had some of these problems together with difficulties walking, arthritis and many other complications.

As a parent there is a very natural need to have something to cling to throughout a childhood cancer. You want numbers, chances, some framework for your fragmented world. You need something you can mull over and come to terms with, something to tell people in order to make it all real and tangible. These are the percentages and they are yet another cruel irony in the sorry saga. These percentages are the percentages of survival. What is the chance of my child surviving? They are instinctively required by all parents. They are also probably one of the most difficult pieces of information for a Consultant to provide.

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