Chapter 9 - Memories of Max

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The day after Max had shown his true strength in attempting to walk we visited the hospital for his potassium and tests. Max was a different child. He ate bacon and egg for breakfast, was cracking jokes and playing tricks on me. We had discovered what was to become a very powerful tool in treating Max. Give the child the belief in himself and you can achieve wonders. Later that day he started to play computer games with some other children. It turned out he knew a lot more than them and he revelled in the attention. I asked him if he minded if I went to the Parent's Room to read. He said no, and I left him talking tactics with the other children. This was the first time during his second treatment that Max had not had either Sara or me at his side. It was brilliant to see him independent again. It is times like these that your heart soars.

I remember an incident about one week later. Max, a friend and his sister were playing football in the corridor. This was not football as you or I would recognise it. Max was goalie. He could not walk without support and so held on to the handles of his ward wheelchair and deflected the ball by directing himself and the wheelchair at it. All three children squealed and laughed at the simple game.

“That's the best fun I've had since I've been in hospital.”

I cannot describe how much joy I felt at scenes like this. The scenes had their desperation, but they showed you the adaptation and strength of these children.

At about this time Max had taken to carrying round a cardboard sick bowl wherever he went. This was understandable when he was ill, but at this stage he had stopped vomiting. He used to wedge the cardboard bowl under his chin when we were in the car and carried it everywhere he went. I started to make fun of the ‘Security Sick Bowl’ which became abbreviated to the SSB. In the end he became fed up with my teasing and left it behind just to show that he didn't really care.

About three months after the second diagnosis Sara and Paula went back to Wales over the Easter break. Max was in hospital at the time and was not sure if he could cope with her being away and was very upset saying goodbye. That night I bought him a Chinese meal as a treat and we cuddled.

“You're the best Daddy in the whole world. No, you and Mummy are the best people in the whole world. I am so glad that you are my Mummy and Daddy. I wouldn't want anyone else.”

“We are so glad that you and Paula are our children. I've got an idea. Why don't you surprise Mummy when she comes back and do your ‘Army drawings’?”

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