Memories of Max - A Father's Story

Chapter 10 - Transplant

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The immediate removal of all the drugs proved to be premature and he soon resumed the regime again.

At this stage in the treatment we had problems with Paula. I had put her to bed at home and was downstairs watching television. I thought I heard her crying and rushed upstairs. Our terraced house had three floors and the children's bedroom was on the first floor. I rushed into the rooms on the first floor but she was nowhere to be found. I slipped into blind panic. I shouted for her but there was no reply. I then rushed upstairs and found her in the dark next to our bed. She was beside herself. She thought that I was in bed and could not understand why I was not helping her.

She was crying and coughing badly and I managed to calm her down but the coughing continued. I cuddled her and then she projectile vomited over me, the bed and the floor. She then started vomiting mucus. At this stage I became really rattled. Daily we cleared up Max's vomit, changed his bed and cleaned him. If you needed help then you called a nurse who would get clean sheets as you tended Max. This time there was no-one. This time it was the wrong child. This was all out of context. Paula would not be left alone so I could not clean up the mess properly. I tried as best as possible and then rang Sara. She and her mother were looking after Max at the hospital.

Sara drove back immediately and we cleaned up the room. I realised after ringing Sara that I probably could have coped. You steel yourself to the rigours of hospital life, but I was not prepared for this sort of situation, out of the blue with another child, and at home.

Paula also had stomach ache and the spectre of another cancer raised itself. I tried to persuade myself that this was not possible, just too unlikely, but we had been down that path before. When we were told of Max's second cancer the consultant said "This is rare." Sara retorted "Don't talk to me about rare, we know rare." We did not trust the rarity of cancer anymore. Experience had taught us otherwise

Sara thought that lymphoma started with coughs. We took Paula to the doctor. She had a virus.

Max was still being very very sick. The doctors were not sure why because the sickness should have started to ease. I tentatively suggested that the sickness and nausea was being caused by the anti-sickness tablets. This was a difficult step to take. The doctors are experienced and very good at what they do, and I was very conscious of how illogical this suggestion sounded. The ward doctor was reluctant to follow my suggestion. I had an infallible argument because given Max's current situation there was nothing to be lost by withdrawing the anti-sickness tablets. The medication was obviously not helping because he was continuing to be so ill. The doctor listened and said that he would withdraw the tablets for a day. He was a little bothered by fact that this was deviating from the expected treatment, but the senior doctor was not present and he was prepared to go out on a limb to see if it worked.

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