New year, new plan

Well we are now referring to Fabian’s relapse as being last year.  Hard to believe it is nearly 6 months since that woeful day in July.  After a homely but lackadaisical Christmas and New Year during which Fabian piled on the pounds, we had a very hectic time at the Marsden today with no less than 3 individual consultant appointments, multiple blood tests and an ECG.  This is all in connection with Plan B (or was it always Plan A?) to now use Cassia as Fabian’s donor.  One of the interviews was regarding the Human Tissue Authority Guidelines to ensure ‘no coercement or undue reward is being made to the donor’.  Not sure if tickets to see a certain well-known boy band fall foul of this in Cassia’s case..  So the perceived wisdom is to proceed as soon as possible to transplant which carries more certainty of happening with her rather than Oli.  In turns out there may be a better prognosis and less side effects using stem cells harvested from the marrow in a younger child so it feels like there is a silver lining to all this.  We have also requested a further bone marrow aspirate to confirm he has remained in full remission, which as you recall was our main concern when we learnt of the postponement.  So dates are set for Fabian to be admitted later this month with the transplant proceeding the following week (caveat: all NHS plans are subject to change!).  Having made such a weight gain will stand him in good stead in the weeks ahead.  Even his hair has begun to grow back and together with Ben, who more or less shaved his head recently, we have a couple of skinheads at home!  I forgot to mention in the last post that we had received a further royal letter, this time from Duchess Kate’s private secretary, wishing us well with the forthcoming transplant.  Although unknowingly premature, it was heartening that she had obviously diarised this event and taken the trouble to follow up.  Her interest will always remain a huge encouragement to us, as indeed do your ongoing prayers.