We know that at some point this year Camille is going to have surgery, the closer we get to the summer the closer we are to that happening. We have no idea where she stands at the moment as we have skipped a scan, the last having been back in November. Everything about her mobility, steadiness and happiness suggests that the treatment is working. We've been pushing her this week to do more and more walking by herself, and early in the week we got to the point where she could sit at the bottom of our stairs, stand up by herself and walk a few yards to Hayley standing in our kitchen. This went on and became her party piece, she was clearly loving the whoops and cheers. We filmed it on my mobile and watched it back a few times, it's almost like it was when she first started walking as a toddler, but perhaps it now has more significance to back then. I did feel sorry for Lucia as again she was trying desperately hard to be involved, walking alongside her little sister and hugging Hayley's leg as Camille was scooped up into her arms for the celebratory cuddle. I guess it's going to be unavoidable during this process to get her involved in every activity, that's why we must keep up the one on one activities with Lucia as well.
Camille's walking continued to improve through the early stages of the week. On Wednesday, Hayley was walking away from her as she got closer to elongate the walk and give Camille a bit more to do, again she passed with flying colours. So five minutes later, Camille heads off from her starting position at the base of the stairs and this time walks directly past Hayley and makes a bee line for the home made tent she'd been playing with Lucia in all morning. As she gets to the front of the tent she tried to bend down too quickly and fell forward hitting her head on the tile floor. This one incident set her confidence back some way as for the rest of the day she was less than enthusiastic about setting foot alone.
That afternoon Hayley and I went to the funeral of our sister-in-law's father. Joe was a Sicilian and very proud of his heritage. We arrived a good time and filed in from the back as seemed most appropriate. As the members of the congregation waited quietly the rousing sound of Nessun Dorma filled the room signifying the arrival of Joe himself. It was quite an uplifting few minutes as the Pavarotti classic filled the church with the coffin followed by the train of family members entering through the main door. Just as the coffin was set down at the front of the church and Pavarotti marked the moment by hitting the crescendo of the song, Hayley's mobile started ringing. In a blind panic she looked at me, and without a thought for anybody else but myself I stuck out my left arm and shoved her out of the pew to put distance between me and the rude one with the phone. Naturally Hayley blamed me for the faux pas as I had just minutes before advised her how to turn down the ring on her iPhone.
The remainder of the service went hitch free and the family were able to give Joe a send off he would have been proud of. As I stood towards the end I looked out across the church and noticed how tall I was in comparison to everybody else there. I'm six foot so no giant, but I clearly towered above the entire room, it was especially unnerving having Hayley one side of me (five foot nothing) and her father the other side (five foot something).
That night I had to make the journey to Bournemouth so that I could spend some time in my office the following day. It's been a while since I've been down to the office and I'd forgotten how long that journey is. I'd purchased some chewing gum en route and immediately popped a couple of the tablet shaped minty wonders into my mouth. Ten minutes later I added another, and so on all the way to the Dorset coast. By the time I thundered through the New Forest I was chewing a block of gum the size of a tennis ball. Imagine the shock of the receptionist at the hotel to see Desperate Dan walk in, unable to speak through strained jaw muscles.
On Friday night Hayley's sister and her husband stayed over to look after the girls while we went out together for probably the first time in a year. Hayley managed to get Camille off to sleep before we went but the risk of her waking up screaming for mummy was high and could we manage to get a whole night without having to rush home. In fact we did, and we had a lovely time with our friends Sally and Simon, whose wedding anniversary is within a few days of ours. We even managed to sneak into a local bar for a post dinner drink. Had I realised that pubs these days serve Peroni Nastro on tap I would be looking for more excuses to frequent them.
The girls ended up having a lovely weekend. Camille and Hayley popped into town on Saturday to spend some cash as Lucia and I went for our weekly dip. The portacabin changing rooms are still as cold as ever, but I found that standing Lucia between myself and the emergency exit as we walked past made a really good draft excluder. We travelled straight from town over to a lovely village pub down near Colchester, the local of two of our friends. The landlady runs a charity weekend each year and has been kind enough to offer their services towards Camille's Appeal for 2010. It is the two days following the Bungee Jump extravaganza so we're in for a busy Bank Holiday weekend but what a great offer and what a fantastic pub. Camille loved sitting at the bar on a stool and Lucia was plundering her way through as many bar snacks as there were on offer. As Lucia finished her last pack of Pork Scratchings and Camille climbed down from her elevated position we made it home and the girls headed straight up to bed.
Another chemotherapy week coming up this week, but as it is a one night stay Hayley is likely to do this one alone (and Camille obviously). We're also looking to have a conversion with Amos this week about Camille's diet. There's some Nobel prize winning theory that sugar is working for the tumour and feeding it's growth. There are some treatments available that basically starve the body of sugar in the theory that it will in turn starve the tumour and cause it to shrink. However, this does tend to result in the child losing a massive amount of weight, something we would not be suggesting for Camille. We are however looking to see if there is a middle of the road solution; currently her prescribed feed is full of sugar, we're wondering if we could reduce the sugar in her diet to somehow assist the chemotherapy. We await his opinion and advice.