Yesterday Leana and Alexandra returned to Hamburg.
Rosemary and John arrived from New York and Boston for a few days in London. They are Philippe's American cousins and Clara and Paul's true (and infinitely patient) friends too, having shown repeatedly an admirable disposition for spending days with them at the water park or hours around a game of Monopoly.
Paul had his platelets transfusion yesterday afternoon and was both excited to see Rosemary and John in the evening and quite tired too.
Alice also visited from Beirut and joined for dinner.
At around 23h, Paul had a 38.4 deg. fever and it was time to rush him to his other home in neutropenic times.
Below a few photos from the great time Clara and Paul always had with the Moukads.
Hard to believe that in July 2008, Paul was probably already ill.
What lovely pictures ...
ReplyDeleteHello Paul, and amazing family!
ReplyDeleteYou don't know me, but I feel as if I know you and your wonderful family. I live in the U.S. and your blog comes up on my Osteosarcoma Google search often...so I have been following your brave and hopeful journey! I just want you to know that I think of you often and know what this "journey" is like! Very hard and it takes a brave kid like you to beat it! My daughter had Osteosarcoma also...but we didn't know about specialists as your family has. You are so lucky to have parents and family who found the best care in the world for you. I will be watching for the day your blog will say... "PAUL IS DONE WITH TREATMENTS AND IS N.E.D," (No Evidence of Disease!)
Shannon's Mom in Ohio, USA
Thank you very much, "Shannon's Mom in Ohio"!
ReplyDeleteWe sure hope and have every reason to believe that the treatment Paul is getting in London where he happens to live is indeed excellent.
As for most osteosarcoma patients though, diagnosis was a bit late because it is the last thing on everybody's mind and because ... well ... we can't say for sure whether Paul's original paedatrician should have checked better whether Paul's knee pains were indeed knee pains before asking for an X-ray of the knee or whether the radiologist should have noticed something on the tibia despite having had a request for a knee x-ray. But you only find what you're looking for ... So?
That was some one month before diagnosis by Dr.Stuart Evans (Cromwell Hospital) who was the first stroke of good luck in a long time on Paul's path and who accelerated the process from MRI, to biopsy, to diagnosis, to referral to London's sarcoma service. He was to be the first of many many doctors and nurses who we can't thank enough ...
Anyway, good luck for your daughter.
Philippe