Animal Farm

15 January 2014: Saskia's 12th Birthday! Although we had several hospital visits to check her bloods, all in all we managed to celebrate it in reasonable fashion. On Tuesday evening we went to the last remaining drive-in cinema in South Australia at Gepps Cross with two cars, fully loaded with giggling girls, followed the next day with a visit to Aldinga Beach. This had to be later in the day as Adelaide is/was sweltering through a heat wave (45+ degrees Celsius, or for those of you in America: more than 113 Fahrenheit).
We have seen Saskia grow into a beautiful, wonderful, loving, and gorgeous young girl. Even under the given circumstances, she has maintained a very positive attitude and always looks forward. She has a large group of diverse friends and her love for animals is growing with the day. She wants to become a veterinary scientist working for a governmental organisation, an interest sparked by her natural ability to be with animals and the career of a very friend of us.
Saskia's biggest wish (besides the obvious) was to get a dog for herself. Although we do already have a dog, a cat, a miniature horse, two sheep and two ducks who accidently wondered in one day, we though it would be a good thing for her (and Gemma our Golden Retriever) to get her a little cuddly friend. So we bought all the little things a new puppy needs and progressively gave that to her. At first she did not really know what to say, but managed to keep a smile on her face. But when we gave her a piece of paper with some 20 different dog photo's and the text "Please choose me", she nearly screamed the roof of our house!

Although we said that the next round of chemo was to start today, it didn't....Today's blood test showed that her platelet count was only 33, which is only 3 more than a few days ago. Dr. Petra Ritchie, Saskia's oncologist has now said that she would still like to wait a little longer before making a decision. But if the count remains low, it is likely that Saskia will still have her chemo treatment within the next 10 days and not receive a stem cell transplant. The argument is that if she receives a stem cell transplant, it would be a waste as it would be wiped out during the next session. Saskia's bone marrow is behaving reasonably well, bar the platelets, however the platelets can be "topped up" so to speak.
Monday 20 January we will be back in hospital. If the platelet count is up, Saskia will start 5 days of chemo, if not, then we just have to wait a little longer....