You Got To Be Kidding...

Sorry for the lack of updates since our last post. We have just been enjoying Saskia being in relative good health  and returning back to school. It was great seeing her smile every day of the week. She sees the future bright and clear and is determined to go to year 8 next year. Her home tutoring is going great and she slowly starts to feel like a normal person again. Even her hair starts growing again (yes, photo's will follow soon...).
However.....last Sunday she had some pain in her back, just under her shoulder. We all though it was just a muscle pull as she has gone through a bit of a growth-spurt and has been relative active over the last couple of days, but considering the circumstances, we had better check it out. The emergency doctors at Mt. Barker hospital basically confirmed our own diagnosis and after a couple of painkillers, the pain seemed bearable. Monday however the pain was still there and that night she could hardly sleep. Today she did not go to school and we saw some blisters appearing. We knew this was no good. Last time this happened was when she was about 7 years old and was then diagnosed with shingles. We called the oncology ward, who advised us to go to the GP, who confirmed that it was shingles.
Shingles is caused by a viral infection of the nerves just below the skin. It is caused by the same virus that causes chicken pox. Once a person has had chicken pox, the virus remains dormant in the body and can re-emerge as shingles when the immune system is down.
Now this just blew our minds. We were just preparing for her anti-body maintenance treatment, which is due to start coming friday and now this. We are hopeful that the treatment still continue as per schedule as it at least means that she will be under morfine-control which will suppress the pain she presently has.
Please pray that she will continue to be positive about all that is to come.