Monday 27 February 2012

Hospital Day

Today was Karagh,s weekly blood test,s today in the Hospital. .we were over there bright and early this morning to have to days test done and the results were all good,her bloods are fine and she is doing good. .Karagh,s neutrophils are higher than they ever have been since she was diagnosed,they have always been below 1.0 and today they are 2.26 so that's very good :).Today is the start of a good week and lets just hope that the rest of the week brings us more good news  

Karagh been Karagh as usual today being nosey every Nurse,Doctor or any body that came into the room she was almost upside down looking at them and following every step they took and thing they picked up :)
                                                Full of smiles with Daddy,s hat on :)

Sunday 26 February 2012

A Good Weekend

This weekend was a good one for us Karagh is back to herself again eating and drinking as normal now.I had my brothers Birthday party last night which was a good night. . Sarah,s ma took Karagh for the night. .For the past couple of weeks ive felt like i been carrying blocks on my shoulders i haven't been able to sleep id be up half the night just trying to bend my back to release some of the tension in both my back and shoulders,it would work for 2 seconds and i be just the same, for the first time in ages i felt a bit of weight off my shoulders and i didn't feel any tension and i had a good time. .My brother had a good night to and it was brilliant because we hadn't all been out together in ages.After the good night i couldn't wait to see my little princess today and when i walked in the door today i had a smile waiting for me as always :) Sarah,Karagh and Sarah,s ma went of  shopping today for new clothes for the princess,i stayed at home to watch me and Karagh,s favorite team Tottenham play on television today.When Sarah and them got home she had bought some balloons(purple and gold)for us to release for little RJ who lost his fight against Neuroblastoma. we have been following RJ story for a long time now. .we put a little message on the Balloons for him from Karagh and we had Karagh hold them and let them go,it took her a while to let them go but she eventually did :)we took pictures to show Karagh when she is older what she did for RJ. .Karagh is fast asleep now beside me she is tired after all her little adventures she had today.she is back in hospital tomorrow to have her bloods checked and hopefully there all good. .This week is a waiting game for us all,we are waiting on the results of Karagh,s CT scan she had last Thursday,we will be getting the results either Thursday or Friday and we are all praying and would like you all to pray for her that it will be good news.

                                                        Karagh,s message for RJ
                                                        Ready to go outside
                                                         Karagh Releasing the balloons




Will update more tomorrow with her blood results :)

Thursday 23 February 2012

Thinking Back


I remember when we were told Karagh had Neuroblastoma i didn't no what to think or what to do.I felt sick i was running back and forward to the  bathroom every 10 mins feeling like i wanted to be sick. Every time i tried to eat it was just impossible cos all i could think about was my little princess and why did this happen to her to  us i never thought in a million years that we would have to go through this, for Karagh to go through this.It was the next day when we were in the hospital our family's had come up to  us in Crumlin it was there first time to be with us since we had found out. .Again i was still not feeling great i didn't sleep at all the previous   night i was up all night thinking and asking myself the same question,s over and over again why me why us why Karagh,The only way i got myself to sleep that night was by crying myself to sleep i thought if i don't sleep now ill be no good to anybody tomorrow and i have to be strong for Sarah and for Karagh.Our family,s came up to us anyways and i said id go for a walk just to get out of the little room we were in and to let both our parents see Karagh before she went to theater to have her Biopsy and Hickman line done.i decided to walk to the shop in the Hospital to get myself a drink of something i didn't no what because i knew whatever it was i probably wouldn't be able to drink it anyways but i picked up a bottle of orange,i had 10 euro in my pocket and i turned to go pay for it at the counter and i noticed teddy,s in a basket, i picked up a White Tiger and i ask the woman how much they were and she said 10 euro,as i like White Tigers i thought to myself Tigers to me represent STRENGTH, POWER AND A FIGHTER so i put back my bottle of orange and bought the teddy for Karagh and i came back to the room and i put the Tiger beside her in the bed and whispered to myself this is for you Beautiful because you have the STRENGTH POWER AND YOUR A FIGHTER to get through this YOUR DADDY,S LITTLE FIGHTER and you will always be MY LITTLE FIGHTER.The teddy now sits above her cot since the day she came home from hospital. .and i always think if i had bought the orange it would have been a waste because i wouldn't have drank it but this Teddy she will always have forever :) 



                                     
                                  A picture of Karagh asleep with Tiger over her head

                                          A picture of Tiger i no Karagh would like :)



Tuesday 21 February 2012

A Drawing For My Daughter

Recently Me and Sarah set up a page for Karagh(The Karagh Mouse Clubhouse Raising Awareness For Neuroblastoma) We named it this because she loves watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse when she watches it she smiles she loves it. .We would put her in her swinging chair and put her in front of the television and she would sit watch and smile at it.It does be the best feeling ever to hear her laugh and goo at the television to her favorite program, Everywhere we look in the house is Minnie Mouse. .While my Mind is always thinking about Karagh Yesterday While Sarah and her went for a walk  i sat in front of the table and i thought of a few  things i could put into a picture for The Karagh Mouse Clubhouse Page, 2 hours later i came up with a Design.I thought it would be a brilliant idea to have her favorite Character put into something that means allot.So i added Minnie Mouse into a Ribbon with the Neuroblastoma purple and yellow with Karagh,s page and Cancer cant bully me!  I WILL WIN.
Here is the picture :)   


A First For Everything :)

I remember this photograph been taken,it was taken by the Nurse in Crumlin when we were being trained how to keep (Freddie)Karagh,s Hickman line dry when we were bathing her. .This was the week Karagh was diagnosed and if im right it was the day we were being let home :) She loves her baths but for some reason she didn't that day and the only way to keep her from crying was A BOTTLE IN THE BATH.it was the nurses idea to take the picture because she said it was the first time she had seen it so here it is :)

Results and Phone Call

Today was Karagh,s visit to the hospital  to have her bloods checked and her Freddie cleaned,because she had been sick from the rota virus she had not been eating as much or drinking.I thought her bloods were going to be all over the place from her not being well the last few days.

While we were waiting on the Nurse to come in to do her bloods Sarah,s phone rang and it was Crumlin Hospital giving us a new date for Karagh,s scan which is scheduled for Thursday :)
We are so happy that we got it so quick and so soon but we had been on to them to reschedule it as quickly as possible anyways and thankfully it paid off .
Meanwhile Karagh,s bloods have been done and we are home from the Hospital, Sarah has just rang Portlaoise for Karagh,s results and there all good :) its been a good day for us.

                                              Karagh,s visit to Hospital today:)

Our Life Now

Karagh was 12 weeks old when she was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma,she is now 6 months old and doing good with chemotherapy.Being told your child has cancer is just so not fair its hard but for her to be strong I had to be strong.once a week we go to Portlaoise Hospital to have her bloods done and her Hickman line cleaned (we no it has her Freddie),every 3 weeks then we go to Crumlin Hospital for Karagh to have her chemo over a course of 3 days.She has her good days and her bad days not feeding and sometimes not sleeping but just last week she had a really bad week,she got rotavirus and was in hospital for few days getting sick and diarrhea.This was the worst i had seen her since she was diagnosed,she had no energy and was just completely drained i looked at her lying in the cot and as sick as she looked she still managed to give me a big smile. 






Here is the smile she gave me even though she was so sick looking in the other picture, No matter weather it during the day or if she has just woken up the first thing in the morning you would always get a beautiful smile



When  Karagh was kept in Hospital for the rota virus she was dew to have a CT scan done on the 20th of this month in Crumlin which had to be cancelled,Me and Sarah were so annoyed over this because this was her big scan to tell us weather she would continue with chemo or have an operation done,it was a stressful wait for the 20th to come and to be told then it had to be cancelled made me stress even more,we just want to no what her next protocol is going to be :(
I just had to deal with the fact it was cancelled and just think bout Karagh getting better.
on the upside Karagh got home from Hosptal 2 days later and we were just glad to be back home again :)





How Karagh's Fight Started

When Karagh was 3 weeks old we noticed she had a lump on her side and she was constipated so we brought her to our GP.We were sent to Paeds Department in Portlaoise Hospital.They kept us over night there to monitor her.The next morning they came to us and told us she was badly constipated and that she popped a muscle in her stomach from the pressure she was putting on trying to poo.They did a wash out on Karagh to clear her bowl.Later that evening we were transferred to Our Ladys Hospital in Crumlin to have her seen by a specialist.They did another wash out on her and she started to be herself again she was in good form,we were kept there for the weekend to she how she would be.We were sent home on the Sunday Karagh was ok again.We came home we were back to ourselves we were settling back into our routine again.....

November 2011 19th we noticed Karagh was not herself again she was not feeding and she was crying more than she ever would have,I found this weird because Karagh since she was born never cried a hole lot she was a quiet baby and she always likes her bottles.We thought she might have started to teeth.Sarah Karagh,s mother was winding her after her feed and felt a lump on the left side of her back.We thought it was the same thing as before just a popped muscle so we brought her to our GP,again she sent us to Paeds in Portlaoise  where Karagh had sum test done.She had an X-ray done which showed up noting.We were kept over night and were Transferred to Crumlin the next morning .Karagh,s doctor she was under in Portlaoise Dr Daly sent us for a second opinion as she was convinced there was definatley something not right.So we drove to Crumlin ourselves the next morning and we met the doctor up there who told us basically Karagh was a starving child which i found funny because if he seen the way she fed he wouldnt have put it down to that.So we went back to Portlaoise and like before Dr Daly was not happy and had a CT scan done on Karagh the next day.That Friday evening we were sitting in the room Sarah,s ma had come over to us with some food because we didnt eat properly for days.Dr Daly came into the room with Karagh,s scan results and explained to us that the scan had showed a Mass on her spine. .I didnt no what she was talking about she started to explain it more she told us that it could either be a benign or malignent tumor. She said we would be transferred to Crumlin on Tuesday for Karagh to be seen by an oncology doctor to find out exactly what the tumor was. Initially hearing the news, we were devastated but the severity of the situation hadn't quite hit us yet. We were told we would be kept in Portlaoise hospital until there was a cot available for Karagh in Crumlin. Sunday afternoon a cot became available and we went straight away, with an envelope in tow containing all Karagh's scans and results. On the way up I had myself convinced everything would be ok. We got to Crumlin and a doctor came to see us straight away. His name was Dr. Michael Capra, a Paediatric Oncology doctor. I gave him the envelope and he left. He returned to us within 5 minutes and confirmed that the tumor was cancerous.

The type of cancer being Neuroblastoma.


This photo was taken the week Karagh was diagnosed.



Monday 20 February 2012

A New Life A New Begining

This is the very first photo of me and Karagh when she was born :) Karagh was born on the 4th September 2011 at 10:15am her weight was 6lb8.5oz
The best day of my life and the rest of my life started when Karagh was born.
Everything was perfect Me and Sarah were so happy all we wanted next was to get our beautiful little princess home :)
On the 6th of September Karagh and Sarah was let home from Hospital and i remember walking in with Karagh,s car seat and as happy as i was looking at it empty i was even happier when i was walking back out with her in it :) I was just so happy to be going home all 3 of us to be a family :)