Round 5: Scherzo: Molto Vivace

In preparation for Thanksgiving and to make light of our change of appearance, nonno has been donning a new hat as pictured here!

This week a dear friend, who is a pianist, kindly invited us to one of her concerts. She said she was personally dedicating the piece to Isabella. The third lively movement certainly summed up Isabella's attitude this week.

Last Wednesday she decided she wanted to tell the class why she was loosing her hair. She sat in front of the whole class and explained very matter of fact that her special medicine was causing it to all fall out. By Monday she was pretty much bald underneath her scarf. She told Miss S. that she wanted to show the class. And so she sat in front of them and showed them all. When asked if it would grow back, she replied "yes and I think it might grow back pink this time!" Apparently they were all in fits of laughter. When she showed them her scar across her head, the boys rose to the occasion and started showing off their latest scars. Kids are amazing.

The next day at swimming, Isabella got changed into her costume and then whipped off her scarf ready to jump into the pool. The other kids barely batted an eyelid at her new look. They just see Isabella. What more could a worrying parent ask for? Though, I know exactly what the adults present were feeling. Childhood innocence is such a beautiful thing.

As in previous weeks the past three or four days have been very good, though she does get increasingly tired at the end of the day. Last Friday we had a little drama when a high temperature revealed an infection so we were back at the hospital for antibiotics by IV. This was temporary and we were quickly back on track.

Isabella is much more in control of the situation. She is talking a lot about what is going on. She is a woman after all :). At her tap class she seemed to sit there the whole time and tell the teacher and her friend all about what was going on. They were so sympathetic; I could see Isabella was enjoying talking all about it.

Undoubtedly, she is getting fed up with having to keep going back to the hospital week after week but today we are half way through the first session. The final one will be on Christmas eve and then we get a month off! Today she only had one drug - the vincristine which took a matter of minutes to administer and thankfully we had St. Jeanette to access the port, none of the trauma of last Thursday and Friday. There should be less nausea with just the vincristine and hopefully it will take less out of her.

Now we are taking it easy and looking forward to seeing the Cirque de Soleil at the week-end and Thanksgiving next Thursday.

Lots of love to you all,
Emma & Gregorio xxx