She is such a brave little angel who took the time to answer some questions for me which I will write up shortly.
But also, because 2 friends of mine that I went to school with were also diagnosed, seriously, that's 3 people I know of including myself that have been diagnosed with cancer from my school, my year, they need to get that school checked for un-exploded bombs or something haha. Joking... But seriously!
Anyway, this one was harder because when I was chatting to 'Leukaemia Lucy' (that's what she calls herself) I watched as her mummy sat next to her and hung on her every word, and how every answer affected her, there were tears, from both of us, there were smiles, from all of us and one of the nurses even got involved for a frozen sing a long!
Right so let's get into it, First thing you should know about Little Lucy is that she LOVES Frozen, her friends have told her she's too old to like it, but she loves to sing and she loves to dance and we're always doing mental dances together and when we spoke about my blog she told me 'someone from my school was picking on me for singing frozen and said it's a baby program, right.... so I said, my friend Charlie is 20 and she sings it so it's COOL'
Made me feel great, she thinks I'm the best thing ever haha, I'm making that face that's on the iphone emojis....
THAT one hahaha, okay so that's normally used for sexual stuff but... I'm digging myself a hole now, it's meant in a cocky way so just take it like that, yeah?
So, When I asked Lucy and her mummy all about her Leukaemia, I suddenly felt like I opened a can of worms because there is actually a lot of different types of Leukaemia, which I didn't know at all!
Lucy has Acute Myeloid Leukaemia
Her symptoms were:
- Sudden drop in weight
- Pain in hips
- Belly pains
- Bruising everywhere, just had to be touched and a bruise would appear, school suspected abuse at home which upset mum a lot.
- Dizziness
- Nosebleeds
- Temperature
Charlie: "Lucy, what affected you the most about being poorly?"
Lucy: "I couldn't go to school, or go out with friends, I was on a lot of pain killers so I forgot where I was all the time. I had to shave my head and a girl at school pulled my wig off at lunchtime. But I thought, she bullied me before so it wasn't because I was bald but just because she is a nasty girl and she would always find something to pick on me for. I don't like seeing mummy upset when I'm in pain either"
(At this point mummy started to cry, as did I because she just thought me a bloody life lesson, the point she made about the bullies was so true and so mature and adult for her)
Charlie: "Wow, Luc you're such a brave girl! Do you feel like you have enough people to help and support you?"
Lucy:" The doctors and nurses are all very nice and I speak to a helper lady a lot (counsellor) and I have a teacher at the hospital she's nice too. My big sister looks after us too, well she tries to make mummy smile mostly."
(Then we agreed I would be her big sister aswell because in Lucy's words 'what's another little sister to my list')
Charlie: "Do you have any advice to other poorly children?"
Lucy:"I don't know, I think be brave and be nice to nurses and sleep a lot!"
(I totally agree haha)
Charlie: "How are you finding your treatment"
Lucy: "It's okay, it just hurts sometimes or I just want to go to sleep but you've just got to let it go"
Okay so now we've started singing Frozen, obviously, I was Elsa, and we absolutely went on one and I haven't laughed that hard in ages, the little faces she makes are amazing she's so dramatic, she's definitely a star in the making!
We chatted on about school and how she loves to perform and how much she wants to go to Alton Towers and how she had a boyfriend but he was her best friends, best friend on snapchat so that's all over now- I got some advice about how she gets so many likes on instagram- the tip? "HASHTAGS" hahaha.
The type of cancer Lucy has is Acute Myeloid Leukaemia-
Symptoms:
- Pale Skin
- Tiredness
- Breathlessness
- High Temperature
- Excessive Sweating
- Weight Loss
- Frequent Infections
- Unusual Bleeding
- Easily Bruised Skin
- Flat red or purple spots on the skin
- Bone and joint pain
- Feeling of fullness or discomfort in tummy
Diagnosis:
- Scans
- Lumbar Puncture
- Genetic Testing
If you would like a little read, here's a link to an NHS page:
RIGHT- Now a little chat from a different perspective, my friend James was diagnosed November 2010, I had a little chat with his mummy to try and get it from another point of view because as I said before when one person has cancer, the whole family do!
I thought this would be beneficial.
So- meet Lou!!!
Charlie: "When James was diagnosed what were your first thoughts?"
Lou: "It was the 15th of November 2010, 1. no no no no 2. I'm numb 3. I can't take this away 4. So scared 5. What's in HIS head 6. What do I say to him 7. Breathe"
Charlie: "How did family life change after James' diagnoses?"
Lou: "Everything changed, I had to stop work, we were living in hospital, for 6 weeks, backwards and forwards daily after that, no money, meals and routines out the window, institutionalized! Shit got real!"
(I am a blubbering mess writing this because bloody X-Factor is on and that Italian matey is singing One Moment in Time by Whitney Houston and this story makes me sad!)
Charlie: "When it all 'sunk in' what steps did you take in order to get James better? Besides the immediately obvious hospital treatment?"
Lou: "James was an inpatient so the hospital 'took over' 100% and took control, which I was glad about. We could only support him, be there, and try to keep him as comfortable as possible during treatment, and keep things as 'normal' as possible during this time... For example taking him to a golf course for an hour,going for lunch if he was well, getting his friends to come round! The talking bit is not easy though when they are a closed book."
Charlie: "I remember you were in around Christmas how was that?"
Lou: "It was horrible! James was allowed home Christmas day but back in on boxing day for an emergency MRI and CT scan he spent Christmas Day afternoon in bed and everyone else tried to act 'normal'... It wasn't normal and I hated it (and them!) and everyone at hospital feels sorry for the 'poorly kids' at Christmas... fake, jolly... f##ked up! I mean, yes, well intentioned, okay to pretend with the younger kids, but for me nothing was different."
Charlie: "Do you have any advice to other mummys?"
Lou: "To other Mums I would say 'there's nothing I can say' Hang in there, be strong and just be there for your child, not all are talkers but that doesn't mean your presence isn't needed, I was told during James' treatment his eyes would follow me everywhere, if I wasn't in the room he wanted to know where I was and when I was coming back, so although he didn't need to talk to me, he still needed ME there."
I just want to say a MASSIVE thank you to Lou, it can't be happy to talk about the start again but they've all dealt with it so well, Lou is one of them people that will always make time for you, if I ever seem upset on Facebook I'll have a comment or inbox from her with advice, or asking how I am or just making me smile. So thank you Lou, for all that you do!
Check me out, rhyming ;)
Right, next I chatted with my friend Harry (my little buddha) We didn't do a proper question and answers thing he just sorted of re-answered my questions from Lou! Which was actually perfect because you can see the same things from the different views!
1. First thoughts
Harry: "Did I hear that right?
Basically a blur after the word 'Leukaemia' for a good few hours.
When I finally realised, just more a case of how I can best get on with it, didn't even cross my mind to dwell / get down about it."
2 Family Life
Harry: "Brought everyone a lot closer. Only really spoke to very close family members before, suddenly everyone pops up with nice messages wishing you the best, really helps. Made me really appreciate family for the first time in my life, rather than taking it for granted"
3 From my perspective...
Harry: "The most important thing for me was that I needed other people to help me with the most simple of things. Everyone wanted to come see me at the same time, when I was only allowed 2/3 visitors at a time, so people to help with organisation of that. I needed people to understand although I was pretty relaxed and ok about things most of the time I wasn't always 100% and I would have bad days. Also needed people (mainly mum and dad) to keep track of days, progress, dates, times of next treatments. Just really small things that all are hard to get your head around and remember when your on intensive chemo."
4 Christmas
Harry: "Yeah Christmas was shit for a year, being honest. I had excruciating mouth ulcers so could hardly eat ( the thing I look forward to most about christmas) I had no energy, so slept most of the day, and I was only let out for the afternoon (12-7). Again though in a weird way, makes you really appreciate life/Christmas since."
5 General Advice
Harry: "Its hard to advise on anything like this, everyone is different and deals with things in different ways. I have always tried to find the best of a bad situation, I make light of the bad times and just get on with it, for me thats made everything a lot easier. I can understand that for some people this is almost impossible to do, however its the way I dealt with it and would recommend it to anyone else if possible. At the end of the day, the truth is you cant change anything, why not tackle it head on and enjoy life where you can along the way."
The fact that Harry did that for me WHILST IN HOSPITAL makes me love him so much more, he is an amazing admirable person (sorry just stole your word there as I don't think I've ever used the word admirable before but I love it now) I agree with what he said, 'you can't change anything' so why not embrace the situation?
It feels amazing to get people I know involved, I love it, it's making me get so much closer with people!
Here is some information about ALL which is the type of Leukaemia that James and Harry have:
Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia
Symptoms:
- Easily Bruised Skin
- Pale Skin
- Unusual and Frequent Bleeding eg bleeding gums or nose
- Feeling tired and breathless
- Having repeated infections over short amount of time
- High Temperature of 38C or above
- Night sweats
- Bone and Joint pain
- Swollen lymph nodes (glands)
- Abdominal Pain
- Unexplained weight loss
- A purple skin rash
Diagnosis:
- Bone Marrow Biopsy
"To confirm a diagnosis of acute leukaemia, the haematologist will take a small sample of your bone marrow to examine under a microscope.
The haematologist will use a local anaesthetic to numb the skin over a bone – usually the hip bone – and then use a needle to remove a sample of bone marrow. You may experience some pain once the anaesthetic wears off and some bruising and discomfort for a few days afterwards. The procedure takes around 15 minutes to complete and you shouldn't have to stay in hospital overnight.
The bone marrow will be checked for cancerous cells and – if found – the type of acute leaukaemia will be determined at the same time."
A number of other tests including- CT scans, Chest X-Rays, Lymph node biosies and plenty of blood tests!
Here is a link to an NHS webpage if you would like a little read-
Bloody hell, if you've read down to here, you're a trooper, thank you SO much.
Please share this blog, I'd be so so happy if you did because do you know what, we might save a life! It's a massive thing to say but we really could, what if someone if having these symptoms but hasn't acknowledged them as a problem?
Thank you everyone for your support,
Lots of Love to you all,
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