Home - At last!

We are home and our bags have also finally arrived, they missed the connection in Chicago. The American Airlines flight from Jacksonville was delayed in leaving which meant that we would miss our connection in Chicago. Before leaving JAX we were told we had been transferred to a British Airways that left an hour later. The flight from JAX was delayed even further and by the time we landed in Chicago the next plane was already boarding. We had arranged for 'Special Assistance' which meant we had a man and a wheelchair waiting for us when we got of the plane. He was invaluable. He used the wheelchair to carry some of our hand luggage, whilst I had Millie in the pram, and he led us on a mad dash across the airport. He even got us through security in 10 minutes flat. When we got to the gate it was last boarding and they were doing the last call for us by name! We only just made it and without that man we would never have done so and would have spent the night there. So thank you whoever you are!

We arrived in Heathrow at half 9 on Saturday morning to discover that our bags hadn't made it. I discovered later that the flight we were transferred from arrived almost an hour later, despite having been due to leave an hour before. So maybe we were lucky. Thank you to the BA staff who looked after us during the flight and dealt with our missing bags. Three of the four bags were found pretty quickly and looking at the bag tag numbers online I realised that the missing one would have been part of the sequence except that a digit was different. I sent a message to BA querying it and within hours had a reply saying the fourth bag had been found. I almost replied to thank them for being an intelligent human being and actually thinking about it.

It is very good to be home. Our eldest was delighted to see us and we are so grateful to see that she seems to have grown up a bit but is otherwise no different (except for the 3 cm she has added to her legs!). Millie absolutely adores her and wants to play with her all the time. She spends a lot of her time telling our eldest what to do! We seem to have bred another confident leader with a lot of imagination! Our eldest, bless her, is taking it all in her stride and is, so far, not objecting much to being bossed about by her little sister. They can play beautifully together, it is a joy to watch. Millie is doing so well physically. She is a different child and it is very obvious now that we are back. She has also grown about 3cm in height and nothing is safe from her enquiring hands and ability to climb! Her head is no longer red already and I have gone back to using the Dream Cream. It feels almost normal already with very little dryness. Her ear has also healed. Ears are particularly vulnerable to the effects of radiotherapy and Millie's left ear got very sore and bled a few times over the last weekend and at the end of her treatment. However, the scab fell off overnight and it looks amazingly normal now.

We have been keeping a low profile for the last couple of days - we aren't sure we are capable of being in public and talking to people yet. We are exhausted and suffering with culture shock. I think we are so tired that jet lag doesn't seem to be a problem. Millie seems to be having a problem adjusting to her small toddler bed. The last 2 nights she has woken up at abot 11pm, having crashed at about 7pm. She has then got upset that she is not in her other bed and has gradually woken up to the point where she has been sat in bed playing with her toys. It has been 3am before she has settled again. I have let her sleep a little longer in the morning but we need to keep the 'normal' routine as much as possible. It helps to have another child around that hasn't been through it all. She is proving a good incentive for us to keep to the routine. Without her and no other structure we would be all over the place I'm sure.

I keep thinking about all the people we met in Jacksonville. Our thoughts and hearts are with those still going through proton. And we will always be grateful to those who supported us through the whole process. We feel a bit lost without you.

I must write about one very important event that occurred before we left. We had agreed to tell a bit of our story at the weekly Proton Patient lunch on our last wednesday. We decided early on that we wanted to give something back to UFPTI and this felt like the right thing. One of the many things that Kim wanted to do was get some cuddly gators with access lines to give to other children going through proton and needing anaesthetic. The chemo duck that she gave to Millie was invaluable. The guys in charge of the lunch decided to use the event (and us) to try to raise some money to get 250 gators at a cost of $5000. We almost hit a problem when Millie's treatment was cancelled on the Monday and she needed the extra day on Wednesday. Her treatment time was initially set for late in the morning which would mean we couldn't take her to the lunch. However, Kim asked the pediatric team if we could be moved earlier so that we could still attend the lunch - and the team agreed. We were in for half 8 and made it to the lunch. It was pretty rushed as Millie had her leaving party and we had to say goodbye to everyone as well as let her eat her 3 yogurts and not rush her!

I had written a summary of our story which had ben printed out and handed to everyone. My husband actually did the speaking. He had the idea of getting Millie a large balloon so that he could make a joke about feeling sorry for the prostate patients. He made a few jokes and I had loads of comments afterwards about how funny he was - that's why I married him! We had so many people offer us there support. Thank you to you all for your prayers and thoughts.

A few hours later I was rung by Dominic to be told that he had just received a cheque from a single donor for the full $5000! On top of that they had received almost $800 in donations just at the lunch. They were not expecting to be able to order the gators for another few months. We met the donors at UFPTI the next day.

Gradi and Marti Dunn - a BIG thank you for your generosity. You will help 250 young children get through their treatment with a smile on their faces.

The UFPTI gators will be called Emile and Emily (in honour of Millie!) and will wear their own "Got Proton?" t-shirts.

We can't believe that a few minutes telling our story has had such a huge impact. We gave something back! But could not have done it without the genorosity of the other proton patients. If you also wish to help contact Dominic Brodeur at UFPTI. I will put more details on the the Donations page soon. Thank you!