Thank goodness for breadsticks

Oakley went to my parents' for the day yesterday . I went to collect him and the conversation went like this.

O: "Mummy, I have two 'portant things to tell you."
H: "Oh, two important things. What are they?"
O: "Well, the bad news is - Daddy's poorly."
H: (Pause). "Yes." (My heart lurching to think of what is going through his little brain.)
O: "And the good news is - I had two breadsticks in the car"

Life according to a 3 year old, eh? This is the first confirmation we have had that he is aware of Quent's illness. He has mentioned Quent being poorly before, once, but only while playing on a toy phone, so we couldn't be sure it wasn't just a coincidence. Nothing had been mentioned while he was at my parents', so he must have been dwelling on it while he was away.

I can't stop thinking about it - and everything ahead of this gorgeous, innocent little boy. Please keep the prayers coming for Quent. We need all the spontaneous regression we can muster. (Oh, and, in times of trouble, always remember the healing power of breadsticks).

Have I got news for you

It’s the spot the difference round and the four celebrities this week are :

Andy Spurr – Oxbridge student
Helen Langley – Masseuse
Clare McCaffrey – Violinist
Helen Webb – Housewife

You’ve guessed it. I am the odd one out because all the others are raising money for Cancer Research UK in Quent’s name. Whereas I am getting Quent to help me raise money for a totally different cause (PushyMums walk for the African AIDS orphans). The least I can do is help them with fundraising.

Helen and Clare are doing Race for Life in Battersea Park in May. Helen has already set up a fundraising webpage - www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/helenlangley. If any of you (women only) want to Race For Life yourselves, see http://www.raceforlife.org/.

Andy, a Batchworth Scout, is canoeing 125 miles (!) from Devizes to Westminster over the Easter weekend. I can’t imagine anyone else will want to (be fit enough to) join in that one, but you might like to see their fundraising page. http://www.justgiving.com/dwcancerresearch

Andy, Clare and Helen are all raising money for Cancer Research UK, the world’s leading independent organisation dedicated to cancer research. If you would like to sponsor their efforts for Quent, just click on the links above (or give me a cheque payable to Cancer Research UK, if you don’t want to do it online).

Thanks very, VERY much – and good luck - to Clare, Helen and Andy from Quentin, Oakley and myself…



… And for those of you wondering what PushyMums is, see http://www.pushymums.org/. Any child losing a parent is a tragedy - and tragedy has already struck 13 million times in Africa. For every single child in Britain, there is an AIDS orphan in Africa. Whole families, schools, villages with no parents. For the last 3 years, we have been organising pram walks around Mother's Day to raise awareness of and money for those without mothers themselves. This year, we have gone into partnership with Save the Children. They plan to take the concept nationwide over the next few years, including media partners, corporate sponsors and hopefully millions of pounds raised. Quentin is our resident clown, seen here with Marion in 2005

The good, the bad and the ugly

The radiologists were right in spotting something they did not like on the x-ray. One of the spots has grown quite a lot - to 2cm.

However, there was some good news too, which made the whole thing "fascinating" according to Dr Savage. Some of the pulminory nodules appear to have reduced in size - what they call spontaneous regression. Obviously this would be great news if it had been all of them. Still, it shows Quent's body is trying to fight the spots (with some success) and that has to be encouraging, even if it is unlikely to last. Apparently the radiologist who wrote up the CT scan concluded that Quent had shown a "mixed response to treatment". This is quite concerning for other renal cell carcinoma patients, who may not be as keen on a course of ice diving.

I was very excited by this news - we cling to anything that can give us hope and "spontaneous regression" is a sunny sounding phrase. For once Quent is more cautious. Partly because he points out that it's only some spots and that, overall, we are still approaching a course of nasty treatment. And partly, I suspect, because he has been feeling more tired recently at the end of a day's work.

In spite of the larger spots, Dr Savage is in no rush to do anything, treatment-wise. He reminds us that Quent is feeling relatively well at the moment and that all the drugs (even the new ones) have lots of side effects that make you feel quite rotten.

So we don't have to go back until after Easter.

Waiting

Quent had the CT scan today and our appointment with Dr Savage (for the results) is tomorrow.

We have had so many good luck wishes, we thought we should let you all know that the real scary day is tomorrow not today... so please keep those fingers crossed!

Ice diving and other fun

The reason for Quent’s recent diving question was revealed on our skiing trip when he decided to go ice diving. I asked the instructors if it was dangerous and they said the only problem was breathlessness. I spent an anxious 15 minutes’ waiting for Quent and his poor, spotty lungs to reappear. Of course, he re-emerged without a care in the world, wondering what I had been worrying about.

We had a great trip, in spite of the blizzard-like conditions. Oakley’s highlight was being hurled into deep snow, though he also stuck at his skiing lessons. We went skidooing and sledging, built a snow hole (this was more for Quent’s enjoyment than Oakley’s, of course) and met some really interesting people. Here are a few pictures of the boys having fun.