After an eventful week, Eloise has now been discharged from St George’s PICU and has been transferred back to the Royal Marsden for further recovery from her high dose chemotherapy.
Thank you to everyone for your prayers, love and messages. We are genuinely humbled and immensely grateful for all the love and support, including all the wonderful staff at both hospitals.
Following the high dose chemotherapy and her stem cell transplant on Thursday (the last blog update) Eloise has had a bumpy few days.
The stem cell transplant went very smoothly and Eloise initially was doing well. However, she then started to be consistently sick, which prevented her from receiving any food via her NG tube.
After quite a few discussions it was decided that Eloise should have an NJ tube (tube from her nose to her intestine) fitted before being discharged to the Marsden.
NJ tubes are not straightforward to fit and involve a little bit of guess work and then a (portable) x-ray to see if they are fitted properly. Unfortunately for Eloise this process took a few days and 6 attempts to get right, which slightly delayed Eloise’s return to the Marsden.
Eloise was transferred back to the Marsden this afternoon and she immediately picked up when she returned back to ‘her’ room. Unexpectedly and encouragingly she managed to eat some food normally this afternoon, which was wonderful to see.
Eloise will continue to stay at the Marsden as we wait for her blood counts to first go down further, and then recover, before we go to Manchester for the proton beam therapy. We are told to expect her to be particularly poorly for the next 1-2 weeks as the side effects of the high dose chemotherapy kick in.
How do we feel?
There is so much we could say here. It’s been one of the most intense weeks of the journey so far. So many very scary/worrying moments that we’ve had to just ‘ride’. We are very grateful that we have a God that is right there with us in all of these moments and is continuously with Eloise.
We feel pretty knackered (all three of us) but very grateful. We are very grateful for all the amazing staff across the NHS working so hard to investigate possible causes of the seizure (it was likely it was the chemo), administer her stem cell collection in a different hospital than planned and grateful that the seizure doesn’t appear to have any lasting impact on Eloise.
It has been a fairly intense week and we are very glad to be back at the Marsden and have put all our efforts into making sure Eloise recovers well and as soon as she can.
Special thanks to both our Mum’s who stepped in again to look after Anna and allowed both of us to be with Eloise in intensive care.
For those that pray:
- Prayers of thanks that Eloise is no longer requiring acute care and has come out the other side of a severe seizure with no obvious negative side effects.
- Prayers that Eloise would stop being sick, retain her feed and start to regain her strength and weight (Eloise didn’t eat/have feed for a week until last night).
- Prayers for energy for us.
- Prayers for some quality time with Anna this week, who has also had an unsettling week.
Eloise Zoe 
Bless you we continue to hold you all in our prayers xxx
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So upsetting to read the difficult week that you have all had to endure, but so pleased Eloise has once more shown what a little star she is! Praying this week will be much better and that she will start gaining week. Hang in there! Xx
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Thank you for the update , praise the Lord that Eloise is back at the Marsden and picking up a bit at a time . Praying as you ask , for complete healing and for Anna . May you feel the love of God . Love Penny x
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We so appreciate your regular updates. You all are never far from my thoughts. I pray that this week will have times of respite for you all and that you will be able to spend quality time with Ana.
Love and hugs to you atd your extended family.
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What great news to hear that Eloise is much better and eating!!! Praying for continued strength for her and no side effects to any of meds; that y’all are able to get divine infilling of revitalising energy & that Anna doesn’t feel left out but gets filled with love from the Nanny’s & Pops.
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Mel and Pete, full of concern for you and of course Eloise. Her picture in my kitchen reminds me daily. Shared your story with my family and small group and they pray too. Little girl arise!
Colin xxx
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Thank you for your regularly updates to inform our prayers. Thankful to God for so many answers to prayer but praying especially this week for strength to keep going for all of you. I just wanted you to know that here in Doncaster we are praying regularly for you all in our home group and another small weekly prayer group I’m involved in. Our hearts go out to you.
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Love to you all. We are keeping you all very much in our prayers and really appreciate the news updates on Eloise and you all. It really helps us to know what to pray for. May our Lord Bless you all and give you peace as you face these very difficult times.
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Praying that Eloise overcomes the side effects of the high dose chemo and that she regains strength in the next week or so. Praying also for Pete, Mel, Anna and the extended family. With much love to all.
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Praying each day for you my friends. Particularly that you would be constantly refilled with supernatural energy. What an amazing NHS we have, and what an incredible fighter Eloise is. Just sending you so much love x
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Hello Peter and family, thanks for telling me about your blog. Its staggering what you have all been through and how you have faced up to such adversity with such strength. Great to see Eloise playing with the farm animals today. Hope she didn’t mind Mollie muscling in on them too much 🙂 . Thanks so much for the chat; hope the counts keep going the right way, the Proton treatment is a go ASAP and Eloise gets to see her big sister soon!
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