Força Aurelia

 It’s been a busy week! On Monday afternoon we left the hospital after 34 days of being inpatient! Yay! We also moved from a city apartment to a house closer to hospital so everyone is enjoying having some space and not being right in the city, which is clogged with tourists in August as all of Europe takes a holiday. Aurelia had her bone marrow sample yesterday and we are thrilled that there was no evidence of disease. This result was expected based on her blood work, but it’s great to have the confirmation.  This great news does not change the course of treatment. Most kids with ALL are cancer free after 30 days and the next 1.5 years will be spent keeping the cancer from returning. Today we are back at the hospital to begin the next round of treatment, but we are outpatient now so we don’t have to spend the night.  Eston and Aurelia were finally reunited on Monday. Due to covid and oncology restrictions she could not have visitors at the hospital, so it was super emoti...

 Not much new to report as the hospital days are pretty standard. Aurelia continues to be feeling strong most days and is looking forward to moving to outpatient in a week or so (if everything goes well). She is handling the chemotherapy really well and we all feel a definite sense of positive light. A lot of friends have asked about fund raising and such and thankfully here in Europe we have socialized medicine so there isn’t a need to raise money to pay hospital costs. However, if you feel inclined we welcome you to donate to a leukemia or cancer charity to help those families in need. Our dear friends in Australia are raising money in Aurelia’s honor for an amazing charity so I wanted to share it here: https://fundraise.campquality.org.au/fundraisers/ForcaAurelia?fbclid=IwAR0vf7KE-dWBQTR_osz6yQszVXx_9JctifVObO8OBXEw2F8MwLm_OhsfPPA The steroids she is on cause weight gain and inflammation, so she is not thrilled with those changes but she won’t be on that medication for long and ...

I arrived at the hospital a few hours ago (aurelia is having her snack and watching master chef) and we have great news from the oncology team. When Aurelia was first diagnosed her sample cells were 92% cancer and now that number is 1%. There is a long road of treatment ahead (approximately two years), but these numbers give everyone a huge boost and so much hope. Aurelia is not the least bit surprised as “she knew she was killing the cancer.” So there you have it. Aurelia is working really hard with the physio to start walking again. She does several sessions a day and we are trying to get her inflamed nerves back to where they need to be so she can start walking. Now that her blood is healing itself, we hope her bones and nerves will follow. A few people have asked me about sending cards or postcards. Aurelia loves getting postcards! The best place to send them is to Federal, our restaurant in Girona.  Aurelia Sutherland Federal Café Girona C/Forca, 9 Girona 17004 Spain 

 I met with the oncology team yesterday and the results from Aurelia’s day 15 tests are really encouraging—-her numbers  are moving in the right direction. This gives us so much hope and positivity.  The chemo in this current phase makes Aurelia really hungry, so we make sure she has smaller meals throughout the day. We have a small fridge in the room to store food and that’s helpful.  Weekends are a bit more calm since we don’t have so many visits from hospital staff. Aurelia did a seated yoga video and then shared her favorite meditation song with me. We played Monopoly and did a few art projects. She likes to listen to audio books while she does art.  Rory will be here in a couple hours to switch places with me. I usually walk back to the apartment as it’s only 4km through a nice neighborhood. Sleeping in the hospital is not optimal since the nurses come in every couple of hours to do vitals, etc.  Everyone keeps asking how we are and it is strange how q...

 Last night one of our doctors came in and told me they were moving up Aurelia’s lumbar sample and though he was unsure of the exact time, he was trying to get us scheduled for the morning. Aurelia and I were slightly surprised when the hospital orderly showed up at 8am…we were both asleep! I threw on some clothes and they put her on a gurney and took us downstairs to the operating rooms. I was allowed to accompany Aurelia and her medical team to the operating room and when they opened the doors they had Elton John blasting from every television in the large room. She was so excited that they remembered her love for Elton John! Kids can choose music or something to watch (last week she requested an Everest documentary) and something tells me Aurelia’s requests are a bit different than most.  The hospital has an app that informs us when she is done and in recovery so I’m just in the waiting room. Rory is currently at a meeting for parents about hygiene protocol once kids are ou...

Aurelia is handling chemotherapy really well. She has not experienced any side effects thus far, so we will wait and see how things progress for her. Her port area is still a little sore from surgery, but things improve each day. During the week the days are quite busy with daily visits from doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, psychologists, social workers, alternative healing doctors, nutritionists, etc. It is a whirlwind of information and we have a notebook to write important things as Rory and I switch places at the hospital every 24 hours. Covid/oncology restrictions prevent us from being here at the same time and prohibit visitors. The weekends are more relaxed as it is just the doctors and nurses. We do yoga videos for cancer patients, call friends and family for a chat, play cards and board games, listen to books, and do art projects. By the late afternoon her energy fades a bit so we often watch a movie before dinner and sleep. We have all moved to a large flat about 1...

Aurelia has been receiving her medicine via IV since last week, but yesterday they put in her chemo port. She was put to sleep for this surgery and she did really well, but she is sore and tired today. She is receiving the anti-nausea medicine right now which may help her avoid vomiting and such when the chemo meds get stronger. She will also have another blood transfusion today to give her a little boost.  The first few days Aurelia had a fair amount of energy and we did lots of art projects, played board games, read books, played cards, called lots of family and friends, and made things with Lego. Her energy levels have definitely changed and the past few days she has been listening to her audio books, listening to me read aloud and watching movies. Of course, she is not too tired to remind the nurses of what medicine she is meant to have and when (she listens and remembers EVERYTHING the doctors say). Our family (and my mom who arrived last week from California) have moved to a ...