December 9, 2021

 We have been in Barcelona for a little over a week. Aurelia started the delayed intensification phase and it’s been a little tougher than previous months. Her energy has waned a bit and she experiences neutropathic pain. She has days where everything seems normal and we do schoolwork, ride bikes along the beach and play on the sand. There are other days where she struggles to do much of anything and it’s hard to see that as a parent. We take each day as it comes and Aurelia is doing her very best.

Aurelia really wants to go home, especially for Christmas, but we have to be within 30 minutes of the hospital during this phase due to the high risk of infection. It stinks to be away from home at Christmas but we are doing our best and feel grateful for the chance to be right on the beach for these weeks. 

I spend the days helping her with school work and washing and cleaning every surface and making all of her food. Aurelia’s appetite has been up and down, which frustrates her as she loves food and cooking. She has been going through the cookbooks we have here to pick out things that sound good and healthy. We have also snuck in some good cheese and olives and jamón as those are her favorites.

Aurelia has been watching more TV than she has in her entire life and it’s quite hilarious when she asks questions about “life in the USA.” Our kids are super Catalan and have zero attachment to the USA (me) or Australia (Rory). They have very few cultural references to these countries, which is expected since they’ve never lived in those countries. All they know is life here and the USA TV programs bring up some funny and interesting questions (she watches a lot of HGTV shows on YouTube). 


Treatment day. We go to the hospital del día, the day clinic. It’s just for kids getting cancer treatment. We first have her blood test, then we have to wait an hour or so for the doctors to get the results and call us back. We meet with her doctors and they check her over and go over the blood test. We then go back and wait to get called to a bed to start the actual chemo. It makes for a long day, but this hospital is top notch and we are grateful.
On good days we get Aurelia out on her bike for some exploring and exercise. There is a great bike path system here on the coast and she loves being out.
I took the kids to a Christmas light show last week. Big mistake as Aurelia was not having a good day, but I had to book the tickets weeks ahead. Lesson learned: do not make plans. Just take it day by day. The light show was amazing, though.
This beach is right in front of our house. In California and Australia people live year-round in beach communities, but here it is largely just summer homes. Very few people live in the coastal towns/villages so during the week it’s very quiet here.

Some days are for resting and napping and our dog Laia is happy to help.

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