“She’s just started round 4 of treatment. Yesterday, she had surgery and chemotherapy administered through her lumbar spine into her brain. Today, she’s back on steroids and starting a new chemo drug she’s never had before called Doxorubicin. This one comes with some tough side effects — it can cause red tears, nausea, diarrhoea, and hair loss, including her eyebrows and eyelashes.

One of the more serious side effects is potential future heart problems. Even more concerning is that it, along with many of her previous treatments, can increase the risk of secondary cancers. I only found this out today, and it’s been quite a shock.

She’s looking a bit pale today, so they’re repeating her blood tests just to be safe, even though yesterday’s results were perfectly fine. She’s also very sleepy. The steroids seem to be kicking in already — she’s currently craving baked beans, and it’s only her first dose this morning! Bless her heart, she’s still doing fantastically and fighting as hard as ever.

Her last bone marrow results came back negative for leukemia, which is absolutely amazing. We’re hopeful it continues that way. But even with the positive news, it’s hard to fully take it in — she still has cancer, and that’s a tough reality. I’m just taking it one day at a time and trying to hold on to the positives.

Before her surgery yesterday, she had some messy playtime, and today she’s been painting and playing pretend kitchens — she even made me a beautiful cup of tea. I’ll send some photos of both soon.

They also tried a different method of putting her to sleep this time. Normally, they use her port and gripper, but lately it’s been really difficult to access. Sometimes it takes up to seven attempts in one sitting, which causes her a lot of trauma, anxiety, and stress. So this time, they used a mask to put her to sleep first before accessing it.

I’m pushing to have the port replaced with a Hickman line, which is another way to give her medications without constantly using cannulas. Ironically, the port was meant to avoid that, but since it was fitted, we’ve had non-stop issues. She’s still had to have cannulas many times, which brings a lot of tears.

Now, just walking into the ward or Dr. Gray’s causes her to cry and scream in fear. She’s terrified they’ll take her blood or access her port. It’s heartbreaking to watch my baby go through panic attacks like this — and she’s only 2 years old.

But through it all, she’s a total superstar and braver than I can describe. She gets through it every single time. “

– Eilidh Hendry (Lotus-Maeve’s Mother) – 03/07/25