Ellen is off the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit. She is still having temperatures and vomiting but no longer needs oxygen. We are still waiting for her bone marrow to start working and her blood counts to improve. This is likely to take another week to ten days. Only then do we think that her temperatures will improve. She is also at risk of picking up further infections during this period so we are really hoping that things remain stable.
Two days ago Ellen vomited fresh blood so yesterday she had a general anaesthetic and an endoscopy to try and indentify the source of bleeding. The bleed had come from her small bowel due to the damage done by her recent courses of chemotherapy. This is good news as things should heal on their own. However, the endoscopy also confirmed that Ellen has some damage to her liver. We are unsure what has caused this, it is most likely due to all the chemotherapy she has previously had. As a bone marrow transplant will involve treatment that may further damage her liver we now need to determine the cause and extent of the damage. This will involve taking a sample of Ellen's liver tissue and looking at it under a microscope. As Ellen is at such risk of bleeding this procedure will have to been done by passing instruments down her jugular vein. They are unable to do this at Addenbrookes so this will be done at King's Hospital in London. This will hopefully be done next week and will involve a trip in an ambulance and an over night stay. We are all terribly anxious that the liver is damaged to such an extent that Ellen will no longer be fit enough to have a bone marrow transplant and will thus have incurable disease and no chance of long term survival. After all she has been through this will be a very difficult reality to face. So please please keep your fingers crossed for our brave little girl.
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