My Treatment

• Biopsy, Bone Marrow and insertion of central line – Boxing Day 2006

Bethany went for her first General anesthetic; they took a biopsy of the tumour and also checked her bone marrow. She had a central line (Hickman line) fitted so they could administer her drugs throughout treatment without having to keep inserting needles.

• Rapid Cojec Chemotherapy – January to March 2007

This involved various chemotherapy drugs being administered every 10 days for a period of 2 to 3 days, this was all administered at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton. During the periods when she wasn’t receiving chemotherapy drugs we spent most of our time in our local Hospital, The Royal Surrey Hospital in Guildford due to infections and temperatures.

• Surgery – May 2007

Surgery was done at St Georges Hospital in Tooting; the surgery lasted 8 hours, but was very successful, the Surgeon managed to remove the entire tumour. The tumour measured 15cm x10cm (Pretty large for a 2 year old). We spent one and a half weeks there, and two of those days were in intensive care. She also contracted the rotavirus (stomach flu) while there, so was pretty ill. Her surgery recovery was amazing; she was up walking about within 48 hours.

• High Dose Chemotherapy – May to June 2007

This was the hardest part of all, it was very intensive and we spent 5 weeks in hospital, mainly the Marsden.

Bethany received very high doses of chemotherapy over a 4 day period, and then the rest of the time was waiting for her recovery, we spent 10 days in intensive care at St Georges as she went into septic shock due to her hickman lines becoming infected.

• Radiotherapy - 3 weeks (July to August 2007)

This involved travelling to the Marsden every day for 3 weeks. She went under a general anesthetic everyday for radiotherapy and it lasted approximately 20 mins. Bethany was obviously very apprehensive to start off, but as the days went by she became very confident, and used to get excited about having her magic milk (General anesthetic).

• Oral Immunotherapy – 6 months (Sept 2007 to February 2008)

This treatment involves giving her oral drugs 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off. They are a very effective part of the treatment as they find immature neuroblastoma cells that may be roaming around Bethany’s body and turn them into mature cells which cannot create a tumour. She also dealt with this treatment very well.

The main side effects are very dry skin, but we managed to keep that under some sort of control, by using Vitamin C Oil which can be purchased from Holland and Barrett, we put it on day and night, it really helped. There are 2 types one which is 35000 unit which is like an oil and one 75000 unit which is like a vaseline consistency very hard to rub in, but does help on the worst patches like the face.

..........The Bethany May Charities Fund

''Aiming to provide financial assistance to charities established for children suffering from Neuroblastoma and to promote research into its treatment & cure''