Update 23/04/09

From Andi:


Well everyone Tim has survived his power house of chemo...only
just....He currently feels like complete crap. He is out of hospital,
but only for a few days before being admitted again, where he will be
nursed through his neutropenic state. I suppose we wonder why he is
discharged at all, as he is completely bed bound....but home certainly
is better to be in than that horrendous ward 6A. If it wasn't for
Robbie, Tim's most recent stay would have been a living nightmare ( oh
...what...this isn't a dream....no, surely it is.....). It was so
nice for Tim to have someone young, positive, optimistic and who knows
exactly how he is feeling, right across from him to talk to. Tim and
Robbie should be in again together (both in neutropenic state) however
they will most likely be isolated. Unfortunately, Josh and I have
caught colds, so Tim has moved to his parents to steer clear of our
lurgy germs. The doctors have told Tim to come with a suitcase on
Friday when he has his blood tests, as they expect he will have to be
admitted. The boys and I miss Tim soooooo much.

The 'wall of courage' has again grown. The latest additions include
signed photographs with personal messages from, Kevin Rudd, Kate
Cebrano, John Williamson, Morgan Freeman, Peter Garratt, Pete and Myf,
'Straunie' and Eddie Mcguire. Tim also received a lovely 2 page ,
hand written letter from Tim Watson. Tim was so thrilled to receive
these, especially the letter from his childhood idol Tim Watson. Tim
was also able to ring him to thank him for his kind and encouraging
words . The letter and phone call all happened while he was in
hospital and really made his day.....he was absolutely blown away!

Unfortunately Tim was in hospital for Joshua's induction into the
world of AFL. Joshua just loved his first Auskick session and luckily
we filmed it all and took plenty of snaps. We definately have a
budding bomber on our hands. (much to Tim's delight......how much
better could it get? Both his son's love the Bombers, AC/DC and
fishing!!)

Bye for now

Love Andi

Update 15/04/09

From Andi:

Hope everyone had a great Easter break!! We all did!!!

Last week Tim had an update from Dr. Duggan, the head of Oncology at
the Austin. He is very pleased with Tim's progress as he is
responding very well to the treatment as he had hoped. His latest
bone marrow biopsy has come back 'all good' again which is fabulous.
The doctors have decided to delay Tim's radiation to the cranium for
another 4 weeks or so, as he was admitted today for his intensive
chemotherapy as an in patient. This entails chemotherapy every twelve
hours for 5 days, each infusion 3 hours in length. He is then
discharged until his neutropenic state hits, then he is hospitalised
again, given a strong course of antibiotics and nursed back to better
health. This is usually one week. He has been told that he will
become very ill, he will have fevers and temperatures etc...It is
unpleasant, but a necessary component of his treatment protocol.

Tim has been dreading this phase, as he now knows how it feels to have
chemo daily. This is more than double the dosage...so as you can
imagine he is anxious to see how his body will hold up. I have been
anxious but strangely excited for this phase. I have been thinking of
this as the rebirth of Tim. It will knock him for 6, but I know that
he will come through and hopefully that will be without any
microscopic nasty cells anywhere. Luckily for Tim, a friend he made
in Day Onc who is suffering Leukemia has been admitted in the bed
across from him. Rob has been through all this before and ironically
is a nurse at the Austin. He is a wealth of knowledge and one of the
few male patients in ward 6A under the age of 65. Between Rob, the
nurses ( who Tim is practically best friends with now !!!) his laptop
and newly found, very basic computer skills ( he can now google!!!)
the stay shouldn't be as monotonous as previously thought.

Love to you all,

Andi

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From the Admin:

Finally got our act together and have added a "Donate" button to the top left of the blog. This is linked to the bank account mentioned last post, and should hopefully make contributing to the Hamilton fund easier for those of us who spend way too much time online. If there are any problems encountered, email thehamiltonfamilyblog@gmail.com.

Cheers!

Update 4/4/09

From Andi:

Hello everyone,

The Hamilton Family has had a great couple of weeks. This is all due
to Tim feeling so much better. The side effects from radiation
haven't been as debilitating as chemo, so Tim has been able to enjoy
some special family time, the most significant being Joshua's 5th
birthday. We had a small party for him with some kinder buddies,
where we had wild action zoo come to the home to give an 'Insect - a -
mania & mini beasts' show. Josh and Tim just loved it, as they share
a massive fascination of spiders, insects and bugs etc......(See
photos below) In the evening we celebrated with family, which was so
lovely to have everyone together. With a rest in between parties and
having radiation at the crack of dawn, Tim made it through the whole
day and we both had a smile on our face from start to end!

So, Tim has stood up to 3 weeks of radiotherapy to the chest extremely
well. Head aches and nausea have subsided and he is now just dealing
with a sore chest and throat and some heartburn and fatigue.
Apparently, the radiation continues to kill his cells up to 3 weeks
after the treatment ceases....so we will see how he goes. From
Tuesday 7th of April, Tim will be having a short break from treatment,
before recommencing with radiotherapy daily for 2 weeks to his brain.

We wish you all a great Easter break.

With love from,

Andi, Tim, Josh & Ben








From the Admin:

Apologies for the delay in posting this update - I've been away for the last week. If only I could teach Hammo to post these updates himself......

Things have been happening since last post. A bank account has been set up for those of us who would like to contribute financially to help the Hamiltons - the details are:

Enrico Peter Belli in Trust for Hamilton Charitable Fund
ANZ BSB 013-423, Account No 549041424

Once I'm a bit more organised (sometime this week) I'll set up a paypal link to this account and post it on the blog to make donations easier for everyone.

Cheers!