Those Blasted Cells

We are coming up to the first anniversary of Caroline’s diagnosis with acute myeloid leukaemia. I remember that time like it was yesterday. This is an email Caroline sent me while I was at work on October 24. “A very nice doctor called Michele Damon (sic) called me and said I have to have a bone…

The Funeral Service of my darling Caroline will be conducted entirely in the Heysen Chapel, Centennial Park Cemetery, 760 Goodwood Road. Pasadena,SA, on Monday July 7, 2014 at 11.am. In lieu of floral tributes, a donation in memory of Caroline to the Leukemia Foundation would be appreciated and may be made at the time of…

I once wrote to a friend that 22 years ago, Caroline Roessler stole my heart and gave it back to me over time, bit by bit, each piece making me little stronger than when she took it. Today, my heart has been smashed apart, and I wonder how It will ever be put right. Rest…

It’s 8.15 pm. I’m writing this from Caroline’s hospice room which is part of Modbury hospital. The hospice is on level four, and it has views looking out to a big Westfield shopping centre, in case anyone was wondering. The process of Caroline being admitted into the palliative care ward happened much quicker than either…

We had a call from the registrar, Michelle, last night. It wasn’t the usual “”we need to change you medications call” or “you need to go and have a transfusion call”. It was a call to tell us that based on Caroline’s blood results, and all of the physical symptoms she is experiencing, my darling…

I’m writing this from the emergency department of the Royal Adelaide Hoapital. Caroline was feeling particularly unwell this morning and despite not having a temperature she wanted to be admitted. She is currently off having a chest X-ray and ward C6 are holding a bed for her. Hopefully it won’t be too long before we…

Caroline is coming home from hospital today, complete with her own supply of oxygen and carrying an extra six kilos in weight because of her enlarged spleen and a build up fluids in her body. Her abdomen is swollen and often tight to the touch, and she said today she no longer has ankles, just…

So, when we last left Caroline on Wednesday, she had been admitted to C6 with a temperature that she’d had that day, and also severe abdominal pain from her enlarged spleen. She spiked a temperature a few more times, and after a chest x-ray and CT Scan it’s been discovered she has a small infection…

So, after I posted the last blog I did go and lie next to Caroline in bed. After a while I noticed that she felt a bit hot so I took her temp. 38.4. We monitored it for 40 minutes and it hovered slightly over 38. The danger sign that infection might be setting in.…

Caroline came home early yesterday evening after a night at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. She was given a bag of platelets and four bags of blood during that time, but it doesn’t seem to have perked her up the way previous blood transfusions have. C was also given IV fluids which seems to help with…