1 year + 184 days

Posted on: 28/09/2015

Last night we flew back to Milan for Ava's 18 month post-transplant checks. We started our day at the hospital at 8.30am today with height, weight and blood pressure checks, followed by ECG and a multitude of blood tests. It was lovely to see an array of friendly faces, including translator Samir, nurses Gigliola, Silvia, Alda and Morena, psychologist Francesca and doctor Laura. Next was a general update assessment before eye and ear nerve tests and then 50 minutes of brain wave monitoring. Ava then did the first part of her Gross Motor Function assessment before we had a very informative meeting with Dr Biffi. Finally Ava had a hand X-Ray to determine her bone age (development can be affected by the disease and chemo) before we were finally finished and free for lunch at 3.30pm. We were just about to leave when we bumped into nurse Federica, who agreed to join Ava and I for dinner. Richard is flying home tonight to be back with Angelina, whilst Ava and I must stay on and continue with assessments until Saturday. Let's hope the rest of the week passes as quickly as today!