Allison S Brown
16 FOLLOWERS
A cancer life, from a mother's perspective. My name is Allison, I'm a mother, amateur photographer, and blogger. I blog about my journey, being a mother and carer of a child with cancer, and childhood cancer awareness.
Allison S Brown
3y ago
I’ve recently been told that I have severe anxiety. The thing is, I knew I had anxiety, I just didn't realise how bad it had become ..read more
Allison S Brown
3y ago
I’m not entirely sure how to write this. I haven’t been active on the blog side of things lately. My thoughts have been jumbled, doubt setting in, and I’m struggling to put my thoughts into coherent sentences. It’s taken me over a month to find the courage to write this. These are the various thoughts ..read more
Allison S Brown
3y ago
End of treatment. It sounds so final, doesn’t it? The last milestone, the final hurdle, the finish line. The final goal, where we can get back to normal, and never have to worry about treatment again. But, it’s only the end of part one. For the first 6 months after treatment, if Hannah gets a ..read more
Allison S Brown
3y ago
Loss of appetite and stomach problems A couple of weeks into Hannah’s treatment, she had been getting fussy with feeds from her bottles, until she wouldn’t drink anything, it was the same with her food too. No matter what we tried, she refused. We had to start putting her formula down her NG tube. This ..read more
Allison S Brown
3y ago
Low blood counts Blood transfusions were needed often, both red blood cells and platelets. We began to recognise when she’d need one, if she became pale we knew that a red blood transfusion would be likely and if she had random bruises appear, then she’d need a platelet transfusion. Hannah’s had 15 blood transfusions during ..read more
Allison S Brown
3y ago
Rashes She’s had various rashes over the course of her treatment. One was an allergic reaction, she came out in a full body rash (a nurse said she looked like a red lobster), called the Red Man Syndrome, due to the antibiotic vancomycin, she will now always need a pretreatment when receiving this antibiotic. She ..read more
Allison S Brown
3y ago
There are a multitude of side effects to deal with during chemo. Over the next few weeks, I’ll show you some of what Hannah has had to cope with. Hair Loss We expected the hair loss, she lasted almost 3 weeks of chemo with her mousy brown hair, before she started shedding. It was just ..read more
Allison S Brown
3y ago
Childhood cancer is considered rare, but after seeing the amount of children who are diagnosed, and who are currently being treated for cancer, it doesn’t feel rare. Many parents, have to go back and forth to the doctors, sometimes for months. The main problem? The symptoms for childhood cancer can be quite vague, and can be ..read more
Allison S Brown
3y ago
We arrived at the Children’s Medicine ward, and spoke with two doctors, in an empty bay area. They told us, Hannah’s biopsy came back showing cancerous cells, but they didn’t know what they were dealing with, more tests would need to be done on the samples taken. After being left alone to deal with the ..read more
Allison S Brown
3y ago
We’d arrived at A&E, went through initial assessments and were sent up to the Children’s Assessment and Treatment Unit (CAT unit), as there was a junior doctors strike on, we were in for a long wait. Hannah was seen by one of the senior doctors, we went through more assessments, and he examined her, asked ..read more