DAY 65

Brendan's fevers are slowly but surely disappearing and he is spending more time awake engaging with us. It's really nice to have him back. Tara came to visit Brendan today during her school break and when she asked Brendan how he was feeling, to Tara's surprise, he said "fine". He has been on small walks around the ward. Lots of families are happy to meet Brendan in person at last. I asked one of Brendan's doctors what would Brendan need to do to get out of hospital and go home.

He needs to:

• Have no fevers
• Be on oral medications
• Be able to tolerate 12 hour night naso gastric feeds
• Be able to drink 250mls of high calorie shake during the day, plus eat other foods
• Have stable blood counts (Brendan's platelets are still not stable this maybe due to his fevers. Fevers tend to chew up platelets).

Ronnie Mac house is organising a small apartment for Brendan, Richard and I and a bedroom in the house for the older kids to sleep in. The apartments are very small but are attached to the main house and the kids will be close by and be able to contact us by phone. That way we won't be living on top of each other. Kieran is in isolation at the house at the moment as he has a cold.

Hopefully the worst of everything is behind Brendan. I really, really hope that our little man can continue to improve. The journey back to full health for Brendan will be a long one. I hope his recovery is faster than the long journey we have been on. We also hope that there is no more surprises and some time without fevers would be fantastic.

Hopefully from here I will continue to be able to tell everyone good news.

Love from Anna.