HOME AGAIN: Georgia Buckingham and her mum Jo, looking forward to life returning to normal.
Takahue teenager Georgia Buckingham is home again after five months at Starship Hospital in Auckland. And now, officially in remission, life is looking up.
"People say it must be good to be back to normal but we're not there yet," her mother Jo said last week, but the future was certainly brighter than it was at the beginning of the year.
Georgia was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia on Christmas Eve last year, after three months of mysterious illness. The formerly fit, active 14-year-old began suffering symptoms including nausea, sore teeth, and finally numbness in the jaw, for which she was treated, unsuccessfully, with antibiotics.
"Finally we asked for blood tests," Jo said. That led to the diagnosis of leukaemia, and next day her daughter was admitted to Starship.
Georgia said she hadn't really believed the bad news; her father Glenn took it hardest. There was no history of cancer in the family, Jo said, but they were told that leukaemia wasn't hereditary.
"It's just one of those things that happens, without rhyme or reason," she said.
So began almost five solid months at Starship. Georgia was only allowed home three times, for a total of 11 days, while she underwent treatment, chemotherapy damaging her immune system so making her vulnerable to infection.
She hadn't handled the first round of chemo too well, she said, the treatment inducing vomiting, fevers, rashes and other nasty reactions.
The second and third rounds were easier, but the fourth and last was another rough one.
Now she's in remission though, with a smile on her face and her youthful enthusiasm in good working order while Mum sets about restoring the 10kg her daughter lost during her treatment.
She will go to Whangarei monthly for the next few months, and if the news remains good will only need to be checked annually after that.
And she said last week that regarded herself as lucky. One teenage patient she had got to know well had been undergoing treatment for two years, and was still there, while at one point she had been moved to make room for an infant who was about to begin chemotherapy.
Jo stayed with her daughter in Auckland from go to whoa, Glenn returning to Takahue before Georgia's younger brother Trent began Year 9 at Kaitaia College.
Meanwhile Georgina arrived home with a permanent reminder of what she had been through in the form of close to 500 beads, awarded to patients every time they underwent a procedure, such as giving blood, biopsies and x-rays, with more for courage and the most desirable of all, the 'Purple Heart' given to those who had entered remission.
She's not sure if or when she will go back to surf lifesaving and/or netball - she made the reps over each of the last two seasons - but she was looking forward to returning to Kaitaia College full-time next term, not least to see if the good things she had heard about new principal Jack Saxon were true.
"That's the plan," she said, adding that at home she was still benefiting from the special treatment befitting someone who had been serious ill, although there was no saying how much longer that would last. Her best bet was Dad: "He's the soft one."
She didn't have any career plans, but whatever she chose it would not be nursing. The oncology ward had not always been a pleasant place, although Jo said the patients and parents had melded into something approaching family, sharing good news and bad.
The family had also received "amazing" support from their community and from Jo's employer, ANZ Bank.
"They've been marvellous," she said.
"We couldn't have coped without their support. Some people don't get that."
She had been in to work in Kaitaia for a couple of hours on Thursday, and was planning to return full-time before the end of the month.
Unstinting support had also been received from the Cancer Society (Jo said she had long filled the role, through the bank, of an advocate for Daffodil Day, never dreaming that one day she would need the society), Ronald McDonald House and Canteen.
Meanwhile Georgia planned to devote some of her recuperation period forging a relationship with her new cat, a handsome $300 chocolate point Burmese by the name of Gizmo.
"He seems to prefer Dad at the moment. He's seen more of him than he has of me," she said.
But she hasn't seen the last of Auckland. She has a Make a Wish Foundation date to keep there on June 18, when she will be in the audience for a concert by Australian pop funk/pop rock band (Jo wasn't allowed to preface that description with the word 'boy') Five Seconds of Summer, and to meet them back stage. She will also be visiting Penguin Discovery at Kelly Tarlton's.