After receiving her long-awaited bone marrow transplant, Little Adeline Davidson is on the road to recovery.
The four-year-old, from Alness, faced a two-year wait for a life-changing operation to combat a rare form of blood cancer.
And her parents Steph, 27, and Jordan, 28 dealt with many delays, cancellations and failures to secure a viable donor.
The marrow was administered through transfusion, with the whole procedure taking just over 20 minutes to complete.
Her parents were then told they would have to endure with another agonising wait – for their daughter’s neutrophils (a type of white blood cell) to rise.
The increase in neutrophils would show there has been successful engraftment and intake of her donor’s cells.
Until her condition stabilises, Adeline will have to remain in isolation with her mum. If she gets the all-clear, she will be moved to a regular ward in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, where she will hopefully get to see her dad.
Still a long way to go
Mrs Davidson, who chronicles Adeline’s journey on her social media, announced this morning blood tests confirmed the presence of neutrophils.
Speaking to the Press and Journal, she said: “There’s the first sign that it’s working and we are over the moon.
“Yesterday afternoon we got the news that there were neutrophils and today that still stuck.
“We have to wait until they’re at a point where we can come out of isolation.
“And even as it goes up, we still have a long way to go. We have to make sure through tests that the DNA is the donor’s and not Adeline.
“We’re thankful for the results so far and she’s been so good.”
‘Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair’
Even after undergoing the transplant and chemotherapy, Adeline is bouncing back.
And Adeline remains resilient, despite losing her hair and battling mucositis – a painful inflammation of the digestive tract.
Mrs Davidson added: “It’s quite hard explaining to a four-year-old what’s going on and she thought losing her hair made her a boy.
“But we keep telling her her hair will grow back like Rapunzel and she’s already getting little bits of it back.”
She reminded Adeline she is still beautiful and will soon have a head full of hair again.
Mrs Davidson also joked that she will be needing to hire a removal van at the end of their stay in the Central Belt, after receiving gifts from family, friends, and social media users following Adeline’s story – which included a brand new Rapunzel wig.
“We had had so many deliveries to keep us busy and entertained during isolation, she’s been so spoiled,” She said.
“It’s made being here so much better. She’s also just feeling better about it.
“We appreciate the support and we’re very grateful for everything.”