Radiation Day 4

Brayden announced this morning he's halfway through Radiation! Thank goodness...it's been a bit of a rougher day. We started out early at ACH to get an update on Brayden's blood work and check his counts. We had been crossing our fingers they were high enough so he could get out and get a change of scenery. Remember he's been in isolation since October. Poor guy...He had a great time seeing his Nurse buddies again. We were SOOOOO happy to see his Oncologist's Head Nurse back! Whew, did we miss her! Brayden was pumped that he only had to get blood work and the port access didn't have to stay in there long. After being accessed quite a bit the last several weeks, he told me this weekend his port was feeling good after almost a week-long break. He had a check-up from another Oncologist and we talked about the impact of Radiation. After waiting a bit, we saw his results. The good news is his hemoglobin and platelets are high enough to not have to worry about transfusions right now. The negative is that he's certainly Neutropenic...not what we had hoped. But that's okay. We're all set up at the hotel and at least we were prepared with Dad being back home.

We headed over to Radiation for Day 4 and he again did great. Thankfully no sick taste this time. I guess the Zofran has helped. But it wasn't long before he was getting nauseated once we got back. Thankfully he had a good breakfast and lunch before he crashed. He took a looong nap. The thing that we saw the most last week is how tired the Radiation makes him. I was glad he was at least able to nap since last week he wouldn't or couldn't. He was peppier after he woke up and I was so thrilled. He had been hurting and not feeling well when he went to take the nap so seeing him more himself just did my heart good.

We're praying Brayden's body stays strong and free from infection. With him not having much infection fighting ability, it makes me extra nervous and makes fever so much more likely. He's done great so far and we pray it continues. We pray his counts recover, he stays strong and these last 4 days of Radiation go by quickly!