Return to Chemo

Yesterday's trip to the local Oncology clinic was an adventure, as always. We love the sweet smiles we're greeted with upon walking in. Sshhh...don't tell, but they never make us sign in! My favorite sweet receptionist (who is a joy to call each month & schedule Brayden's weekly appts) must have been tired of seeing me wrangle the bags and medicine with the pen to sign in only to dump Germ-X on my hand afterwards to be sure I wasn't passing any yuckies on to Brayden. They're wonderful there. Brayden always struts in, chest puffed out, because he LOVES the attention the sweet nurses give him. There are always teasing moments & inside jokes with them. Even though he had to walk in wearing his mask, you could see his big smile in his eyes that was lurking behind that mask. Our AWESOME nurse that takes care of Brayden 99% of the time has his room always ready. I LOVE the relaxed feeling I get knowing she cares about him and is SO cautious to be sure everything is sterile and she does it all by the book! She's so on to Brayden's routine, yet she calls him on his stuff! He loves to tease her and we both are so thankful for her and the care she gives to him each week - always having a smile. She knows when I get that 'look' upon seeing his results. After his blood transfusion this last week, her text message to check on Brayden was so sweet and encouraging. Our last ER visit our other favorite nurse called the ER to talk to us to be sure he was okay. THEY ARE WONDERFUL!! Just in case I've neglected to appreciate them here, I hope I never take for granted the love and care they give my sweet boy!

So on to the results - his counts were back up - but again, after a week of no chemo, I was hoping for more. Frankly, just to have them high enough to not be Neutropenic and re-start chemo was reason to celebrate. His red cells were still not as high as previous normal for Brayden after a transfusion so that's been nagging at me. His platelet count had bounced back nicely. All in all, we're glad he's able to resume chemo and his preventative antibiotic for this week. I'm really curious how he'll be by Friday, so we'll assume they will drop again. His pattern lately has been 1 week on, 1 week off. After a week of chemo his system bottoms out and needs a week in between to recover. Now that it's happened twice, it makes me curious if it will repeat Monday. Until then, he's trudging along! We're going to try and sneak out and catch a movie. Have I explained before how we prep movie-going during low counts? SUCH AN ADVENTURE!!! The moral of the story is you never know what another family is going through so if you see them acting a bit nutty, there might be a good reason for it.

Thank you for all of the prayers that continue for Brayden. There is a lot to be thankful for right now, and yet reminders of the battle Brayden faces daily. He's had more pain in his legs and arms. We're praying that doesn't effect his hands at all as a result of the chemo. We continue to pray for his liver function to remain strong to filter the harmful effects of the chemo and his enzyme levels to decrease. He'll have more tests on that Monday and we don't want that to prevent his chemo regimen from being altered. We pray his bone marrow strengthens and his counts remain good - but not TOO high! We're so thankful he made it past this Neutropenic week without any secondary fevers or infection. We pray that continues!!