06/04/2010
by Michael Wells Hospitals are strange and sad places in the middle of the night. Brady continues to spike temperatures (102.4°) followed by Tylenol and a few hours of comfort. His medical team still has no idea of what is causing these temps but until he is no longer febrile he is staying in the hospital. He’s such a cute little boy; I just sneezed and out of what I thought was a sleeping baby he says, “Sneeze.” He is so adorable! Well, I should try and get some sleep, until next time please continue to help Brady fight this awful disease.As I wiped the tears from my eyes, I asked my beautiful Sherrie, “How am I going to get through this?” Sherrie quickly responded to me by saying, “You’re not going through this, Brady is.” Sherrie is so right! Brady has had another significant set back; his cancer has returned. His latest blood work revealed 16% blasts. This is the worst news I have ever heard. Brady will not be going home as we had hoped. Instead, he will begin his 6th round of chemotherapy either Monday or Tuesday. Brady will once again have a Broviac catheter implanted in his chest and once that is completed, chemotherapy will start immediately. Dr. Drachtman hopes to have Brady back in remission after this round and based upon the results will dictate what happens next. If Brady is in remission, it will be on to a 7th round of chemo followed by conditioning chemo and another peripheral blood stem cell transplant. We have been told it is a minimum of 6 months between transplants and our goal will be to keep Brady’s cancer in remission until mid September. If all goes well, Brady will be in (most of the time) the hospital for the next 5 – 6 months. Brady is in for the biggest fight of his life. Things just don’t get more serious than this. Sherrie’s asked me to tell everyone who wants to “do something” please donate to pediatric cancer. Whether you donate to the “Hugs for Brady” Fund or some other group just please donate. This hideous disease must be cured. So, now more than ever before our beautiful Brady is in need of all the good thoughts, hugs and prayers you can offer. If anyone can beat this monster our son Brady will!
“8 Years Later—Still No Cure for Pediatric Cancer” is a series of posts revisiting the journal kept by Sherrie and Michael Wells during the cancer diagnosis and treatment of their son, Brady Michael. Hopefully these entires will provide an understanding of the journey families face when dealing with these horrific diseases and of the important work the Hugs for Brady Foundation does.