06/29/2010
by Michael Wells We went to CHOP yesterday. We rode in a small cramped ambulance with a driver who actually got lost on the way. The 90 minute trip took almost 3 hours! The attendant who sat in the back had such bad body odor; I thought I was going to pass out. All the way, Brady slept as he was sedated. This was a sign of what was to come and it was not good. Brady did not receive his donor lymphocyte transfusion (DLT). Dr. Nancy Bunin said she could not do this while Brady has graft versus host disease (GVHD), was febrile and on steroids. She has basically told us we have reached the end of the road. We are just devastated with this news and are grasping at straws. While at CHOP, we did get the results back from the punch biopsy and it did not show GVH. However, Dr. Bunin believes the steroids are masking the GVH. So, we are now going to try to wean Brady off the steroids in hopes to confirm he does not have GVH. But it’s more complicated than just the GVH. Brady must have no fever, no GVHD and be off the steroids. The DLT appears to be Brady’s only hope and it’s not likely to occur. If we proceeded (at this time) with the DLT Brady would most likely develop a severe case of GVHD and pass away in excruciating pain. It just SUCKS! After another odorous trip back to RWJH we had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Drachtman. He basically agrees with Nancy with one exception of hope. He thinks there is a slim chance that because Brady’s blood type has once again changed (back to my O positive) he could possibly start to produce “good” T-cells all on his own and they would maybe get him into remission. “Very slim” I think was the exact phrase he used and this was after we hammered him for quite some time. Our beautiful, wonderful, smart baby is losing his life and there is virtually nothing we can do but watch. It is very difficult to predict just how much time Brady will be with us but it will not be long. We will do everything to keep him as pain free as possible. Our plan is to stay at RWJH for the next 5-7 days to see what the results of removing him from the steroids. If the results are not positive, we will bring Brady home. Our baby, our baby; it’s just so wrong. Please pray for our Brady…“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.