07/27/2010
by Michael Wells Brady continues to have a few “good” hours and Monday was no exception. In between frighteningly high fevers (104˚F) and everything that goes along with this horrible illness our baby is still bright, happy and energetic beyond my belief. He is such a wonderful part of us. I just love his meticulousness. Everything must be in its place and everyone has unique roles that must be followed. When going for a walk, Brady will select the stuffed animals (by name) that will accompany him, he will choose which hat he wants to wear, which pair of shoes, and he now insist in pointing which direction he wants to walk. He will ask you to pick a leaf from a tree, or perhaps a flower and always place them in his cup holder. He is just a wonderful part of us. Monday the weather was just beautiful and Brady wanted to go for so many walks I think we must have walked more than 5 miles when all was said and done. Thank You’s So many people to thank please take the time to read this and if you know anyone on this list, when you see them personally thank them for us. Our thanks to Karen & Dean Dekok, Emily Reiff, Lisa Donnan, Leigh Wright, and James Knipper for donating to the Hugs for Brady Foundation. Thank you to Mrs. Suzann Turetsky, Maryanne Craft, Bonnie Aber, Elaine S. Robbins, Ms. Pat A. Grupinski, Carol & George O’Brien, Lauren Jevarjian Bailey, and Ms. Ann Boles for your donations to CaringBridge. Thank you! Thank you to Mindi Gilmurray (a high school friend of Sherrie’s) for the great assortment of tractor books. Brady has read them at least a dozen times already! Thank you, Jennifer Marie Russell for the wonderful signed copy of your book; Brady is keeping it with his tractor books and that is a very special place to him. Also, I want to personally thank the Ashley Lauren Foundation for the very special gift which enabled me to spend so much time with my family. Monica and John, your generosity and kindness are just astonishing! Sherrie and I would like to thank the kind people of the Hamamatsu Corporation of Bridgewater, NJ for your incredibly generous donation to the Hugs for Brady Foundation. We never met you and quite honestly I had no idea what your company did until I looked you up on Google but WOW, just incredible! Please express our thanks to each and every one of your employees. The Conforti Family and everyone at Confectionately Yours, thank you is just so understated but it is so heartfelt! August 8th will be a great day for the Hugs for Brady Foundation. Thank you so much! Brittany Herits the woman behind the Super 50/50 Raffle. We can never thank you enough and I will have at least 2 people on Saturday to help sell tickets. Anyone else who would like to help out PLEASE contact me or Brittany (hfb.raffle@gmail.com). It’s 2:30am and I am awake because Brady has cried out a couple of times in obvious pain and I want to make sure I am there to give him a bolus of dilaudid to calm him. I think he’s OK for now, so I am going to hit the couch and grab a couple hours of rest. Until next time; prays, hugs and good karma are behind the “good” hours so please continue them…Tuesday marked another day of this waiting game of inevitability. Sherrie and I so want to give Brady everything we can before his day arrives but I must say the stressors that accompany such an approach to daily living can be a bit overwhelming. Brady had one of his ‘best’ days in a long time and wanted to be on the go non-stop. Tuesday morning before 8:00am he and I were going for a short bike ride which turned out to be all most 2 hours long. The only thing that shortened our ride was the expected arrival of Nurse Robin and my pure exhaustion. We rode for about 7 miles and Brady was just as happy as could be. It is a joy to see him smiling! Nurse Robin adjusted his pain meds (increased the amount he is receiving) and hopefully this will help him sleep through the night. Last night, every hour or so, he would cry out in apparent pain. I think I gave him no less than 6 boluses of dilaudid. It appears he is in the most pain during the night. Let’s hope the slightly larger amount of pain meds help. While she was at our home, she took blood samples and later in the day we got the results; white blood count 3.7, hemoglobin 8.3, platelets 5,000 and cancer blasts 87%. Awful results, as normal ranges are; hemoglobin 13.2 – 16.9, platelets 140,000 – 390,000 and white blood count 3,900 – 10,000. And of course, cancerous blasts should be zero! At around 1:00pm today Brady fell asleep and did not wake up until almost 10:00pm. At which time, we went for an hour moonlight walk. Brady just loves going for walks at night especially when he can see the “moon.” The long nap is a direct result of his blood count being in the basement. Tomorrow it’s off to the day clinic for transfusions of platelets and whole blood. We couldn’t be happier that he is still receiving whole blood. His medical team is not giving up on him and we are beyond thrilled about this. Thank you! Last night we were going to attend the weekly car show at Confectionately Yours and afterwards we were suppose to be going to a local farm to see the cows and actually ride on a real tractor but Brady was sleeping. Hopefully, we can reschedule the trip to the Farm. A couple of thank you’s; First our thanks to Barry Boles of Apex, North Carolina for your very large donation to the Hugs for Brady Foundation, just amazing! Are you related to Katharine Smith Boles? Our thanks to Nicole & Kenneth Cody for your wonderful donation as well, it truly means so much to us. Finally our sincere thanks to Janet Campbell for donating your time to give Brady music therapy and to help Sherrie and I through such a difficult time. You are just a truly beautiful person! So, as Brady is watching an Elmo video enjoying a “ba ba” I will stop writing and let Sherrie get some well deserved rest. Remember, prayers, hugs and good thoughts along with whole blood and platelets will hopefully let Brady enjoy another day.
“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.