11/15/2009
by Michael Wells I’m sitting here around 2:00am listening to Nora Jones on the web radio station Pandora and waiting, hoping for Brady to fall asleep. I’m listening with my headphones on one ear so I can listen for Brady with the other ear. My son Stephen turned me on to Pandora and it is just incredible; you create your own radio station and sit back and listen to songs by the artist of your choice combined with similar performers – really neat! www.pandora.com Just a side comment; I wish my son Stephen lived closer to me; he’s such a good kid. He’s the type of guy who if he wasn’t my son I’d want to have a friend. He’s become so close to Brady it’s very touching to both Sherrie and me. We love you guy!!! Brady’s wide awake and wants to play and I’m trying to convince him it’s time to sleep. He just had blood drawn; his temperature is 101° and now it’s time for the Tylenol to kick in. I had to chase the nurse down to re-check his temp as she told me it was 98.7°. It just is astonishing to me but I guess we are all human and capable of mistakes. Anyway, Brady my Baby Bear is cooing and making all sorts of indiscernible noises and his nurse just came into the room and he let out a rather loud sound that I think was, “Hi.” More meds so it’s another 30 minutes until “beep-time” and hopefully some sleep for all of us. One excellent item to report NO VOMIT! I know that sounds gross but believe me it’s nastier if you’re the one cleaning it up. Cheers to Brady for a puke free night. Early today, I had a very informative chat with Dr Michelle Neier she’s part of Brady team of doctors and is a member of Dr. Drachtman’s group. Anyway, Dr. Neier corrected me in regards to how soon and how long Brady will be at home. If he is in “good” health and his white blood count is “high” he should be home in about 3 weeks. This is the good news. The other news is; he could be home for less than a week if he has responded well to the first round of chemotherapy as the doctors will want to get started on round 2 as quickly as possible. So, if Brady does well, we will be back here as quickly as a few days but no more than a week after we get home. I guess the best spin for this story is the sooner the better to get this over with. At any rate, all the meds are completed, Brady is sleeping that’s my Saturday night story and I’m headed for bed. Once again, until next time; Please keep Brady in your thoughts, prayers and hugs…Sherrie’s Journal Entry… I hope you don’t mind but I thought that I would fill in for Michael tonight to allow him some quality time with Brady. I was with Brady today as Michael had to go into the office. He got here in time for a family dinner which consisted of leftover pizza and lots of junk food! Brady did well today. He had a fever at noon and was given Tylenol. Exactly four hours later he spiked to a 101.4 ancillary temperature (so that’s really a 102.4 temperature). He even took an hour plus nap. I am on watch tonight, so I really hope that Brady will go to bed before midnight. He seems to get bursts of energy in the wee hours of the night. Perhaps he has his days and nights confused? I know that I do. We are running a test over the next hour to see how Brady does without his oxygen on and just breathing good old fashioned regular room air. If all goes well he will be able to have his oxygen removed from his nose tonight. That will be a small miracle in itself. He is officially done with his precautionary swine flu medicine which gave him really bad diarrhea and a rash. More good news, his “chicken pox” (still not officially diagnosed or confirmed) are looking much better. They will have the hematology/oncology doctors examine him in the morning to decide if he is past the contagious point and able to return to the second floor. I hope so; things seemed so much simpler on that floor. And now, he is just adorable. Michael and Brady are sitting watching a football game and eating chips. Brady is actually watching intently as if he has money riding on the game! Oh, the sweetest event occurred here today. The Liberty Hog Chapter of Harley motorcycles organized an event to have approximately 500 motorcycles gather at the children’s hospital and they gave presents to each and every child here. It was very sweet and made a lot of people get teary eyed, including me. Well, that was our day. And now, I’m going to spend some time with Brady and Michael. And if I may use one of Michael’s lines, please keep Brady in your thoughts, prayers, and hugs!
“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.