01/17/2010
by Michael Wells
Early Sunday morning or late Saturday night whichever works best for you? I had the distinct pleasure of spending most of Saturday alone with Brady. Sherrie spent Friday night at home and took care of several personal items on Saturday. I was with my son from the time he woke up until his Grandparents (Jan & Gary) arrived at the hospital around 5:00pm.
It was a wonderful day! Brady was off his IV pumps virtually all day long and this enabled us to go for several walks. In fact, I didn’t get a chance to even shower until after 3:00pm when Brady was napping. It was really a fun (if not a little odorous) day!
On the medical side, Brady is doing just about as perfect as he can. His vitals are excellent and while I don’t have the latest CBC results (Saturday was a “Holiday” for Brady’s blood work) they are all headed in the right direction. Today I gave him a bath, helped changed his surgical dressing and assisted with a respiratory treatment. And I am happy to report everything went rather well.
Jan and Gary stayed with Brady this evening so Sherrie and I could go out to dinner. I mentioned my son Stephen gave us a gift certificate to The Frog and The Peach. It was very generous of him and it was just great to get out of this hospital with my wife for a few hours.
At least I think it was my wife I had dinner with? One of the personal items Sherrie attended to today was a trip to the hair stylist and I must say she returned looking drop dead gorgeous, if not just a little bit blonder. The inserted photo was taken tonight and I think you will agree she is just beautiful!
So all and all Saturday was a fantastic day spent with Brady and Sherrie. If I got to see my two other children (Jennifer & Stephen) it would have been just perfect. It’s now definitely early Sunday morning and I should try to get some sleep; until tomorrow your prayers, hugs and thoughts are becoming a magical part of Brady’s life and sincerely appreciated…
For those of you not living in the Northeast; it’s a cold, dark, rainy January day but here inside Brady’s hospital room it’s a bright cheerful world illuminated by just about the most adorable little boy in the world; Brady! He’s napping, Sherrie has not arrived yet and I have time to think.
This is the time that causes me much emotional difficulty. I am a very fortunate man. I have 3 beautiful, intelligent children, a loving wife and fairly satisfying life. It’s just damn leukemia which is causing me so much angst. To see Brady you would really think he is just a normal healthy baby. He is so full of life, so happy, so inquisitive, so bright, so pleasant it just doesn’t make any sense. It breaks my heart to have him go through all this pain and suffering with still such a long and arduous journey ahead of him. It’s just difficult and today as I sit in a dark hospital room listening to Nora Jones singing sad song after sad song it almost more than I can bear. I think I need to change the radio station or perhaps just turn it off.
Sherrie just arrived (in the nick of time) so good-bye for now.
9:00pm and I am home and hopefully will get some sleep tonight. I swear is it not possible to sleep in the hospital. Anyway, shortly after Sherrie arrived at the hospital Brady woke up and we had lunch together. We spent the rest of the day walking around the hospital and I left the hospital about an hour ago. God, it’s so nice to have no drama just a quiet non eventful Sunday – just outstanding!
It’s still cold, rainy and definitely dark; so, before I start listening to sad songs and get all melancholy again I’m going to call it a night. Before I do; the photo insert is Brady wearing one of his nurse’s glasses; he is cute! Your hugs, thoughts and prayers are keeping Brady healthy and happy so please continue them and thank you…
“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.