On May 13th we noticed Brett had a low grade fever. But in this case any fever is not a good sign. So we called and they had us bring him in to do a blood culture and it came back positive for infection. It cut our break from the hospital short by a few days and postponed chemotherapy for a day. Considering how dangerous a fever can be this was very minor. They treated him with some antibiotics, they use the hard stuff so while it kills off any infection it also brings the person to rock bottom. It affected his poop which wasn't fun but for how many side affects you can have from chemo and all the medications we treated any diaper rash quickly, we just went through a lot of diapers.
The round of Chemo was 8 days and would include eye drop during chemotherapy every four hours night and day and lasts 48 hours after the last dose of cytarbein. Brett would get what they call "cytarabein rash" again. They gave us a cream but it didn't seem to bother him and would go away a couple days after the chemo finished.
Trying to hide. I don't blame him. Once again it broke our hearts we couldn't explain this to him. Why he had to be stuck in a room. Why everyone would leave but him. Why he was stuck to a pole and we had to follow him around. Constantly. I'm so grateful though, for Brett's sake this would be our shortest round.
Helicopter landing pad above us was some source of entertainment.
And the ipad. During this round we slept on the air mattress. It seemed the room was a bit smaller with a larger bathroom. No couch so we just made adjustments that helped Brett get around more easily being hooked up.
His ANC at this point is high. Even during the chemo. Once the chemo does what it does his numbers drop very quickly. Only takes a few days. This also was very difficult. Because he seemed to be fine, like a normal little boy and then to see him change into being very lethargic and tired.
As a mother seeing your child like that is one of the most difficult things to endure. In one of Brett's blessings it said our Heavenly Father would be with Brett through the hard times. I pray the comfort of Him was with Brett during those times. Brett never stopped being his spunky self that is for sure!
Racing through the hall ways.
This kid seriously is hard to slow down.
Kameron is one the most positive people. Even during this trial he could bring humor and a more relaxed feeling to such a stressful situation. I was the emotional stressed out mom and Kameron will always be my level headed-keep calm-it's going to work out man that our family loves.
Always getting tangled up in those chords! Setting of the high pressure alarm. Thankfully they would untwist it and we would just make sure he didn't pull too much.
Trying to squeeze four people onto a chair :) We also had some visitors during this round, the Johnson grandparents, Brett's great grandma and grandpa Ewell and the DeRusha grandparents. And our awesome neighbors the Haller's. We loved having uncle Jason come and see us a lot and all of our other family members and friends that made it through Brett's journey.
Jeter was such a trooper. We continue to try to explain things to him, but it was hard on him. Thankfully he could go spend some time in Thatcher although he missed being with us it was sometimes better for us to focus on getting Brett through hard times then have Jeter see all of that. Thank goodness for Grandmas.
I love this picture. I found a quote: "Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero" Both of these boys are superheros to me.
Numbers starting to fall...It really is amazing to me Brett never got a fever during this round, not including the little scare we had that got us admitted a few days early he never got sick while having no immune system during that time. Brett would through up a couple times after the chemo. Not sure why it was after but the nurses were awesome and helped with all of that.
This picture breaks my heart. But I have to remember. I have to remember what this brave little boy did. What he went through was more than most people will ever go through. I know the our Savior was there comforting him in ways that only He can. I honestly feel my praying has changed forever. I have never prayed so hard and so honestly and so desperately in my entire life.
And all the prayers were answered. It only took 10 days to recover from 0. That is A Miracle. That is the mercy and love of our Heavenly Father. You could visibly see the change in his demeanor and his energy.
And the baby kept growing :) I am about 29 weeks pregnant at this point. Some discomfort. Lots of heart burn but she was a bouncy one and as healthy as could be.
So Dr. Watinabi-the doctor that saw us through most of the lumbar punctures-was over Brett when Brett's ANC hit 200. The number they said had to be 250. He must have remembered how terrible that was and gave a a break by letting us out at 200. I was physically drained at that point and will forever be grateful we got out so early. In order to leave each round they have to do an EKG and heart Ultrasound. Easy enough right? Not on a 20-something month year old. And being allergic to all the anti-stress medications they did their best. We could give him the "cousin" to benadryl which would help calm him enough to sleep through some of it. The chemotherapy can affect the heart and we are once again greatly blessed that Brett had no side affects of any kind.
We always tried to make the most of our time out of the hospital. Being away from our normal routine. The people we were spending all our time with was hard. You almost block it out because there is nothing you can do about it. So they came to us :)
Seriously it could be the hottest day of the year and Brett would want to be outside. And we would indulge of course! :)
And of course the bone marrow biopsy, which would come back clear! And another puncture with the dose of cytarbein. As long as we gave Brett his anti-nausea medicine 9 hours after the procedure we wouldn't have a problem.
It's hard to find things to do in a 750 square foot apartment when it's over 100 degrees outside. We mastered summer saults and picture taking :)
So it being June we celebrated my 27th birthday, father's day and our 8th anniversary! All in between rounds.
Going to church together was one of the more normal things we could do together as a family. We cherished these times. Just to feel like a normal family for a day.
It was a smooth second round and we had so much fun as a family during our break. There was always the dressing changes we dreaded. We had home health come because Brett seemed to get stronger each time :) And the medication and line flushes we had to do whenever we left. It's funny the longer you do things the more they seem normal or just easier. We were down two rounds and only two more to go!
