Friday Evening

Brody went for another CT scan this afternoon.  His doctor was concerned about Brody not being able to straighten his left leg or stand on his left leg.  She suspected that maybe a hematoma may have formed in muscle(s) involved in these movements and she wanted to see if they could get a better look at Brody's ureter to determine if it was actually still occluded or just stretched.  The results of CT scan ended up showing that the tumor has shrunk a tiny bit and the ureter appears to no longer be occluded but stretched and the tumor in the area the biopsies were taken from is pressing against muscle needed to move Brody's left leg. 

So the plan now is to clamp Brody's nephrostomy tube and monitor him to see if his ureter will now be able to function.  If all goes well, the nephrostomy tube would be pulled on Monday.

The doctor also mentioned today that Dr H. Shimada, the neuroblastoma world expert reviewing Brody's case is out of the country til Monday.  So it will be longer still til we get a definitive diagnosis and idea of prognosis.  However, our doctor today did mention that Brody's N-myc came back negative.  I found this to be very exciting news since prognosis is far better if N-myc is not amplified.  So right now we know he has huge stage 3 tumor that is not in his bone marrow and not showing N-myc amplification. 

Brody went most of the day without developing any fevers until late in the evening when he had a fever of 100.8.  Cultures were taken from blood and urine and Brody was given Tylenol and placed back on his Bactrim antibiotic which had been discontinued in the morning.

Brody is still having many, many loose stools.  He does not have an appetite and it is very difficult to get him to eat.  He can also only handle very small volume of food at once.  He vomited twice today.  He managed to keep down about 4oz of chocolate milk and about a quarter of a bacon, egg, cheese hot pocket today. 

Brody is taking Neupogen (increases his white blood cells needed to fight infectik ) sub-q injections once a day.  When Brody is healthy enough to come home we will have to give him those injections everyday instead of his nurse.  I'm dreading it.  He really hates the shots and I don't blame him.  I've given a lot of injections but having to give one to my child is awful. 

On a positive note, I did see Brody smile several times today.  He is still managing to find ways to just have fun no matter what. 

I was also very excited when I got home today and saw the awesome job some of best friends did creating a mural in Brody's room to surprise him when he comes home.  It has African Safari animals which Brody loves. 

Alright I'm getting really tired.... more to come tomorrow.