Sunday

Brody was still not able to keep any food down at all today.  He was started on TPN (nutrition through iv) this evening.  He also has had diarrhea for several days now.  His poor bottom is raw and very sore.  This evening he did not want to sit in bed.  He had to lay because his bottom was too sore.  We've been coating his bottom with a heavy protective barrier cream after each bowel movement.  We started using different wipes this evening that seem to be less irritating than previous wipes we've used.  Even wet wash cloth seems to hurt him. 
I'm going to stop and buy him a bunch of softer wash clothes than what the hospital has and use those and water.  Plus apply the protective cream plus antibiotic ointment to any open spots on the skin. 

Brody did not have a fever for most the day but started to run one this evening.

He was started on Diflucan (anti-fungal) today.  He is also still taking his other antibiotics (cefepime, vancomycin, gentamicin), zantac (acid reducer), zofran (for nausea), benadryl (for nausea), nystatin swish and spit for thrush, and neupogen sub-q injections (to increase his white blood cells), Tylenol as needed for fever or pain.  Brody also has orders for codeine as needed for pain which fortunately he has not needed. 

Brody has continued to do well with his nephrostomy tube clamped.  We've had a few folks following the blog that weren't sure what that meant.  So let me try to explain.  When Brody was first admitted to the hospital he had a lot of pain.  When they did the CT scan on his first admission they could see that the tumor was putting a lot of pressure on his left kidney and scans showed lots of fluid around his kidney which also looked misshaped and labs showed was also not functioning very well either.  His blood pressure was also very high as a result.  The nephrologist and urologist felt they needed to do something right away to help drain the kidney and hopefully save it.  The solution was to put in a nephrostomy tube which is a tube inserted into kidney and comes out of Brody's back and has a bag externally that collects urine from the left kidney.  So instead of urine running from his kidney through ureter to bladder, it runs from kidney to nephrostomy tube to bag.  The nephrostomy tube turned out to be succesful at saving Brody's kidney and relieving a great deal of pain Brody was experiencing.  But Brody is then stuck with a tube coming out of his back attached to a bag of urine.  This tube is also a huge risk area for infection with him being on chemo.  So his oncologist and Brody and mom and  dad want it out as soon as it is safe to do so. 

The CT scan Brody had on Friday showed that the tumor has gotten a tiny bit smaller and it looked like just enough smaller that his ureter was no longer occluded.  So to test to be sure that the kidney  could now drain without the nephrostomy tube, the oncologist had the nurse clamp it shut.  First they did it for 2 hours and then unclamped it and looked to see if any urine started to rush into nephrostomy tube when it was unclamped.  It did not.  Yeah, it had gone through ureter instead already.  They also measured urine ouput (how much Brody was peeing) and creatinine (lab measure of kidney function).  They kept gradually increasing the amount of time the tube was clamped and closely monitoring Brody through the process.  Brody had the tube clamped all day today.  He will have an ultrasound tomorrow to take a look at kidney and see if no fluid around it.  If all looks good, his nephrostomy tube will be pulled out tomorrow.  Yeah!

Despite Brody's sore bottom and inability to eat today, he was able to be happy most of the day.  We played Wii Lego Star wars, Wii golf, Wii baseball, Wii bowling, Wii boxing, Wii tennis.  We also played with some of his new birthday presents.  He liked his itsy bitsy spider game Grandma got him a lot. It's a really cute game.  It has a water spot with a faucet at the top that you load blue marbles (water) in and there is clear plastic tray that is on the spout with pegs that hold plastic spiders. There is space underneathe this clear plastic tray.  When you turn on the faucet, it releases the marbles into this space underneathe the spiders.  So the marbles (water) can wash your spider out.  Each person playing the game gets 2 spiders that they have to try to get to the top of the water spout before anyone else.  The game has a spinner where you spin for how many spaces you can move one of your spiders, or you may get rain drop which means to turn water spout to release water (marble) which may wash out your spider(s) and/or someone elses spider(s).  The spinner also has spot that you have to switch your spiders position with anyone elses spider.  I'll take a picture of it tomorrow.  Brody loved the game and he loves the song.  He's so cute singing it too.  That song always makes me think of him. 

Well, it's getting late and I'm getting tired.  We'll write more tomorrow.  Goodnight.  Keep us in your prayers.