Wednesday

Brody had a good day today.  He kept busy crawling and playing and practicing standing for a large part of the day.  We stayed home all day today and it was raining outside for the majority of the day.  But, Brody stayed busy exploring every room in the house and playing with his brothers.  Today was easier for me following him around since he is finally wearing his bear back-pack for his "plug" (nephrostomy tube) most of the time for me.  He had been refusing to wear it for me quite often which made me very nervous he would catch his nephrostomy tube on something as he has been crawling around.  The day before Easter and on Easter day, he did a lot of crawling around hunting easter eggs and refused to wear his bear back-pack so I was following around behind him making sure the nephrostomy tube didn't get hung-up anywhere.  Brody really enjoyed the easter egg hunts though.  Also, his Grandma, Papaw and Nana came to visit on Easter.  He had a good time playing with all of them and was so happy they could all come for a visit.  We had a beautiful day in Toledo on Easter.  Unfortunately, Brody was very tired on Easter and did not want to go outside at all on Easter to enjoy it even though his Papaw had just helped me hang a new baby swing on the playset for Brody (Brody loves to swing and hasn't been strong enough for regular swings yet).  Brody very much enjoyed swinging on a recent trip he took with his brothers, myself, and my friend Terri to Grand Rapids, Ohio.  He also enjoyed walking up the steps to the slide (with my help) and sliding down the slide for Terri to catch him at the bottom.  And, he enjoyed a stroll along the Maumee River in his wagon and throwing rocks into the river.  He kept us all busy fetching more rocks for him to throw into the river. 

 

I took Brody and his brothers to Maumee Bay State Park last week too.  Brody rode along in his wagon on a boardwalk through wooded marsh land, Jaden rode his bigwheel and Geordi and I both walked.  We found a racoon in a bird house along our journey.  All of the boys enjoyed the hike, the nice weather and the cute racoon.  Brody also took about a hundred pictures along the way with my camera.  I think he took about 30 pictures of the cooler setting in the wagon with him.  So funny what little kids decide to take pictures of.  But he did take some really good pictures of his brothers and the racoon too. 

 

Brody has been doing better the last couple of days eating and taking his medicine.  But I am still very worried about how much weight he has lost and by how little he is still eating. It is still a constant battle to get him to eat.  His jaw pain seems to be bothering him a lot less and he has not been bothered by nausea so much the last couple of days but he just does not have an appetite at all and does not want to eat.  Today for example, he had 4, 8oz sippy cups of whole chocolate milk "spiked" with glutamine, a few bites of scrambled eggs (loaded with cheese and butter), 2 bites of a cinnammon roll, 4 bites of ramen noodles (loaded with butter and glutamine), 3 slices of toast with butter, 2 bites of cheese pizza, and a little bit of cookie crisp cereal.  So today, he ate more than he has been eating but still just not enough to keep him from loosing more weight.  I spend most of the day trying to talk him into eating or drinking something and cooking or preparing something he says he wants to eat but then he ends up not eating.  Unfortanately one of the side effects of one of his chemo meds is a "metallic taste" and unfortunately Brody seems to be experiencing this side effect.  Foods he used to like just don't taste the same anymore and he's not too big on trying new things either.  Plus he just does not have an appetite.  It is really hard for a 4 -year old to understand that he still needs to eat anyway.  Hopefully, we will soon be able to help Brody understand that right now he needs to eat even if does not want to.  We've certainly been trying to help him understand this.  He has made tremendous strides taking his medicines and understanding that he just has to do it.  Hopefully, he will soon be able to do this with food. 

 

Well, it's getting very late and I have an early start to my day tomorrow.  I'll try to update again soon. 

 

Thank you so much to everyone for all of your support!  We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family.