Santa brought the boys an Air Hockey Table

Brody with his new frogs he got for Christmas

Jaden with his New Electric Guitar

Serious Monopoly Game

New Chemo Regimen Appears to Be Working..... Yeah!!!

Brody's oncologist was palpitating Brody's belly this morning checking the size of the tumor(s) and he says it may be getting smaller!!  YEAH!!  We will have to wait for scans to be sure but for now, the new chemo regimen appears to be working!   This is the best Christmas present ever!  Praise the Lord!  

Brody is starting week 3 of the new regimen today.   He will be starting week 1 of the next cycle of this regimen next week,  the day after Christmas.   His oncologist plans to give at least 6 weeks total of this regimen before performing a CT scan to check progress.  

Brody has also been feeling better the last few days.   He hasn't been having leg cramps,  shortness of breath,  and much fewer belly pains episodes.   He certainly seems to be getting better rather than worse this week.  

Brody had surgery on Wednesday to replace the stent in his ureter.   The procedure went well.   No complications.   It hurt extremely bad for him to go pee the first couple times after but after that was not so bad.   He says his "pee-pee is fully healed now."

Brody had a cast put on his left foot this week.   He has been having more trouble with his foot drop in his left foot.   He has lost a lot of flexibility in his left foot.  The cast will help stretch everything to regain some flexibility.   He will wear the cast for next 2 weeks and then will get a new one put on that will stretch things further.   Once full range is back he may get an AFO.   He has had one before and hated it so I am not so sure we will do that or not.  

We are all very much looking forward to a wonderful Christmas together.  We will be staying home this year which is great place to be Christmas morning.   We would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and thank everyone for all your prayers and support!

Opening Christmas Presents

Cousins

The First Snowball of the Season

Brody Sledding with His Papaw

Brody Had Fun Playing and Sledding with His Cousins

Brody, Jaden, Geordi, and myself took a trip to my Mom and Dad's for the weekend (Bill had to work).  We had planned to participate in the annual Lebanon Christmas Horse & Carriage Parade.  My parents have miniature horses that are trained to pull little carts.  The carts, horses, and those riding in the parade get all decked out in Christmas decor and lights for the parade.  It's a beautiful parade every year.  This year though there was quite a lot of snow and ice the night before the parade.  We were nervous the horses may get injured trying to pull the cart in the slippery conditions.  Also, the kids were so excited about the snow, it was clear they would rather play in the snow than be in a parade.  So, we opted for playing in the snow instead.  My sister, her husband, and my 3 nieces had come to town for the horse parade too.  We were very happy to get to see them all.  My sister and I, unfortunately, live about 9 to 10 hours away from one another.  Our two families don't get to see each other very often for this reason.  So, we were glad to finally spend some time together and excited that we had a lot of fun snow to play in too.  I just wish the visit could have been longer (and that my poor little niece, Ella, had avoided injury while sledding....She managed get a very bad ankle sprain).   The kids all had a great time playing in the snow and just playing together, in general.  My cousin Shawnda and her 3 kids were able to join us for some sled riding at the park too.  It was nice to see them again too. 

 We also had a little early Christmas celebration with my Mom, Dad, brother, grandma and my sister's family.   We all exchanged Christmas presents this weekend since we won't see each other again until some time after Christmas.  Hopefully, it will be too long until our next family get together.  This one was fun but way too short. 

Brody felt good for most of the weekend.  He did have a few brief instances of significant belly pains, nausea, headache, and leg cramps.  Fortunately, none of the episodes lasted for very long.  His cousins and brothers were also very good about being gentle with him and being very quiet in the morning so he could sleep and get some extra needed rest.  They also helped pull Brody back up the sledding hill in his sled several times too.   Brody did manage to walk all the way up the sledding hill once by himself though.