CT all good again

Brody drinking is contrast liquid before ct yesterday.

Just heard from hospital few mins ago that his ct was all good again...  Brody did great again.

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Ultrasound of kidney and Bladder

CT is next week.. 

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Playing in the leaves today in Chattanooga TN

CT Results and Halloween

Brody had another all good CT last week...  Brody did awesome in that he was able to drink his contrast drink rather fhen get an NG Tube...  he said he did it so mommy wouldn't get sick watching him get it..  we are all proud of him for being able to do it.

Not much else going on...  we are all busy with school and Geordi is in cubscouts..  seems like we never have a relaxing minute.

Boys are trick or treating right now. In case it isn't obvious.. Geordi is Harry Potter,  Jaden is Anakin Skywalker,  and Brody is Bat Man...  hard to tell fron the pic,  but Lucy is Bat Girl.

more later

Waiting for the school bus

Back to School

Not a lot to report....

The boys start school tomorrow-- They are all excited but Brody might be a bit shy. I (Bill) took the boys to their open house last night-- the boys all met their teachers and got their desks. Brody was acting a little bit scared. I think he will be ok since Lucy (his next door neighbor and best friend) will be with him tomorrow and the teacher is going to let them sit next to each other.

The boys are all going to Whitehouse primary. Whitehouse does full day kindergarten but splits it up so the kids go every other day, Lucy is going to do this but Brody is going to go every day as we and his principal feel he would benefit from the extra kindergarten time.

Brody is still suffering from some neuromyopathy as a result of his chemo- in a nutshell it is nerve damage that starts at his extremities and works its way up-- we mentioned it with his left leg previously but it also has caused some hand co-ordination issues and it makes it difficult to hold a pencil and crayons he can do it but it is somewhat difficult for him to write neatly-- he has come a long way but we and his Principal think he would benefit from the extra time working through it, neuromyopathy induced by chemo is reversible but it just takes a while and generally works back down to the extremities... our only concern was Brody feeling ostracized for having to go to kindergarten every day. It is not uncommon though(there is another boy in Brody's class doing this and there was a boy in Geordi's kindergarten class that did this)... Brody is also continuing his speech therapy through the school district while he is at school and so he won't miss anything by going to his speech class. We will miss spending some one on one time with Brody-- seems like they boys all have to share mom and dad most of the time....

Not much else going on with us....

More later...

Bill

Curesearch Walk

We were near the front

Not much to report

Brody had his doppler ultrasound last week and it pretty much confirmed what they thought. They want us to follow up again in October for Brody's next ct...  Brody sees his radiation oncologist in 2 weeks.

We participated in the Toledo CureSearch Walk last saturday....  sunny day and a bit hot....  there was a pretty big turnout considering it was the first one in the Toledo area...  our team raised nearly $1000...  the walk raised just over $30,000....  thanks to everyone that joined in the walk and donated to our team.... they had a very moving opening ceremony in which they had all the kids being treated or completed treatment go up and say there name and signed a large banner.  Then they had all the teams who were walking in memory of someone who had lost their battle come up and get a white balloon....  then they observed a moment of silence and released together the balloons into the clear blue sky. Some event sponsors provided snacks and drinks.... crafts for the kids and a bounce house.... the organizers did a fantastic job.

Not a whole lot going on with us....  the boys are going to the Ohio state fair in Columbus on Friday (meeting their grandpa there)... we have resumed some homeschooling...  just a little bit to get the boys back in the swing of it since they had an extended break fron school..  just an hour or so a few times a week. 

Thats about it with us,

More later...

July 20-- Latest scan results

Brody had another CT scan last week and there is no sign of the tumor returning-- In addition, the enlarged lymph node that was near his tumor has further shrunk (this lymph node was worrying us). The CT did show that the lower half of Brody's left kidney was shrinking and appeared to be Necrotizing (dying)-- The doctors seem to think that this may be from his surgery last year that when removing the tumor they cut off some of the blood supply to the kidney, this was likely the source of the blood in Brody's Urine he had from February through April-- the timing of this (over a year later) doesn't seem to be right to us-- we are more of the opinion that it is from the radiation therapy-- we have an appointment with Brody's radiation oncologist (a follow up) in the next week or two and will see what he thinks.

In the mean time, Brody is scheduled for a Doppler Ultrasound of his kidney next week which will show the blood flow better and give them a better idea of what is going on with the kidney.... it is possible that if he does need more blood flow to the kidney he will probably have surgery to re-vascularize the kidney... we will obvioulsly know more in a few weeks.

We were scheduled to take a trip out west in late june/early but we had to postpone due to Geordi having a pretty severe and persistant Gastro Intestinal illness.... it got real severe just before we were scheduled to leave and Geordi did get hospitalized for 2 days, it did seem to go away for a few days.... we tried to reschedule 2 weeks later but it came back and we decided to postpone again mainly because the doctors were not sure what was going on-- it was possibly something serious and we didn't want to be stuck out west (out of our insurance network) with a very sick kid. It has now seemed to be gone-- the doctors have eliminated some of the more serious illnesses (thought it was possibly Crohn's disease).  Fortunately Delta airlines allowed us to re-book the tickets so we have until next june to make the trip--- this summer is not looking good (with our work schedules) for rescheduling this vacation--- The boys all start school in late August-- we are possibly looking at traveling during the boys winter school break--but more likely we will wait until next June (when the boys finish school).

Geordi is going into 3rd grade, Jaden into 1st grade, and Brody is starting kindergarten.

Not really much else to report-- we did get a few new additions to our family-- We have a pair of Yorkshire Terrier puppies (they are about 10 weeks old now)-- very hyper alot of the time--but the boys are having a blast with them (other then cleaning up after them).

Thats about it.... will post more when we know more.

Bill

Please Join us in Supporting Brody and Other Children with Cancer.

We will be participating in the Toledo CureSearch Walk on Saturday, July 30th 2011.  The walk will be held at Pacesetter Park located at 8801 Sylvania-Metamora Rd, Sylvania, OH.  Registration/Check-in is at 8:30am and the Opening Ceremony and Walk begins at 9:30am.  We have formed a team for Brody.  Our team name is "Team Brodinator."  You can follow the link below to support Brody and other children with cancer by joining our team to walk with us on July 30th, 2011, or becoming a virtual walker, or making a financial donation to our team. 

 

http://www.curesearchwalk.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=479240&lis=0

 

CureSearch for Children's Cancer is a non-profit organization that funds lifesaving, collaborative research for the Children's Oncology Group, the largest children's cancer research organization in the world.  With more than 6,000 physicians, nurses and researchers at more than 200 hospitals in North America, 90 percent of children with cancer are treated at Children's Oncology Group hospitals (including Brody). 

 

More than 13,500 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer each year and more than 40,000 undergo treatment annually.  While overall survival rates have increased from 10 percent 40 years ago to 78 percent today, one in five children still loses his or her battle to cancer. 

 

The CureSearch Walk is an opportunity for family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, corporate supporters and community members to come together to honor those whose lives have been affected by children's cancer, while raising funds for lifesaving research. 

 

Please join us in supporting Brody and other children with cancer. 

 

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Tricia Pizzifred

triciapizzifred@yahoo.com