A Day of Rest

The Thanksgiving Holiday finally caught up to Brendan (or else the dropping blood counts did) and this morning he was TIRED!  He slept all night, got up for a few minutes, then went back to sleep.  Later, he got up for an hour or so, then took another nap.  I was glad to see him rest.

When Brendan was up, he was busy working on Christmas presents for his brothers and sisters.  He is so excited for Christmas and couldn't wait to get the first present under the tree.  (It was for Lindsay.) Next he wrapped his present to Aaron.  He's worked all day on figuring out what to get the rest of his siblings.

 Brendan discovered a new game today -- Risk!

 Brendan enjoyed the day -- and hasn't seemed to think ahead to tomorrow.  I, on the other hand, have become more and more anxious about heading back to Salt Lake tomorrow.  This was our big break and from here on out it is 5 days a week of radiation-- 22 more treatments -- and another dose of chemo in a week.  I'm sure we will talk about putting a feeding tube in his stomach tomorrow when he meets with the oncology doctors.  If the surgery is to be done, it will have to be done either just before chemo or just after, while his blood counts are still high.  That will be the last opportunity to get it put in before he has his last grueling weeks of radiation.

But before all that, we still had to have some fun tonight.  Brendan reached his goal of gaining 1 pound over the weekend, so he had fun opening the piñata he was given.  It was some pretty good exercise!

  It has been a fabulous Thanksgiving holiday!  Brendan has made tremendous leaps and bounds in his progress in just 4 days.  We've spent 3 of those days without anti-nausea medicine or pain medicine.  He's worked hard and played like a normal kid again!