The Ups and Downs

Brendan, I think, is starting to enjoy his daily bath.  This morning he was trying to clean the thick, pasty gunk out of his mouth.  The saliva glands have been affected by the radiation and his mouth is getting dryer and dryer.  He says he has to scrape it off the roof of his mouth. (See how he keeps his feeding tube out of the water?)

More hair on his pillow.  They said it would take up to a month after chemo for him to start losing his hair. It's been 3 weeks now.

Brendan's physical therapist rang the doorbell at 10:30 a.m. this morning.  When Brendan heard it he yelled, "We're playing hide-and-seek for therapy!" and he took off up the stairs.  It took Shaun finding him before he would come down for physical therapy.  He didn't want to do his exercises until the therapist told him that his old lady patients could do more than he could.   I guess that struck a nerve and he showed he could complete his exercises.  (Maybe that wasn't politically correct, but it did the job :)

 Chris, Kristen, and Atticus showed up to visit.  Kristen and Atticus went to radiation with Brendan.

(Today we found this cool video showing what happens during radiation. This guy used his Go Pro on the radiation machine to show what happens during treatment.   Lark and the other radiation therapists were telling Brendan to go look it up.  The music is called "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons.  Here is the link:  https://vimeo.com/78791415   This looks just like what Brendan goes through every day -- only not so fast.  His treatments take 20 minutes on Tuesdays and Thursdays and 30 minutes M,W,F because they take CT scans as well on those days.)

They had to wait extra long since the doctor wanted adjustments made to the way Brendan's head and neck were lined up.  Kristen asked Brendan what he thought of while he was having his radiation treatment.  He said, "Nothing really."  Then he told her he's counted, and there are nine different sounds he hears the machine make.  When he counts to nine, then he knows the treatment is over.

While waiting for Brendan's radiation treatment, Shaun and Atticus had some fun. 

After radiation, Brendan was pretty tired.  Radiation really wears Brendan out, and he often starts feeling nauseous soon afterwards.  

On the way to the School Zone at Primary Children's Hospital, Brendan was stopped by an officer and given a stuffed animal.

Atticus stuck to Brendan today and wanted to hold his hand everywhere they went.

 Brendan only lasted 20 minutes at school today before he was too tired.  Funny, he had enough energy at the Play Room for a game or two of foosball and air hockey!

 Kristen:  "Give me your warrior face."

 When they got back to Farmington, Brendan wasn't feeling very good.  Shaun and Kristen asked what would help him to feel better.  "Playing with Atticus," he said.

Tonight he has been sick again, and very cold and tired.  He soaked his feet in some warm water for awhile, then went to bed shivering.  I just heard from Shaun (10 p.m.) that he started to fever.  Shaun and Sheldon were able to give him a priesthood blessing.  His fever hasn't stayed up -- it went up and came back down. Guidelines are that if he has a fever of 100.4 or higher for over an hour then we call the hospital to get him pre-admitted and take him in.  If the fever hits 101 at anytime then we go straight in.  We'll be keeping a close eye on him tonight.