Thursday. . .

Today was Thursday. . .and not Friday.  We were all wishing it was Friday and we could just go home.   But it's wasn't.

 It helped having Lydia, Loren, and Jamie stay with us last night.

 And Grandma Peck.

 Brendan really did not want to do physical therapy today.  He was tired.  But he didn't mind the neck massage.

 He did mind the exercises, though. . .

 And the stairs.

 He was glad when PT was over and he could go play with Loren and Lydia.

We waited a long time for radiation today.  I guess someone forget to let them know we were there.

 When we headed back to the vault, Brendan was suddenly quite nauseous.  We were given a room for him to lie down in for a few minutes until he felt better.  (They didn't want to put on his mask, and lock him on to the table if he was going to be sick.)

 Fortunately, it passed quickly, and Brendan was ready for day 20.  Prize day!

 Twenty treatments down.  Thirteen to go.

 It was nice to come straight home after radiation.  With chemo this week, we didn't sign up for any tutoring sessions at the school zone.  So Brendan was a little surprised that I made him do his schoolwork anyway. (At least it was interesting -- Egyptian mummies and pyramid building!)

 Tonight we watched one of Angie's favorite movies, Lt. Robin Crusoe -- an old Disney movie.  We had some good laughs and enjoyed the evening before I tucked Brendan into bed with his "food pump" going.  While Brendan didn't throw up at all today, he still feels nauseous at times and hasn't wanted anything in his stomach since chemo.

Trying to keep his overnight "feeds" in his tummy (as well as keeping him hydrated) is the goal this week.  That means I'll be up every two or three hours overnight keeping anti-nausea medicines in his system.  It's also important he keeps going to the bathroom every few hours as he eliminates the cisplatin (chemo) and the medicines and antibiotics.  That keeps us both up a lot during the night :)

I'm so grateful he has made it through this round of chemo feeling as well as he has and so far being able to keep his food down.  He is so much stronger than he was after his first round of chemo three weeks ago.

We are also grateful for how well he has handled the radiation so far.  Dr. Poppe (his radiation doctor) was glad to see that the skin on his neck is not red or sore where they are radiating the lymph nodes.  Brendan is in good spirits, and spunky enough to express his opinions (usually in a funny way).  He's optimistic and looking forward to finishing the radiation part of his treatment so he can spend more time at home.  It's nice to be on the downhill side of radiation.