One Step Back

Remember how our motto has kinda been like, "Two steps forward, one step back?"  Well, the last few days have been a step back after a surge forward.

Yesterday (Thursday) Brendan made it to most of his school classes.  He came limping off the bus, but at least he could walk.  By the time he hit the front door, though, the tears were starting.  His leg hurt, his head was tired of all the noise, and there seemed like too many things he didn't know and understand about his classes.  

 I knew that Brendan hadn't had anything to eat since morning, so we made sure he had his sodium and some Ensure nutrition drink (all through his feeding tube) and his mood soon improved.  Blood draws were that afternoon, and I was anxious to see what his levels were.  Brendan said he felt like they were low.  But results this morning showed that his sodium was at 140.  Normal range.  And the highest Brendan has been in a long time.

 Today Brendan didn't even want to get out of bed.  He did his math and writing in bed and missed school all together.  He complained that his hip hurt even when he wasn't moving.  He needed help getting up and down the stairs.  When the hospital called with results from the blood draws, I passed on the information about Brendan's pain.  They said they would check back on Monday.

 With Brendan's sodium levels being maintained, blood draws are being changed to once every two weeks.  If Brendan's hip pain keeps getting worse, he says he won't be able to wait until Monday for them to do something about it.

As we started to tuck him into bed tonight, he asked us to take his temperature.  He said he felt cold. But he felt warm.  Sure enough, he is running a low grade fever.  With his blood counts up (ANC 2.7 = 2,700), it isn't as critical as when he was having chemo, but we will be watching him carefully tonight.