A Treasure

Today I received a wonderful treasure!  It's the interview KSL TV did with Brendan on April 19, 2016 in preparation for the Primary Children's Telethon.

While clips of Brendan were shown during the telethon (which was broadcast June 3rd), they did not show all of his interview.  So, when Angie Denison, the Executive Producer/Special Projects found out that Brendan had passed away, she sent me a sweet note as well as the interview they did with Brendan.  I just received it today.  I'm amazed at just how thoughtful it was of her to reach out to us, take the time to edit the interview, and make sure we had a copy.  It will always be a priceless treasure to be able to see video of Brendan and hear his voice and listen to his experiences at a time when we thought he was cancer free.

Here is the link to the interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WHqX-NasB0&feature=youtu.be

Just a little back story:
On April 18, 2016, Brendan was scheduled for a clinic visit, bone scans, and a CT scan.  We traveled to SLC expecting a "down and back" trip.  Brendan had his port accessed and blood drawn in the morning, then we headed downstairs for his scans.  That afternoon, when we returned to the clinic to hear the results of the scans, we found out that while Brendan's scans looked good -- and declaring him "cancer free"-- his sodium levels were at a 126 -- too low for comfort (meaning close to seizure zone numbers).  So Shaun returned home and Brendan and I brought in our bags and settled into a hospital room until his sodium counts came up.  (Of course, we had packed our bags -- just in case.)

I remember how discouraged and disappointed we both were to have to spend the night at the hospital.  Brendan had hoped to ring the "end of treatment" bell at clinic and head home.  He decided not to ring the bell because he said it felt so anti-climatic to ring the bell on his way to his hospital room.

As night settled in, I was particularly down about having to be at the hospital.  Having experienced the ups and downs of cancer treatments for 6 months, and seeing how the hand of God guided Brendan's life so intimately, I soon thought that maybe there was a reason we needed to be there that night.  Especially since it was such an unusual experience for his sodium to drop outside of his chemo treatments.  I prayed for understanding -- or at least some insight into what we were there for.  The answer didn't come immediately, but it did come the next morning when we were asked if we would be willing to be interviewed for the upcoming telethon for Primary Children's Hospital.  I felt the confirming answer that Brendan needed to be there that day, at that particular time, for that particular reason.  And, sure enough,  as soon we finished with the interview, Brendan's sodium levels were up, and we were discharged a few hours later.

In the past few weeks I've come to realize there was another important reason we were there that day, but I've included that experience in another memory I'll post soon called, "Clarity."