Archive for April, 2010
Next week we’re heading to the NIH
Parker and Brisan are doing better. Parker seems to be walking in an improved state. Wednesday Duncan decided to jump on the couch and broke Jennifer's nose. She isn't feeling well and has an appointment with the ENT on Monday to see what can be done to resolve the issue. She posted the x-rays on her Facebook profile page.
April 21-24 we will have our last visit to the NIH for the NAC drug trial. That Thursday will be used to provide insight into Brisan's sinuses and polyps along with the finishing touches of paperwork / examinations they will perform. Nothing major expect 14 tubes of blood! In May we will start Zavesca back up but I am sure we will talk with Dr. Porter more about it to get his insight.
Brisan and Parker's port-a-cath sites are looking good. Monday will be the first time they can access Parker's site for his infusions. They also took Parker off AMICAR and gave him another drug in its place.
Video of Brisan and Parker after dinner
I was able to get the “dudes” on the camera last night. Of course they had no interest in what I was doing because one of their favorite cartoons was on, The Penguins of Madagascar! Parker started having some bleeding while he was at grandma Carnes's house this week. Yesterday ARJ Infusions Services came out and did another infusion of DDVAP for both of them. They also will both get another infusion on Monday, their regular scheduled day.
It appears unofficially that they will be going to twice a week infusions. That is our hunch at least. Below is a video of the guys after dinner: (if your unable to view via your email update, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoWaslyYsdk)
In the video as you can obviously see ( ha ha) they are both getting a feed through their GT's. Brisan will surprise us every now and then and eat a whole bunch but we need to supplement his calories. Parker loves to eat as well but we want to make sure they have a full belly before they go to bed. Hopefully that will help them sleep.
You also will notice how Brisan really doesn't like to look down at his food (well cookie!). You have to love the vertical gaze palsy! Either way we love the little guys! Thank you to all for everything. There will never be an action or material item that could say thank you for the prayers, support, and love you've given our family.
Maybe we go home today?
Jennifer stayed the night with Brisan while I went home to gather the heard (dogs). Looks like his incisions started bleeding sometime this morning. They applied some pressure bandages to them.
This morning they were not for sure they were going to allow us to go home today but they just came in and said we could leave. Well of course after taking the pressure bandages off there still was some bleeding. I think we will get to go home tonight. They feel fine since we are local that if an issue arises that we could come back ( I had to giggle at that one!)
Here he is very happy 🙂
Brisan is recovering
So far so good for today for Mr. Brisan. Pretty similar story to Parker’s surgery but today went very smooth per Dr. St. Peter. Brisan had his port-a-cath put in just like Parker did exactly two weeks ago today (April 7, 2010).
The morning started off well. He was such a trooper when they had to stick him for his IV to give him his DDVAP & blood platelets.
Brisan is currently resting and has really been asleep the whole time since post operation recovery. He had a small nose bleed after surgery when one of the nurses went to suction his nose out with all that snot! He moved and it got him!
Thank you for all your prayers and thoughts. We are hoping that this makes the anxiety and a piece of our life slightly better with the infusions.
Easter Egg Hunt
Easter was a pretty good day. Me and Jennifer went to church because we were apart of the 11 am service. The message was on Hope. At the beginning of the sermon they had put a picture up of us while one of the ladies from the drama team acted out our monologue about our story. She did a wonderful job and it was surreal to be hearing our story. I hope that it was able to make an impact.
The boys were at Gma's & Gpa's house while we attended church. Typically we go Saturday evening. We had a good lunch followed by hunting for the wabbit! Below is a video from the Easter Egg hunt we had in their back yard. The boys did a pretty good job “wondering” around! HA I think they had fun.
(In case you can't view this video on your email version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrhfcmcCEWQ)
Parker, not a future blogger I suppose?
Well crime scene intact partially… We were up most of the wee hours of the morning with Brisan the “Flinstone Cat” not wanting to sleep and roaming between our bedroom and his. Around 6 am Parker comes up to my side of the bed and not thinking much of it Jennifer goes Parker is bleeding!
Took him in our bedroom and I can not recall the last time he literally had blood from head to toe on his body. All down both legs and arms including his face. The first go around it took about 30-45 minutes to get a clot to stick. During that time Parker turned into Rambo and tried to break loose. Can't blame him but it is frustrating since your trying to get him to calm down so you can apply pressure to his nose.
We put him in our bed and I proceeded to get ready for work. As soon as I was going to leave he blew a big sneeze. Must have been as powerful as the winds in Kansas City this morning! The 2nd gold rush started (minus the gold). That was talking another 30 minutes to try to stop it. At that point we just called the ambulance to head down to Children's Mercy Hospital. There they gave him DDVAP and checked out his hemoglobin. It was low. He is doing OK now after a long morning and early afternoon.
There has to be a way to help this out some way.