03/25/2010
by Michael Wells I got to the hospital late last evening and managed to have a very nice “off-campus” adult conference with Sherrie at a very nice Mexican restaurant. This was made possible by Sherrie’s parents who stayed with Brady as we pondered the pleasure of nectars of the Agave plant. While we were at our conference Brady slept most of the time. He appears to be in good spirits as the low dose morphine drip is helping quite a bit. So, far he is recovering exactly as planned and hopefully this will continue going forward. He is still neutropenic and we are all very anxious waiting to see his body start manufacturing his own white blood cells. This should start in the next 5-8 days; somewhere around Day +10. All and all “things” are going quite good. I am convinced the support network Brady has working for him is a major part of the reason. Please continue your prayers, good thoughts and hugs; they are working wonders. I got to get going, so until next time; remember too much consumption of the Agave plant nectars can cause morning headaches.Another day and another horrific medication; Sherrie sent me the following email she asked me to post in Brady’s journal: I was informed by his team of doctors that tomorrow morning he will need to have a medicine delivered through his IV called Rituximab. This is given to “halt” the B cells and to stop them from going into overdrive. Brady will need to be pre-medicated with two different medicines in order to prevent anaphylactic shock. The dose starts out slowly and then increases gradually as Brady tolerates it. It can last form 3 hours to 8+ hours. The side effects; everything horrible that you can possibly imagine. The most common side effect of rituximab is a constellation of symptoms (fever, rigors and chills) that occur during administration of the first dose of drug. More than 80% of patients experience these side effects, and it is severe in 4-7 out of every 10,000 patients. The nurses will monitor his blood pressure and temperature every fifteen minutes throughout. This is a very serious drug and can be life threatening. However, we have no alternative. I am pleading with you to say a special prayer for our baby tonight. I cannot add anything to Sherrie’s concerns except echo her plea for prayers, hugs and positive thoughts going to Brady. He’s about to have another very serious battle with this beast.
“8 Years Later—Still No Cure for Pediatric Cancer” is a series of posts revisiting the journal kept by Sherrie and Michael Wells during the cancer diagnosis and treatment of their son, Brady Michael. Hopefully these entires will provide an understanding of the journey families face when dealing with these horrific diseases and of the important work the Hugs for Brady Foundation does.