Sometimes we forget that things are not always as they appear! Brody has been doing so well that we sometimes forget that there is cancer in his body. However, this week we were reminded that Brody’s Battle is not over! We left Monday for Miami and another treatment of chemo. We had everything well planned. Brody’s mother, Casey, is a school teacher so the timing was not good. She was trying to figure out how she could avoid missing the first three days of the school year, but it seemed inevitable! Then we came up with a plan. It would cost a little more in travel expense, but would allow her to miss one day instead of three. Mimi and Grandmother would drive Brody to Miami early Monday for his pre-op and then me and Casey would fly to Miami Monday night. She would stay for the procedure on Tuesday, and fly home Tuesday night. She could then be back in the classroom on Wednesday. I would drive Mimi, Grandmother, and Brody back on Wednesday. Great plan right? It seems that by now we would know that plans are made to be broken in this battle.

Everything was going well at first. Brody’s port was accessed, pre-op was done, Casey had experienced her first ever flight, and we were all ready for Tuesday’s procedure. Then everything changed. The staff told us that Brody’s platelet counts were too low for the procedure. They would check again at 5:00 am to see if they were up enough for the procedure. At first we looked at this as a great inconvenience. It appeared that we may have traveled all the way to Miami for nothing! But then inconvenience turned to deep concern.

Brody’s oncologist, Dr. Fernandez, met with us to explain the situation. His platelet counts had been low for a while, but were just high enough to continue treatments. Now they were too low. She was concerned that his platelet counts were not climbing as quickly as she would like. She explained that the low number could be simply that the frequency of the chemo treatments were not allowing the platelets time to build back up. Then came the stressful “but!”  With the concerned look that we haven’t seen from her in a while, she explained that this is also a recognizable symptom that occurs when the retino (cancer) cells have spread. We did NOT want to hear that! She further explained that she would order a Bone Marrow test that would let us know if the retino cells had spread. He’s been through that one already so we know that although he is sedated for the procedure, the soreness after this procedure is pretty uncomfortable, and that waiting for the results of the biopsy was painful for us…especially mommy! It was a pretty draining day!

Finally the great news came! The preliminary results were clear and Dr. Fernandez would call with the full biopsy reports later. Brody checked out of the hospital around 8:00 pm and Casey was on the plane headed to Gainesville! God is so good! When I got back from delivering Casey to the Airport, Brody was running around the room like nothing happened! He had very little soreness during the drive home on Wednesday, and was playing with his brother and sister when he got home! It was great to see him essentially pain free and playing like a normal three year old. This makes it hard to remember, but we must, that his Battle is NOT over!

Once again…thanks for standing with us in this battle and being such faithful prayer partners!

Blessings!