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Thursday, February 19, 2009 9:37 PM CST
It has been a long time since my last update so I will try to fill you in on what has been going on in our lives and how we are doing.
I will start with the holidays. We did make it thru them. It was very hard and I'm glad they are over. Just like everyday life they will never be the same. Last year they came so soon after Brandon had passed away that we were still in a fog. The pain was there and it felt real, but this time was even more real and very hard on all of us. This new life sucks. I really had a hard time with New Years. Last year at New Years I could at least think back to most of the year with Brandon still here. This New Years all I could think about is I went one full year without Brandon here and how sad our life is without him. He made us complete and we will not feel that way again until we are all together in heaven.
Most of you probably already know, but Scott was sick for about 5 weeks at Christmas and New Years. He had Kidney Stones and ended up in the hospital after the first of the year. He had to have surgery because the stone got lodged and was blocking his kidneys. We were at CMC and it was very strange to be there after everything with Brandon, but we were treated great because of Brandon. We even ended up in the same room that Brandon stayed in a lot just on a different floor. That was strange. Scott is doing good now.
I finally found a job. It is only part time, but better then nothing. I'm working in a Drs. office at the front desk. I have been there 3 weeks now and enjoying it a lot.
Brooke is keeping us busy. She is taking acting classes one night a week and just started on the track team at school. She has never done track before and so far it is kicking her butt, but she seems to like it. She has done very well in her first year of high school so far. We are very proud of her. She is the one thing that makes us get up and go on with life everyday.
The thing I have learned so far is that life does move on no matter what you do. I feel like our lives have turned into a roller coaster ride. You never know from day to day how you are gonna feel. You can have good days and bad days. I just take one day at a time to get through it.
Thank you for still checking in on us and for all your prayers. We are very grateful and still need all the prayers we can get.
Love to all,
Anita, Scott, and Brooke
The proud parents and proud sister to ^Brandon^
Brandon my buddy,
I love and miss you so much. I'm still waiting for you to come visit me. It has been so long since I have talked to you, held you, kissed you, or touched you and I really need something from you. Can't wait until we are all together again in our new home HEAVEN.
I LOVE YOU!!!
XOXOXOXOXOXOXO
Friday, November 14, 2008 12:11 AM CST
I know it has been a long time since I have updated. It is just very hard for me right now to even put in words what I feel and what Brandon's death has done to our family. I know I didn't even write on here on his 1 year anniversary on 10-02-08. It is just to painful for me. The way I look at it is that Brandon should not have a one year anniversary of his death. It is just to real for me when i express my feelings so I just do not at this point. I know it is not what you guys are use to and I am sorry, but i hope everyone understands.
Thank you for the ones that still check in on us and still are praying for us. We can sure use all the prayers and at this point I think it will always be hard to be without Brandon, but some how we get up everyday and make the best out of what we have been dealt with.
Love to all,
Anita, Scott, and Brooke
The proud parents and proud sister of Brandon Elam
Brandon my buddy,
We love and miss you so much. You just made us complete. We can't wait until we are all together again in a much better place called HEAVEN.
XOXOXOXOXOX
Wednesday, August 27, 2008 1:11 PM CDT
I know this update is way past due. I have sat down so many times and started to leave a message and just couldn't. It has become so hard to get on here anymore. We live with so much pain all the time and this just adds to it. It is so hard to believe that Brandon has been gone 10 months already and on Tues 9-2-08 it will be 11 months. If there is one thing you never forget with a child with cancer is all the dates of everything. They sure do come around all the time. Today it has been a year since we had Brandon's last Mri and Pet Scan that showed us that the chemo was not working anymore and that his body was covered in cancer. We were told that there was no more chemo drugs left to try. I as a mother had to go home and tell both of my children that there is nothing else we can do and that Brandon was going to pass away. I also had to except this for myself and also tell Scott and have him except it. It was one of the worse days of my life. A year later and i still feel so heart broken and sad. I still ? a lot why us, why is Brandon not here with us. Why could I not get him ready for his senior year also along with Brooke in her freshman year. They were supposed to be in school together for the last time. That is the one thing I have learned in these 10months since his death and the whole time he battled. The life we had planned on having would never happen. All the things we should be doing with both of our children will never be. We are all still trying to adjust to this new life without him and try to get thru all the dates and things he should be doing. I just hope over time it can get easier, but as of now it still hurts a lot.
This summer went by very fast. We did go on our girls trip to NY and had a blast. Jordan and Brooke told us we have to do this every year. They will need jobs to pay for it. Brooke got to go to the beach two times and had a lot of fun. All of us and her friend Jordan went for a few days to the mountains with a few families from the Home Town Heroes. We had a great time. All the kids had a blast together. We went white water rafting and rode horses up the mountain. It was a great getaway for all of us. Scott and I are getting ready to go on the Home Town Heroes big ride next weekend. It is the one that they do the big kick off with all the kids and families and then they escort a child to school (Like they did for Brandon) and leave on the trip. It will be hard on us for the kick off because last year Brandon was there very sick and he passed away not much after it, but we know we will have a good time. They are such a great group. They still look after us just like Brandon is still here.
I have been looking for a job some here and there, but now that Brooke is back in school I made that my goal to really start looking for one. I can use any help to find one. I would love to get a job in a doctors office working the front desk or anything they are willing to train me on. It is very hard to get one of these jobs unless you have done this before or unless you know someone. If anyone has pull in getting me on in one of these jobs. I would love the help. Please just let me know. My email is selam46@carolina.rr.com.
Thank you very much for checking in on us and for all your continued prayers. We can sure use them. These last few months and the next few to come are very hard ones with a lot of good memories and bad memories. A lot of happy times and sad times that we are living with from a year ago. Enjoy everyday like it is your last day, because tomorrow can change your future forever.
Also check out the link below to ELAM-N8 CANCER it has info on Brandon's golf tournament coming up in Oct.
Love to all,
Anita, Scott, and Brooke
The proud parents and proud sister to Brandon FOREVER
We love you Buddy and miss you very much. Please take some time to come visit with me. I still do not feel you around me at all and i sure could use anything from you.
Love,
Mom
Monday, June 2, 2008 11:08 PM CDT
I do not know even where to start. This entry is way overdue. I can tell you we have gone on with life, but it is just not the same without Brandon. We function everyday because we have to, but it is so hard. You always here people say in time the pain gets easier, but that is just not the case. Today is 8 months since Brandon left us and went to heaven and my heart hurts so much. I feel so lost without him in my life. He made are family complete and it is so hard to go on without him. Scott and I got so use to having him with us all the time because he was to sick to go off with friends like most teenagers do. Brooke was on the go all the time and still is, so it is very quiet around the house. This time last year Brandon was really sick, but we still were doing so much to make memories. We were always busy and now it is very calm. That can make you sit and do a lot of thinking. I am still not working (even though I need to be for the money). I have been looking a little bit, but it is such a struggle for me to even think about working. I have not worked outside of the house since Brandon got sick, which is almost 4yrs now. I was his caregiver 24/7 and it is very hard to think about going back into the work force again. I would really like to get into the medical field. I think at some point I would like to go back to school to be a nurse. For now I would love to just get in a Dr. office and run the front desk or something, but they all want experience. Hopefully something will work out soon. I sure do have medical experience just not paper.
We have been busy with Brooke. She has had a lot going on with it being the end of the school year. It is her 8th grade year and she is graduating on fri. With everything that has happened this year she has done so good in school and we are so proud of her. When a child becomes sick with cancer they grow up very fast and so does their siblings. Especially when the child with cancer passes away. Her and I along with her best friend Jordan and her mom are taking a girls trip to NY City. Brooke has been asking for this for her grad. and her 14th birthday coming up the 25th of June. It just worked out that Pam is going up for business and we just had to get plane tickets, food and any fun stuff we plan on doing. We are leaving this Sun thru Wed. We are staying in the same hotel that we stayed with Brandon on his wish trip in July last year. It will be strange and good at the same time. She deserves it and I am glad we were able to work it out.
We have had a lot of things still going on in Brandons name. One of them is The Brandon Elam Scholarship that Hometown Heroes has decided to do every year at Porteridge Highschool. Scott and I along with Chris and Donnie presented it to a 12th grade girl that is planning on going to school to be a nurse. We are still working on the memorial garden that will also be at the school. It is getting there. You have a lot of people you have to go thru before they can start. We hope to have another meeting soon with the ground breaking next. The next big event is the 24hrs of Booty Bike Ride on July 25th and 26th. We have a team set up called Brandon's ELAM-N8 CANCER Team in Brandons memory. This will be the 4th year (i think) that there has been a team for Brandon. In the past is was called Booty for Brandon that Chuck Cullen and Christina DeKraay along with others rode in and raised the money. This year Scott and I are joining them along with some other friends. If you would like to join the team and come out with us for fun we would love to have you. Go to the 24hrs of Booty website and find Brandons team name (Brandon's ELAM-N8 CANCER Team) and get signed up. Here is a website with Brandon's info http://www.24hoursofbooty.org/site/TR/Bike/General?team_id=1460&pg=team&fr_id=1050&s_tafId=1084 As of now his team is in the lead. what a honor it would be to Brandon if he could stay in the lead. It is a very easy bike ride and we will have a lot of fun. This is something Brandon always wanted to do when he got better. Scott and I know he would be glad we are going to be out this year.
Thank you for still checking in on us. I know everyone looks for updates all the time. I am doing them the best I can. We still love to hear from you and read you guest entries. All of the kind words mean so much to us. Please still keep us in your thoughts and prayers. It is what keeps us going. Also keep all the other families that are still battling cancer or have just been told the news that their child has cancer and for all the families that have lost a child to cancer in you prayers. This is a never ending horrible disease destroying families everyday. We just lost another child that we got to know last week. Please pray for Kalen Frizzell's family as they try to go on without her.
Love to all,
Anita, Scott and Brooke
The proud parents and proud sister to Brandon forever!!!
Brandon,
I know I talk to you all the time, but I have not felt anything from you on a long time and when I did I was not sure if it was you or just my mind playing tricks on me. I really ? where you have gone. I know you are in heaven and I know it is a great place, but it just feels like it is so far away and I have no connection to you at all. If you are around and listening to my begging please take time out of your new life to visit with me. I am trying to keep my promise to you to move forward with my life with out you in it, but it is very hard because I feel nothing from you and told me you would be there for me. Please buddy give me something to hold on to. I need some kind of hope. I love you so much and miss you like i never thought I could. You were the best son I could have ever wanted and I know you are one of the best Angels in heaven.
I Love You!
Mom
Wednesday, April 2, 2008 12:31 AM CDT
I have never wanted to go back in time as much as I do now. If we could just rewind back to be our normal family without any cancer. To have Brandon back with us not sick and running around like he should be. I have never wished for something so much in my life(except for a miracle for Brandon). Now back to reality that it has been 6months today that Brandon left us to go to heaven. It is so hard to think that for a 1/2 of a year we have not been able to see, smell, talk to or hold Brandon. Some days we are ok and somedays I would like to crawl under a rock and never come back out. It is just so hard and so unfair. I just miss him so much and miss what our family use to be. We are giving it our best to try and adjust to our new family now, but some days are just to hard to deal with. I still am asking the ? why and at this point I think I will until I am in heaven with him.
We have had to great events happen recently for Brandon. The first was his Birthday Bash. It was a very hard day on us, but also a good day. I have learned now that he is gone and after the first fundraiser without him here there is a lot of sadness with it, but also a lot of happiness with it. Thanks to everyone that made this happen and for still thinking of Brandon and our family. It means so much to us. The other event was this past weekend. It was out at the Mint Hill Ball Field. What a day it turned out to be. This is where Brandon and Brooke grew up playing baseball and softball. We have so many great memories of this place. They dedicated a baseball field in Brandon's name. It is called Elam-N8 Field in memory of Brandon Elam. They put this on the score board and there is also going to be a sigh with Brandons picture on the dugout. They also had the Hometown Heroes ride their bikes in on the field. Brooke rode in with them and she and one of the Hometown Hero kids threw out the first pitch. It was a great day. Scott and I know Brandon was there with us. As Stu (Brandons coach) was giving a about Brandon speech we saw this big bird fly over the field and had a few rain drops. We know it was Brandon and he was crying like we were. I have had this same bird around a couple times before and have to believe it is Brandon with me. We also keep getting pennies. So it sounds like we are getting some sign's from Brandon. I just wish I could feel him with me all the time.
Sat April 5th at 10:00am we are going to Marshville for a ceremony for Habitat of Humamity. They are building 3 new homes and one of them is in Brandons honor/memory. This was told to Brandon and us at the football night at Porter Ridge before he passed away. We are very excited about this and know Brandon is too. Some of the kids at Porter Ridge are helping to build the home if anyone would like to help you can get in touch with Chantelle Swanger at the school or Scott and I and we will try to find out info. You are also welcome to come out Sat if you would like. We have directions if you need them.
Thank you for still checking in on our family and for all your messages. We love to hear from you. It means so much to us. We could not go thru this journey without the love and support from our family and friends.
Love to all,
Anita, Scott and Brooke
The Proud Parents and Proud Sister to ^Brandon^
We love and miss you very much Brandon
Tuesday, March 18, 2008 8:52 PM CDT
HAPPY 17TH BRANDON!!!!
Brandon where do I start. I have put this off all day because I knew it would be very difficult. I just can't believe your 17th birthday is here and you are not with us anymore to celebrate. Last years 16th birthday was such a great time for all of us. We were so happy even though we knew what we could possibly be facing. I was told by Dr McMahon to give you a BIG party because it would probably be your last. We did give you a BIG party, but I just really never thought it would be your last. I just knew you were going to get your miracle. What a mistake I made. If you can tell I'm still upset about that. I have tried to make the best out of today. Most of it was all for you. I know you were with me today when I came to see you and let your 17 blue balloons go. I also hope you like the 2 that I left for you at your marker. How about your bench. That was a great birthday present for all of us. It is very beautiful. I hope you are very pleased with all the info and pictures we put on the bench. Everyone can now put a face with the name, but from what dad and I are learning everyone already knows you. We are known as Brandon's parents. You have become very famous and made us feel famous. I makes me very proud. You know I would change all of this if I could and have you back here with us as a normal family. We later went to Brookes softball game (they won) and then to Chili's for dinner. We all had the molton cake for you. It was very strange to hear the waitress's sing happy birthday to other tables. I wish we could have had them come to our table for you. With your birthday coming up I have done a lot of thinking and looking at pictures of you from the time you were born. It puts such a smile on my face to remember the wonderful years we had with you. We could have never ever asked for a better son. You have always had a way of putting a smile on peoples faces and that has not changed. This time 17 years ago you were only about 38 minutes old and we were so happy and proud. It is very strange that I just thought of the time you were born it was 9:37pm and you died at 11:37pm. I just never ever would have dreamed that you would be gone 16yrs later. I thought you would live to be an old man, have a wife and family. I thought you would give me grandchildren that would look and act just like you. I would have spoiled them so much. Look how much I spoiled you. I can only say I am so sorry we were robbed of all the dreams we deserved. I so wished for a different life for you. If I could have changed it I would. Always know how much I love you and can't wait to see your sparkling eyes and your big smile. I can't wait to hold you, talk to you and kiss you. I know you had a big party in heaven today. As much as you are loved here on earth I know you have that kind of love in heaven. I sure hope you liked Sat's Birthday Bash. It turned out great. It should have showed you how much you are loved and NOT forgotten. It was hard not having you here with us for the event, but we promised you that we would do this and that is what we are doing.
What do you think about Mint Hill Athletic Assoc. naming a baseball field after you. Dad and I are so honored. We have a lot of great memories of you and Brooke playing ball out there. It is going to be a great opening day for them and us. They have the Hometown Heroes coming in on the field with thier motorcycles. You know Brooke will be with one of them and Korey and Robin are planning on riding in on one also. So be around to watch everything on March 29th and keep good weather for us.
Happy 17th Birthday Brandon!!!
We love and miss you very much!!
Love,
Mom, Dad and Brooke
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
Tuesday, March 4, 2008 8:40 PM CST
It is so hard to believe that another month has already come and gone. It does not seem possible that Brandon has not been with us for 5 months as of March 2nd. I really do not even know what to put in this journal entry. I feel like I say the same things every time. This website was never set up for me to talk about Brandon not being with us and it is so hard for me to do it. I never had any problems when he was sick. Scott and I went out to Brandon's grave on Sunday and both just talked about how we could not believe how our lives had turned out. It is just very hard to know that we both could still live for many years to come without Brandon.
Brandon's Birthday is March 18th he would be 17yrs old. I just wish he could be here and do what 17yr old boys do. I wish we could be planning some type of birthday party for him. I wish we could be making plans for college. I wish I could still watch him playing sports. I wish I could see him driving a car. The list could go on and on. I wish our family and all the other families that have lost a child would never ever have to go thru the pain we go thru.
Brandon's ELAM-N8 CANCER Birthday Bash is coming up soon. It is scheduled for March 15, 2008. We are hoping it is going to be a big success since it is the first event since Brandon has passed. For all the details please go to the links below and check on the first one that says ELAM-N8 CANCER.
Thank you for continued thoughts and prayers. We do not updated as often, but still love to hear from you. We could not go through this journey without the love and support from our family and friends.
Love to all,
The Proud Parents and Proud Sister to ^Brandon^
Brandon we love and miss you so much!!!
Hugs and Kisses until we are together again!!
Anita, Scott, and Brooke
Monday, February 11, 2008 6:48 PM CST
Well Brandon's 4th month anniversary has come and gone on Feb 2nd and I was never able to update. I sure do wish I could say as time goes by it is getting easier, but that is just not the case. It is so hard and I miss Brandon so much. I just never knew I could be so sad and have so much pain in my life. For me it is very hard to get thru each day. If I could have it my way I would just stay in bed and never face the world, but for Brooke and the promise I made to Brandon I do get up everyday and try to do something. Some days I do get stuff done and others I am lucky to just get a shower in for the day. It takes so much energy out of me for everything I do. I sure hope this gets better soon. I felt better when Brandon was sick and I ran on very little sleep.
We did finally get Brandon's correct marker in. It looks great and I made a flower arrangement in Brandon's Panthers colors. We are still in the process of finalizing his bench. They have promised that we will have it in by his birthday on March 18th. We should also be able to have his tree planted by then. I can't wait to see everything is completed. It will be beautiful. I never thought Scott and I would spend as much time out there as we do. I always feel I can talk to him from anywhere, but it just feels very different when you are there.
I know I have said it in other journal entries, but I need to say it again. I'm so glad that we have Brooke in our lives and that she keeps us going. It does help you take your mind off of it sometimes during the day. She brings joy and laughter to our family. We still feel very lost as three, but she is such a blessing to us. We are very proud of her. With everything we all have been thru she continues to do well in school and never gives us any trouble. I guess she knows we can't handle anymore on our plates. She went out for the school softball team last week and made it. I'm so proud of her and can't wait to see her on the field again. I also know Brandon is cheering her on from heaven.
It is so hard to believe that Brandon's birthday is a month away (March 18th). I can't believe a year has gone by. This time last year we were deciding what we should do about his 16th birthday. I wanted to make it big, but I was torn about his chemo. He was do for a round of chemo the week before his birthday, so that would mean he would have been sick with no counts for his birthday. We had just done scans and a lot of the tumors were gone, which we never thought would happen. Dr. McMahon told us to delay the chemo and give Brandon a huge party. He told me that was more important then the chemo and I was having a very hard time with what to do. Why delay if it is working. At that time he had told me that Brandon would probably not be here for his 17th birthday and by the start of the new school year (Aug/Sept) he would be very sick. Which all came true. This was something that we never told Brandon and that Scott and I just put it in the back of our minds. I trusted Dr. McMahon and he usually had everything correct, but I always told him I hear what you are saying, but Brandon is going to get a miracle. He would say i have had others that have gotten miracles and Brandon could be one too. He said that is what he needs and that is what we all wished for. I still have a very hard time to think Brandon didn't get the miracle. There were so many people praying I just new whatever God's plans were he would change them and let us keep Brandon. That is not what happened as you all know. I just can't believe this time last year I was so excited about planning his big surprise party. From the time Brandon got sick and especially when he relapsed we did everything big just in case it was the last. I'm very thankful we did. It is just very hard to think he will never be here for another birthday. Everybody says the first's are hard, but I think they will all be hard. You are supposed to celebrate your child's birthday every year. We are planning on having a celebration for his birthday. Last year we did a Bike Ride for his birthday and we are going to continue them from here on out. When this was planned last year it was going to be an annual event with the hopes to getter bigger every year. That sure does look like it is gonna be that way. The name has changed to Brandon's ELAM-N8 CANCER Birthday Bash scheduled for Sat March 15th at Porter Ridge High School. We have added a lot more events this year. Some of them are a Bike Ride, Running, and walking with other still in the works. Please go to www.ELAM-N8CANCER.com for all the details and to also get registered. You can also go to the bottom of the page under links and click on it. Even though it is going to be very hard to have our first event without Brandon there we are very excited and hope you can join us and be a part of his celebration.
As many of you know our friend Bobby who was battling cancer passed away in Jan. a lot sooner then they thought. I have to think Brandon greeted him at the gates of heaven and is showing him all around. What touched Scott and I the most is that Bobby's request was to be buried by Brandon. He had made that choice after going to Brandon's funeral. We are so honored. I always visit both of them when I go out there now. If you could please keep his family in your prayers I know they can sure use them.
Thank you for continued thoughts and prayers. We do not update as often, but still love to hear from you. We could not go thru this journey without the love and support from our family and friends.
Love to all
The Proud Parents and Proud Sister to ^Brandon^
Brandon we love and miss you so much!!!
Hugs and Kisses until we are together again!!
Anita, Scott and Brooke
Brandon I'm still waiting for some type of sign or visit from you.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008 10:14 PM CST
I know I said I would try to do better at updating, but the last time I updated was Brandon's 2 month anniversary and here I'm updating today and it is his 3 month anniversary. I can't believe that I have not been able to see, hear or talk to Brandon since 10-2-07. What I would do to be able to do all of them again. I thought as time went by it would get easier, but that is not the case. The pain is so real and life is so hard without him. We go thru each day like we are supposed to, but it is just not the same. There is so much sadness in my heart and in our family. We are all trying to adjust to a family of three, but it is so hard on us. I find my self all the time still including Brandon in things that we do. Just like tonight I was setting the table for dinner and got 4 forks out to put on the table.
The holidays have been very sad without Brandon. We made it thru them, but it was very hard. For Christmas Eve we did the shopping spree at Walmart with Hometown Heroes. They want us to continue that every year and give the toys to the hospital in Brandon's honor. This is what Brandon had done with it in the past. We had a good time. Brooke helped this year to pick the toys out and I think she had a good time. For Christmas we stayed at the house and my mom and Scott's family came over for a early dinner. My mom did all the cooking, which was very nice for me. We all later went to Brandon's grave and spent time with him. Scott and I also went on Christmas eve. We left on the 26th to go to Disney. It was very nice to finally get away. It was also very strange and sad feeling not having Brandon with us. We had a good time, but we were all ready to come home. Disney is so packed at Christmas time. We were so tired of being with thousands of people. We got home about an hour before the New Year. We stayed at Jordan's house with friends until the ball dropped and then went home to bed. I was not in the mood to welcome in a New Year and still having a very hard time with it.
Thank you for all your continued support and prayers. I know I don't update the web as much as I did in the past, but it is so hard on me. I get so upset everytime I do it. We still check it all the time and love hearing from you. Please still keep us in your prayers we can use them. We could not go through this journey without the love and support from our family and friends.
Love to all,
Scott, Anita and Brooke
The Proud Parents and Sister to ^Brandon^
Brandon we love and miss you so much.
Brandon my buddy as I always called you. I miss you so much. Life is so hard without you. For the past three years we were together all the time. My day was planned around you and I would have not changed it for anything. It was my job to take care of you and do anything you needed. I know I'm being selfish, but I would have you back in a second and still be happy planning my day around you. I'm just so lost now without taking care of you. I get up everyday and sometimes get stuff done and others days I do nothing. The days are just not the same without you in them. I'm keeping my promise to you to go on with my life, but I'm not going to lie to you I hate it. You just made our lives so much happier and what I would do to have that joy back instead of the pain and hurt I have now. Thank god I have your sister because she has helped your dad and me with making ours days have some joy in them. Both of you our my life and I sure do wish you were still here with us. I'm so sorry that you got sick and had to leave us, but I know you are in good hands and living life like you should. It still does not make me miss you any less. I love you and miss you so much. I can't wait until we are together again and my heart is finally healed from the pain. Be sweet like always.
Love,
Mom
PS Come visit me in my dreams I LOVE YOU!!!
Wed, December 12, 2007 10:31 PM CST
WED UPDATE AT 10:00AM
We did just find out that they are doing our channel 9 news interview in the 6:00pm hr today 12-13 it should be around 6:15 or before.
Tomorrow Thurs 12-13 thru Sun 12-16 is the Lite 102.9 Radio telethon that Brandon and our family have been a part of for the past few years. If you can please tune in and listen. Scott and I are going to be answering phones on Thurs from 4pm to 7pm and we think sometime in that time they are planning on doing a live interview with us. They also could be playing Brandon's last interviews thru out the whole time from Thus to Sun. We are just not sure about any times or since he has passed if they will play them or not. Just wanted to let everyone know. Tony and Jen that do the show every year have become such good friends to us and have been there for us throughout Brandons battle and just love what they do for the kids and families.
Also Jim Bradley with channel 9 news did another interview with Scott and I on Tues afternoon and they are going to be airing it possible Thurs 12-13 or Mon 12-17. As soon as I know when and what time I will post. He did a really good job with the interviews in the past and wanted to do a follow up with us since Brandon passed away.
Sunday,December 2, 2007 10:31 PM CST
Two months today without Brandon. I never thought this is what I would be typing on his sight. We miss him so much and as the time goes by it is becoming very real that he is no longer with us and no longer coming back. Scott and I are both being very selfish and wishing him back even though we no that is not the life he would have wanted. I have always heard it is so hard on the ones left behind and that is so true. The pain is so hard to deal with sometimes. We know Brandon is in heaven having the best time of his life and no longer feeling sick, but I still wish over and over to please let me have him back. I miss his smile and how he just made our life complete. He was the best son I could have ever asked for and I still question why him, why our family. I sure wish God would give us our plan in life, because I really still can't understand why.
We made it through Thanksgiving. We were with some friends, which is different for us. It was nice to do something different. It seems like everything we do now is different and always will be. We all went to Brandon's grave and spent time with him first and then went back to our friends house for dinner. She did almost all the cooking and made it very easy for me. Christmas is so hard already. We have the house decorated because that is what Brooke wanted and we feel we need to make things as normal as possible for her, but it is just very hard to see everything and know Brandon will never be with us again on Christmas. It was one of his most favorite holidays. Him and I were always watching Christmas movies in the hospital and at home all year long. We have not made final plans for Christmas eve or Christmas day yet, but we have told all our family and friends to please not buy us gifts this year because it is going to be to hard for us to do any shopping or exchanging. We are just doing for Brooke only and she is making it easy on us. We are leaving on Dec 26th thru Jan 1st to take Brooke and her friend Jordan to Disney World. We wanted to leave town and do something different. Brooke is very excited and that makes us feel good.
Scott and I went to the hospital and Dr. McMahon's office the other day. It was very hard, but we got thru it. We had made something for them and wanted to deliver it. As usual everyone was so nice and still treated us like family. We also finally ordered Brandon's marker and bench and they hope to have them in by Christmas. I can't wait to see them. They should look really nice. My friend Kim and I decorated a Christmas tree in the theme of Brandon's colors and team (Panthers) and took it out to his grave. I know he loves it. We also went to the school this past week for the winter sports awards. They wanted us to present the award that was put in place last year from the football team. It was given to Brandon last year and will now be given to a football player every year. It is called The Brandon Elam Most Courageous Award. It is so hard for us to do these things, but we do it for Brandon and are very proud and honored that Brandon is not forgotten.
I will try to update again before Christmas, but if not have a good one and please keep us and all the other families that have lost a child in your prayers. Holidays are just not the same anymore and a very tuff time on us.
I want to thank everyone for all your love and support. It means a lot to us. We could not go thru this journey without our family and friends.
Love to all,
Anita, Scott, and Brooke
The Proud Parents and Sister to ^Brandon^
Brandon We love and miss you and can't wait until we are all together again.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007 11:23 PM CST
It is so hard to believe that Brandon has been gone for 6 weeks today. What I would give to turn back time. Life is just so hard without him in it. We stay busy (not really sure with what, still working on Brookes room), but everything we do never feels right. We have an empty void with us all the time. Our house feels so different and our life feels so different. This is not the life we planned. Scott and I planned to be a family of 4 and now we are just a family of 3. We had the perfect family 1 boy and 1 girl. Most peoples dream family. Brooke had a brother and now she is an only child. It is just so hard to understand why god only let us have Brandon for such a short period of time. I understand that he has plans for him in heaven, but I sure was not done with him here. I would really like to know what the plans are. I just never new my heart could hurt so much and that I could feel so sad. I also never thought I would visit a gravesight so much. Scott and I went to a teenager's funeral the other night in the same church where we had Brandon's. It was very tuff. It just made me think a lot during the funeral about now this girl was in heaven with Brandon and did he meet her at the gates and show her around. It just made me think so much why. Why did Brandon have to go thru three years of fighting for his life, giving up being a teenager, and so much more. For what, he still lost the battle. Then you have this girl that seemed like she had everything going for her. She was in her last year of highschool and now she is gone. On the way home I said to scott I think there should be a rule that when a parent looses a child no matter how. That they should be able to go to heaven for 10 minutes to see what they look like, what they are doing and just make sure they are ok. I don't know if it would make the hurt any better, but it could answer a lot of questions you ask youself over and over.
I'm not looking forward to the holidays at all. I can't believe Thanksgiving is next week. Christmas will be here before you know it. They say the first's are really hard, but I have not even got use to Brandon not being here and we are already having to deal with them. I'm just not really sure how we will get thru them. If I had my choice we would not celebrate at all, but with having Brooke it is very hard. She seems like she wants life to stay the same. This time last year we were planning our trip to NY for Thanksgiving. We had so much fun and made so many memories. I sure do wish we could have Brandon with us this year to do that again.
I wanted to let you know about this Sat Nov 17th. There will be a tree planting in celebration of Brandon from 8:30am to 10:00am at The Divide golf course. If you would like to come, please feel free to do so. If you need additional info, please contact Kurt or Nicole Pearson at 704-882-4127 or
I want to thank everyone for all your love and support to our family. It means a lot to us to know that so many people still care even though Brandon is no longer with us. As you can see it is very hard for me to update the site. I always used this for letting people know about Brandon and how he was doing. It is very hard to put out here how we are doing. It seems like I say the same thing and it is always sad thoughts that I know get people down, but thank you for still checking Brandons website and leaving the messages they still mean a lot to us. I will try to do better about more updates. Have a great Thanksgiving and please say an extra prayer for us that day. We will need it. Please say extra prayers for all the families that are going thru thier 1st's without thier children. There are a lot of them and they were all dear to us and can use the prayers also.
Love to all,
Anita, Scott and Brooke
The Proud Parents and Sister to ^Brandon^!!!
Brandon we love and miss you so much and can't wait until we are all together again.
Wed, October 31, 2007 11:45 PM CDT
This updated is going to be very different, but I need to do it.
Thanks
Brandon,
What a day it has been for me. I know a lot of people don't make Halloween big, but we always have and always have had so much fun. In the past three yrs Halloween has been tuff, but we still made the best we could of it. In 2004 you were in pic-u and finally got off the ventilator and later that day got to move to step down. I know you didn',t remember any of it. In 2005 we were home and dressed up and had fun giving out candy and hanging out with our friends. In 2006 we had just learned 1month earlier that you relapsed and were in the hospital getting transfusions for the day. We came home that night and all of us dressed up and hung out with fiends, gave out candy and made a lot of memories. I never thought it would be my last Halloween with you. I'm sure glad we had fun, but this one in 2007 has been very tuff for me. I made the best of it, because I know that is what you would have wanted us to do. It seems like everything we do we always have a piece missing and that is you. I can't believe you have been gone 1month now and I already had to celebrate a holiday without you. It is just not fair and I sure do wish you could be back here with us. Before dad and I got dressed up today we came out to your gravesight to spend Halloween with you. It is so very hard to do that, but I guess that will be my way from now on. Brooke went with her friends to lakepark and dad and I hung out with friends here. When Brooke got home we all hung out at Kim and Ron's with a bunch of others until about 11:00 and you came up a lot like always. I hope you had fun up in Heaven with all your friends and PaPa. I hope you watched over us and saw I have stuck to my promise that we would be sad when you were gone, but would still move forward. That is what I'm trying to do. I have never typed like this before on here except for your birthday and special times with the hopes that one day when you were better you would sit down and read everything. I just felt like I needed to type this tonight and I know you will read all of it. I love you very much and so proud that you were such a great son and person. I know you are still loved by so many people here on earth and in heaven and will never be forgotten. I LOVE AND MISS YOU SO MUCH. I can't wait for the day that we are together again.
Love Mom
Sunday,October 28,2007 9:08 PM CDT
It is so hard to believe that about this time 4 weeks ago my front yard and house was filled with so many people holding candles and praying for Brandon and our family. It is so hard to believe that after almost everyone had left and gone home Brandon had his first seizure ever. It was so bad that Scott and I thought he was passing then. After that point there are so many things that happened good and bad that I keep playing over and over in my head. I sure do hope in time the bad will go away and I only remember the good. It is so hard to believe on Tues it will be 4 weeks since Brandon passed away. Sometimes it seems like forever and sometimes it seems like yesterday. I still have so many times that I start to say I need to check on Brandon and then I remember he is not here anymore. I think that will happen for a long time. For the past 3yrs Scott and I made all our plans around how Brandon was feeling and if he could go with us. We always had him with us and now a lot of times it is just Scott and I. We still have Brooke, but she was always off with her friends and still is doing that for the most part.
This past week was a very tuff week for us. On Mon 10-22-07 it was Brandons 3yr anniversary from origanal dx, Tues 10-23-07 was 3weeks since he passed away and Thurs was Brandon's 1st big brain surgery to remove his tumor. It is really tuff to think he will not be here for anymore of these anniversary dates and now we will have another anniversary date of his death. I never thought this would happen. I always thought he would beat it. Scott also went back to work on Tues and that left me home by myself. It is very tuff to make yourself get up and go when what you have been doing for 3yrs is gone all of the sudden.
I had one of the writers from the Charlotte Observer call me on Thurs to do a story on Brandon and I always did these in the past with no problem. I lost it why I was on the phone with him. We also went out to his school on Sat to a band competion they were having. They wanted us to present an award in Brandons honor. They called it the Brandon Elam Spirit Award. We felt so blessed that he is not forgotten and things are still happening in his name, but it was very tuff to here the words in memory of Brandon Elam and not to honor Brandon Elam. I'm just glad I had my sunglasses on when we gave the kids the award.
Brooke seems to be doing very well. She did not like our house at all after everything happened, but seems to be a little better with it now. Her friend Jordan is still staying with us, which I know is helping her. I think it is great that she has a friend like that. She is like a daughter to us and a sister to Brandon and Brooke. She also watched everything happen to Brandon as well as Brooke. I think them being together helps each other. Thank you to Pam and Chris for allowing her to be here. I know they must miss her. I have been keeping busy finally painting the bonus room that we promised Brooke for her birthday back in June. We are going to let her have that as her bedroom. Our upstairs was set up for just Brandon and Brooke, so we have a lot of spaces not being used and thought it would be nice to give her a bigger space to let her and her friends hang out in. Please pray after all my hard work that she will not be scared and move in there.
As always thank you for your prayers and concerns. It means so much to us. Please continue to pray for our family we could us prayers to keep us going.
Love to all,
Anita, Scott, and Brooke
The proud parents and sister to ^Brandon^ !!!
Tuesday, October 16, 2007 1:01 PM CDT
I feel like I need to update Brandon's website, but not really sure what to put in here. This website was set up to let you know how Brandon is feeling and what is going on with his treatment's. That all has changed now and it just makes it more real for me when I type out that Brandon is gone. It is so hard to believe that Brandon passed away two weeks ago today. I know he is cancer free now and running around playing like a 16 yr old boy should be doing. I don't question that he is happy and in a wonderful place, but I do question why my Brandon. I should still be able to see and talk to him when I want and take care of him like a mom should do. I just miss his bright eyes and smile. I miss how he made our home complete. If I could only have a little more time with him.
Brandon's service was everything that Scott and I wanted it to be. It was very beautiful and we know Brandon was so proud of everything that was done for him. I know he had all his friends and his PaPa sitting with him and watching it all. I know he was amazed at all the motorcycles and police cars that led us to everything. He really liked that his sister Brooke was on a motorcycle and leader of the pack. The rest of us were in a Hummer Limo and he would of not wanted it any other way. We new that Brandon had touched so many people, but his viewing and service comfirmed how many lives he has touched. The funeral home told us it was the biggest they ever did and as Brandon's parents that makes us so proud.
I want to thank everyone for caring about Brandon and our family. It is so amazing to see how much people care. Thank you to everyone that came to the house and hospital and shared the last hours with Brandon and our family, for everyone that came to Brandon's services,for the memorial that was in our front yard and street when we came home at 4:30 in the morning from the hospital, for all the donations made in Brandon's name, flowers, cards, gifts, messages on his website, calls, dinners, cleaning our house, and for anything else that I forgot to list. It means so much to us to know that we are loved so much.
We made a promise to Brandon that we would keep his name going and he would never be forgotten. We have big plans for his slogan ELAM-N8 CANCER and we are asking that people will respect us and not do anything with the slogan. We know that people want to do things just because they care, but for ours plans to work we need you to respect us and let us get thoughts together and our plan working and you will see his slogan everywhere.
As always thank you for all your prayers and concerns. It means so much to us. Please continue to pray for our family we can use all your prayers to keep us going.
Love to all,
Anita, Scott and Brooke
The proud parents and sister to ^Brandon^!!!
Wednesday, October 3, 2007 3:17 AM CDT
Visitation will be Friday, October 5, 2007 from 6:00pm until at First Baptist Church of Indian Trail
732 Indian Trail, NC 28079.
Funeral service will be Saturday October 6, 2007 at Noon at the church. Burial at Forest Lawn East
3700 Forest Lawn Dr
Matthews, NC 28104
Heritage Funeral Home, Weddington Chapel has been entrusted with the arrangements of Brandon. 704-846-3771
Brandon passed away at 11:37pm on Tues 10-02-07 very peacefully with his family by his side. We know he is in a better place cancer free and running around like a 16yr old boy should do. We are so proud to be his parents and his sister Brooke is so proud to have him as her brother. He was such a blessing to have him in our life and will never be forgotten.
I will update with funeral arangements when they are completed.
Love to all,
Anita
Tuesday, October 2, 2007 11:35 AM CDT
I wanted to update and let everyone know that we are now in the hospital and Brandon does not have a lot of time left. We had to bring Brandon in last night because we could not make him comfortable at home anymore. His is now very comfortable and we are ok with being in our home away from home when the time comes. Scott and I feel that Brandon needed to be here to say goodbye to his other family and that is why he gave us such a hard time at home.
Please watch channel 9 news (WSOC) tonight from 5:00pm to 6:30pm. They are doing a story on Brandon and our family.
Thank you for all the love and support. It means so much to us. We could not go thru this journey without the love and support from out family and friends.
Love to all,
Anita
Sunday, September 30, 2007 9:05 AM CDT
I wanted to update and let everyone know that Brandon has started the process of passing away. We noticed changes in him yesterday. We have been working with Dr. McMahon and the hospice nurses on getting him comfortable. I just got off the phone with Dr. McMahon and he thinks it could be a few more days, but not sure. Please say some extra prayers for all of us. It has been a really long and tiring 24hrs already. We still have a long hard road ahead of us with so much of the unknown.
Thank you for caring so much about Brandon and our family. It means so much to us. We could not go thru this journey without the love and support from our family and friends.
Love to all,
Anita
Monday, September 24, 2007 10:59 PM CDT
How great was Friday night. We never ever thought it would be as big as it turned out to be. I know Scott and I had just as big of a smile on our face as Brandon did. The helicopter ride was so awesome. When we got to Porter Ridge and landed it was amazing. From that point on the whole night was just great. I want to thank Drew Boggs and all the people that were involved with the helicopter ride. I need to thank The Hometown Heroes, all the police officers involved, the Porter Ridge School and students, the community, and all our family and friends for making this night happen. This will be a night we will charish forever. All the media was so awesome to get Brandon's story out there. Thank you everyone. I hope I have not forgot anyone if so sorry and I thank you.
Now to how Brandon is doing. Everyday gets harder on him. His pain is just taking over and everything he try's to do is such a struggle. I have to up the dose on his morphine pump everyday and sometimes I up it more then one time in a day. He is just so tired of living in pain and wants it to go away. It breaks my heart that it has to be this way. We are very limited to getting him out of the house, because it is to hard on him. He had a Dr. appt today and he needed to get platelets. His body is just not able to keep them up anymore. They were very low (8,000 normal is 150,000 to 350,000). They are going to have the nurse come out Wed and check his counts again. I'm sure he will need another transfusion before the week is over. I will update later in the week if anything happens. While we were in the clinic getting platelets we had a good time thanks to some great people. Thank you Lannette for stopping by and the great gifts. Thank you Sherri for stopping by and hanging out with us. It is always good to see you. We had some fun with the childlife staff also. Thank you Sharon and Laura for making the hand sculptures with us. I love the one we have and can't wait to see the other one. We also got to see Brigette, Katie and Jack. Also thank you to all the staff for always spoiling us. You all our famiy and we love you all very much.
We are still ok with having visitors come by and see Brandon and our family. As usual please call first so we can work around Brandon and all the rest he needs.
Thank you for caring about Brandon and our family. It means a lot to us. We could not get thru this journey without the love and support from our family and friends.
Love to all,
Anita
Thursday, September 20, 2007 1:04 AM CDT
I wanted to let everyone know about a couple of things that are going on for Brandon's big night. Molly Grantham with WBTV news is going to interview us on Thurs 9-20 and it will be played back on the news that night. It will be on the 10:00pm news that is on channel 8 WJZY and 11:00pm news on channel 2 WBTV (this is for time warner cable). Tune into lite 102.9 radio on fri morning 9-21 starting about 7:45am to about 8:15am to hear Brandon's interview with Tony and Jen.
We did have an appt with Dr. McMahon today and Brandon needed to have a platelet transfusion again. His blood was still ok from Fri. He is still having a lot of pain and we continue to increase the morphine to try to make him comfortable.
Please remember to come out to Porter Ridge High School football game Friday night they have a lot of stuff planned for Brandon. Make sure you get there early.
Love to all,
Anita
Monday,September 17,2007 0:07AM CDT
Hello everyone! Sorry I didn't update sooner. Life is just crazy all the time. Brandon did have to have a blood and platelet transfusion on Fri. His counts had dropped a lot. This is one of the things that Dr. McMahon had told me would start to become a problem. Please pray that they will not get any worse, because I'm not sure how long we can do the tranfusions and without them Brandon will get very sick. We got to the hospital about 12:20pm on Fri and did not get home until about 10:00pm that night. It was a long day and very tiring for Brandon. They did put us in a hospital rm with a bed so Brandon could be more comfortable. We do not go back to Dr. McMahon until Wed. Please pray things will be good. Brandon is still having a lot of pain, but we are keeping it more under control with the morphine pump. He is getting a lot of morphine for such a tiny body. He is having a very hard time with standing and walking. He is in the bed or in his Panthers Room. If we go anywhere his is in his wheelchair.
Brandon is a big Panther fan as most of you know. He still amazes us. When he wants to do something it does not matter how much pain he has, he does it. He went to the game today and stayed until there was only 6min left in the game. Scott Brandon my brother and myself all went. Brandon sat with my brother in a spot where he could stay in his wheelchair and Scott and I went with my friend Kim and her husband Steve. We had a good time and it felt great to put a smile on his face. I forget how sensitive his skin is and Brandon looks like a lobster from the sun. We put a hat on his head, but he got fried in a lot of other places.
I wanted to let everyone know about something going on at Brandon's High School (Porter Ridge) this Friday Sept 21st. The school is recognizing Brandon and the Hometown Heroes at the varsity football game. The game will start at 7:30pm. You will want to get there early enough to see Brandon's arrival at 7:00pm. (it is a surprise as to how he will show up, but you do not want to miss it) Last year there was such a big turn out that a lot of people were not even in the stadium for the start of the game and missed everything. So give yourself enough time. The first play of the game was prepared by Brandon, per the coach at Porter Ridge, it will be called the Brandon Elam play. If you can make it we would love to see everyone.
We were interviewed Wed by channel 9 news. They had interviewed us when Brandon had relapsed and they were doing a follow up to everything that has happened. As soon as I find out when it is going to be on I will post.
I want to thank everyone that has stopped by the house to visit with Brandon and the rest of us. We have really enjoyed seeing everyone. Also thank you for all the calls, cards, gifts, food, emails and entry's in the guestbook. Visitors are still welcome. We ask that you call ahead so we can give Brandon time to rest and have are own family time.
Thank you for caring about Brandon and our family so much. We could not go thru this journey without the love and support of our family and friends.
Love to all,
Anita
Thursday, September 13, 2007 11:37 PM CDT
Quick Update:
Check out this site it is info about Brandon's logo and armband that is going to be on the No 21 Wood Brothers/JTG truck this Sat Sept 15th. It is the Bush Truck Series on the speed channel. The progam starts at 2:30pm and the race starts at 3:00pm. They are going to talk a little bit about what Brandon is going thru.
http://www.truckseries.com/cgi-script/NCTS_07/articles/000125/012516.htm
I will try to update tomorrow after the nurse does Brandon's labs and we have the results. He is still in a lot of pain, but hanging in there.
Love to all,
Anita
Monday,September10,2007 9:26PM CDT
Hello everyone! Brandon had an appt with Dr. McMahon today and he was pleased with his progress so far. Brandon is still doing well except the pain. We continue to increase the morphine rate to try and keep Brandon comfortable. We also added a steroid pill(decadron) 2x a day to help with the pain. Between the two of them they are helping to make him a little more comfortable and able to let him move around a little more then he was. We are going to have the nurse come out on Fri morning to have Brandon's counts checked again. His platelets and hemaglobin have dropped a lot since last week and he might need to have a transfusion. Dr. McMahon feels like this is going to be a issue for Brandon. As long as he can get out of the house and go to the clinic we will continue with the transfusions. At some point it will be to hard for Brandon to get in the car and go to the clinic. At that time we will not be able to do the transfusions anymore, because that is something they will not do at home.
We were able to get Brandon to the Hometown Heroes event on Fri morning. He had a good time. Brandon, Scott and I went in the Sheriff's car with the Hometown Heroes to take Spencer Griffin to school. It was another great time with everybody. Thank you to everyone that came out to support Brandon and our family and also thank you to everyone from Porter Ridge Highschool that helped out with the event. A big thanks to everyone with Hometown Heroes for doing this for us and all the children. You guys are great. I hope you all had a great trip. We were also able to get Brandon out Sat night to a party for a friend of ours (Bobby) that is also battling cancer. It was great to spend time with him and his family. We also got to see a lot of others that we have not seen in awhile. It was a lot of fun with everyone.
I wanted to thank everyone that has stopped by the house to visit with Brandon and the rest of us. We have really enjoyed seeing everyone. Also thank you for all the calls, emails, cards and entry's in the guestbook. Visitors are still welcome. We ask that you call ahead of time so that we can still allow Brandon to rest when he needs to.
Thank you for caring so much about Brandon and our family. We could not go through this journey without the love and support of our family and friends.
Love to all,
Anita
Wednesday, September 5, 2007 1:04 AM CDT
Hello everyone! I wanted to give everyone an update on how things are going. There has not been a lot of changes with Brandon, except his pain. It is getting worse everyday. He is having a very hard time standing and walking, because the pain in his legs is so bad. We did start the morphine pump, but we are still trying to get it at a rate that will not make him sleep all day, but ease the pain. Besides the pain he is the same Brandon that we love.
We are not due to go back to Dr. McMahon's office until Monday. I will update if anything changes before then.
We had our preacher come over to the house on Fri and he baptized Brandon and answered questions about heaven and let Brandon know that when the time comes Brandon would go there to live life like he should be living. He will have no worries, no pain, and no cancer. He can be the boy he was before CANCER. It was very nice for all of us and made Brandon feel better.
We have been very busy with a lot of people coming by to see Brandon and us. It has been very nice to spend time with everyone. It has kept us busy with little time to think. The offer still is open for visitors to come by, but please call first to make sure Brandon is feeling well enough to visit.
Hometown Heroes is having their big bike ride this Fri. morning. This is the one that they escort a child to school. Last year was Brandon. We are planning on going. Please pray that Brandon feels well enough to go.
With everything else that has happened. I think I forgot to mention that we have another dog now. We adopted another Chihuahua from a friend that didn't want him anymore. He is a 1 1/2 old and is named Tiki. He looks like the Taco Bell dog. He has been really good and has become Brookes dog. With everthing that has happened he has been good for her. So you know he is here for good. I know I have to be crazy.
Thank you for caring so much about Brandon and our family. It means a lot to us. We could not go thru this journey without the love and support from our family and friends.
Love to all,
Anita
Thursday, August 30, 2007 9:45 PM CDT
Hello everyone! I want to start off first by saying thank you to everyone for all you kind words, for all of the phone calls checking on us and for the ones that have asked about coming by to see Brandon. It is just amazing to us how many people have followed Brandon and our family through this journey for 3yrs. We could never give all the thank you's that we should.
As for how we are doing. We are hanging in there. It has been a long week, but we are getting thru it. I had a talk with Brandon on Tues and let him know about everything. It was a really good talk for both of us. Dr. McMahon had told me on Monday that there is another chemo treatment we could try, but it was the first time he did not reccomend us doing it. He didn't think at this point it would make a difference. Brandon, Scott and I also agree with him. Brandon told me he was tired and he didn't want to have anymore chemo. I cannot tell you how proud I am of him. He has done everything possible to beat this and he is just not winning. I also let him know that and told him not to feel like he is giving up, because he didn't. I also had a talk with Brooke and she know's what is going to happen. I have to say I'm so proud of both my children. They both seem to be handling it very well. We are not sure what kind of time frame we are dealing with and what we are going to be faced with next. That is the hardest thing for us right now.
Brandon is in a lot of pain and from what we are told it is going to get worse. We have tried some things this week to make him more comfortable, but they are not working. We have agreed to put Brandon on a morphine pump that should make him more comfortable. We have an appt with Dr. McMahon tomorrow to get him hooked up on this.
We know a lot of people would like to come out and visit with Brandon and our family. We have talked to Brandon about this and all of us are ok with it. Please call ahead of time to make sure he is up to visitors.
We know this is just the next step to this journey and we have a lot of hard times to come, but with the love and support from our family and friends we know we will get thru it. Thank you for everything. It means so much to all of us.
Love to all,
Anita
Thursday, August 23, 2007 10:52 PM CDT
SCAN UPDATE Monday,August27,2007 11:10PM
This is very hard for me to even type, but I feel you guys should know. The PET Scan was not good today. Not sure of next plan, but things do not look very good. I will give more details later when I have the energy and time to process it myself and with Brandon and Brooke. Please keep all of us in your prayers. We need it.
Love to all,
Anita
Hello everyone we made it home from the beach. We had a really nice time with our family. It was so nice to take a few days away from everyday life. We were able to have fun and make some great memories.
Brandon is a trooper. It amazes us how he keeps going no matter how he feels. He was not able to do everything that he likes to do when we go to the beach, but he still had a good time. He has been a sleep most of the evening since we got home and is already in bed for the night.
We have to go to the hospital on Monday morning and have a PET Scan done. This will scan his whole body so we can see what we are dealing with and if there is anything else that we can try to get the tumors to go away. We already had an appt. set up with Dr. McMahon at 1:30 on Monday to start his next round of chemo, but I'm not sure what will happen. We will plan to go to his office after the test and see what he says. Please keep praying for us that Brandon gets a miracle and the tests come back good.
I will be busy for the next couple of days getting Brooke ready for school. We have not done anything yet. It is so hard for us because we need to keep things as normal as we can for Brooke, but then it is so unfair to Brandon. Here is another school year starting and he is still sick and not able to go. It is so hard to believe that we have been fighting this Beast for almost a year since he relapsed. This time last year Scott and I were so happy because Brandon was able to start school and go full days for the 1st time in two yrs. We all felt like life was getting almost normal for us. As you all know that did not last long at all. Now it is so hard to believe that we are running out of options and time. We should be sending both of our children off to school on Monday, but we are only sending Brooke and taking Brandon for a test that will tell us how bad the cancer has spread.
Thank you for all your prayers and concerns. It means a lot to us. We could not get thru this journey without the love and support from our family and friends. Please sign the guestbook we love to hear from you.
Love to all,
Anita
Friday,August 17,2007
We got the results from Brandons scans. They are not what we were hoping for. Dr. McMahon said it has spread again. We are gonna go on our beach trip. The week of the 27th when we come back we are going to have a PET scan done to see how the tumors are in his whole body. Please just say some extra prayers for us, because we are running out of drugs and time.
Love to all,
Anita
Monday,August 13,2007 11:19 PM CDT
Hello everyone I wanted to give you a update on how Brandon is doing and what our next plan is. He is finally starting to come around after this round of chemo. With his weight loss it has been hard for him to bounce back. We did see Dr. McMahon today and Brandons counts were good. His weight has not changed since last week. We need to get some weight back on him because it is effecting the way he feels and looks. Dr. McMahon said he is malnourished and you can really notice it in his face and eyes and also in his body (very skinny). He has not looked like this since his first time fighting this beast. You start to wonder how much more can his frail body take. It is hard to believe, but in Sept it will be a year since he relapsed. That is a long time to keep putting poison in your body and don't forget this is the second time he has had chemo and radiation treatments.
Brandon will have a MRI on Wed on his hip/pelvis and legs. I should have the results later that day. We are hoping that the chemo has started working and shrinking the tumors. Dr. McMahon said if the chemo has done anything he would like to give him another round of chemo at the full dose again. He is still wanting us to delay the chemo for 2 weeks and go on our beach trip. He hopes by then we will have been able to get some weight back on him. It would really help to recover from the chemo. We will make our final desision after the MRI. He feels two weeks will not make a difference and it is more important to take Brandon on the trip. I'm still looking for my crystal ball that will give me all the answers I need to make my decisions easier.
I'm still giving IV medicine around the clock to help with the pain in his legs and back (that seems to be a little better) and his headaches that he has almost everyday and to help with the naushea.
It is just not fair for a sweet and kind 16yr old boy to go thru this battle. He has been so strong and brave for 3yrs now. He should be out with his friends, driving, playing all the sports he loved playing and planning to go back to school (11th grade) like everyone else. I just will never understand as his mother and a human being why this is happening. No one should ever have to go this.
I will update later in the week when we know what we are doing. If Brandon has it his way we are going to the beach no matter what.
Thank you for all your prayers and concerns. It means a lot to us. We could not go thru this journey without the love andd support from our family and friends. Please sign the guest book we love to hear from you.
Love to all,
Anita
Tuesday, August 7, 2007 10:07 PM CDT
Brandon is still having a hard time from his last chemo treatment. He is not able to keep much on his stomach. He is not getting sick as much as he did in the beginning, but the colitis is still bad. Everything goes thru him. We had to get fluids a few times last week because he was dehydrated. He has not had to get any transfusions as of yet. All his counts look good except his hemaglobin (blood). Dr. McMahon is having us come back on Wed to check Brandon again. He started him on a antibiotic on Monday that we hope will stop the colitis and he can start gaining some weight back. He did gain 1 pound back as of Monday. If he is not any better by Wed he is going to have to go on TPN (IV Nutrition). We will also check his counts and if his hemaglobin has dropped he will have to have a blood tranfusion.
Next Wed Brandon is going to have a MRI of his pelvis/hips and leg area to see if the tumors look any better. He is still having a lot of pain which could mean that it didn't do anything to the tumors. It is going to depend on what the tumors look like before we decide if we will do another round of chemo or not. It is making him very sick and week with a lot of weight loss. Please pray things look better.
We are talking about going to Myrtle Beach for a few days the week before school starts. My cousin and her family are going to stop there on their way to Fl. If we do go that means we will have to delay Brandon's chemo again. Dr. McMahon has told us to go and delay the chemo. He says at this point being late a week or two will not matter and we need to take any trips that we want to take . We will see how he is doing by next week. I'm not sure how he will handle the heat at the beach and he can only get in the water up to his waist. The kids want to go and see their cousins. Brandon has not been to the beach in 3 years since he got sick.
We did get Brandon to go Sat night to the bike race downtown. The money raised goes to help research on brain tumor's in the Carolinas. It is the wrap up to the 24hrs of Booty also. Brandon's team came in third place for the most money raised, but Chuck Cullen who is on the team raised the most money as a individual. He won the Booty cup and presented that to Brandon. I always say Brandon is a trooper and he is. We stayed for the whole thing and it was very hot. He had been sick and on the toilet on and off all day and still lasted all night. Thank you again to everyone that made this happen. It means a lot to us.
My computer is getting fixed. When I get it back I will updated with pictures from NY and the bike ride.
Thank you for all your prayers and concerns. It means a lot to us. We could not get thru this journey without our family and friends. Please leave a message we love to hear from you.
Love to all,
Anita
Tuesday, July 31, 2007 10:21 PM CDT
Last week was very busy going back and forth to the hospital everyday for chemo. Brandon was a trooper and was able to get the full dose. He even went out to the 24 hrs of Booty bike ride on Fri night. Sat was the day that it really started to hit him. He is very tired and just does not have a lot of energy to do anything. He is having a lot of stomach cramps and is very naushish. He also woke up Sat with a really bad rash on his body that is very itchy.
He had to go see Dr. McMahon on Monday. Brandon looked really bad by then. He has not looked this bad in a long time after chemo. I thought by the look on Dr McMahon's face when he walked in the room that he was going to admit Brandon in the hospital. He did have to stay and get fluids because he was dehydrated. In one week he had lost 5 pounds. Dr. McMahon said if he gets any worse as the week goes on or if the rash get's worse he would have to admit him in. Dr. McMahon is not sure what the rash is or how Brandon got it. So far he seems to be a little better since the fluids and the rash is a little better.
The nurse is coming out on Wed and Fri to check Brandons counts. Hopefully everything will be fine or we will have to go in for a transfusion. We do not need to go back in and see Dr. McMahon until Monday unless Brandon gets worse.
Brooke and her friend Jordan are going to fly to NY on Thurs by themselves. They are going to Jordans grandparents house. They live in upstate NY. They will be back on Tues night. She is very excited. This will be the first time that both of them fly without their parents.
I will update if anything changes with Brandon or if he ends up in the hospital. Please pray the worse is over and that he starts to get some energy and an appitite for food and drink back.
Thank you for all your prayers and concerns. It means a lot to us. We could not get thru this journey without the love and support from our family and friends. Please leave us a message we love to hear from you.
Love to all,
Anita
Tuesday, July 24, 2007 8:32 PM CDT
We are back from NY City. We got back Sat. night and have been none stop since. We had a great time. We did a lot of shopping and walking, we did a tour of the NBC studios, walked thru Central Park, did a lot of sight seeing on the double decker buses, went to Chinatown and Little Italy for one day and of coarse went to a Yankees game. Brandon had such a good time. He sat in the dugout during the practice and got to meet a lot of the players and get a picture with them and an autograph. He got a tour all around the stadium and we had awesome seats. His favorite player is Derek Jeter and he did not get to meet him. That was a bummer. I guess we will have to go back to another game and try to meet him. We did not go to Cooperstown. We just thought it would be to much on Brandon and there was still things that he and Brooke wanted to do in the city. We told him we will try to take a small trip just to Cooperstown. The Marty Lyons Foundation did a really nice trip for us. We made a lot of fun memories. I will post pictures when I have more time.
I do not know how Brandon made it all week long. We were non stop. He is a trooper. He is still having a lot of pain. It has gotten a lot worse in the past 2 weeks. He is really having a hard time walking on his one leg. I have been giving him morphine every 3 to 4 hrs to help take the edge off.
Brandon also had a surprise on sunday when we got home. I had to wake him up around 12:30pm when he had a visit from Donnie, Jackie, Chris, Kelly and their kids from the Hometown Heroes. Why we were gone they took his golf cart and put a sterio and speakers in it. He was very excited and surprised to them and what they had done. He loved it. He never noticed that the golf cart was even missing on sat when we got home. Thank you guys again. Hometown Heroes also gave Brandon and Brooke spending money to take to NY City before we left. We cannot thank you enough for everyting you have done for Brandon and our famiy. It means a lot to us. Also thank you for always thinking about Brooke too. You guys are the best.
We had to go back to Dr. McMahon on Mon. He decided to xray his leg to make sure there was not a break because the pain is so bad. Everything was fine. They also checked his counts and they were good except the platelets. They were a little low but still ok to start chemo. Dr. McMahon wanted to still try another round of the same chemo. He did not give the full dose the last time and said we needed to see if it would make things better with the full dose. We started chemo yesterday and will get it for 5 days in a row. He is giving the full amount. We are going to the hospital everyday to get the chemo. It takes about 2hrs to run and then we get to go home. So far Brandon is feeling ok with the 2 treatments. Please pray that he continues to handle the chemo and we don't have to be put in the hospital. Also pray that this time it starts to work. We are running out of chemo drugs to give.
Thank you for all your prayers and concerns. It means a lot to us. We could not go thru this journey without the love and support from family and friends. Please leave us a message we love to hear from you.
Love to all,
Anita
Friday, July 13, 2007 9:35 PM CDT
Hello everyone! Brandon has done ok with this chemo. He has had some side effects, but not real bad. I just hope things stay good next week why we are away in NY. We had to go in to the clinic on Thurs and get a blood transfusion. This should keep him juiced up for the trip. All his other counts looked good. He has lost 4 pounds since chemo and can't afford to loose any at all. I know when we go back in on Monday Dr. McMahon will not be happy. He has been gone our last two visits and doesn't know about the loss. The biggest problem we have had with the new chemo is the colitis. I feed him at night in his feeding tube and that is when he gets a lot of his calories. Since the chemo we have to stop the feedings during the night or cut them back, because he is vomiting and having the colitis issues. It has gotten better this week. Hopefully he will eat good on our trip.
We are leaving on Sunday for our trip to NY City. The Marty Lyons Foundation is the once that is sending us on the trip. They have done such a great job. A limo will pick us up at the house and take us to the airport. When we get to NY a limo will take us to our hotel that is in the heart of the city by Time Square. We will have Sunday late afternoon and evening, Monday and Tues to tour the city. On Wed a limo is picking us up at the hotel at 3:00 taking us to Yankees Stadium. We will get a tour of the stadium before open to public. Brandon gets to go on the field with players during their warm up and then our seats will be behind home plate. If you get the baseball channel watch for us on TV. When over the limo will take us back to the hotel. On Thurs we are taking a rent a car to Copperstown and will spend the night. We will drive back to the city on Fri when done in Copperstown. We will have a limo pick us up late Sat afternoon and take us back to the airport in NY and when we get back in Charlotte we will have a limo to take us home. They also gave us spending money. This will be such a great trip. We are all very excited. A lot of my family lives in NJ about 45min from the city and my cousin and her kids might come meet us one day.
When we get home Brandon will be due for chemo starting Monday. Dr. McMahon did say he was going to give him the full dose this time. Please pray that he can and Brandon does well with it, because he is still having a lot of pain and some new issues. This means that the chemo is not doing what it should. After the chemo we will repeat all his tests again and see what the next step will be. Pleas pray that Brandon does not get sick in NY and we don't have to visit any hospital why we are gone.
Thank you for all your concerns and prayers. It means a lot to us. We could not get thru this journey without the love and support from our family and friends. Please leave us a message we love to hear from you.
Love to all,
Anita
Monday, July 2, 2007 7:44 PM CDT
Just call me slacker. What else can I say except life is always crazy without enough time to get stuff done.
Brandon got the chemo for the 1st 3 days in the hospital and did well, so we did the last two days in the clinic and were able to sleep in our own house. It was nice, but a long week.
Dr. McMahon decided to cut the chemo in 1/2, because the chemo he is giving Brandon a report had come out the week before about a gene that very little people have that can make the side effects worse then normal. Go figure he decided to check to see if Brandon has the gene and he does. I was not thrilled to have to start out this way with a new chemo. We did decide to have a MRI done on his hips/pelvis and legs when we were in the hospital getting the chemo, because Brandon is having so much new pain. It did look like the tumors have spread and the chemo we were on had stopped working. We just pray that this chemo does the trick without a lot of side effects.
Brandon has done pretty well with the chemo so far. He has had some of the side effects, but not real bad. This week and next week can be bad from what we were told. I hope he continues to do good. We saw a different Dr. today, because Dr. McMahon is out and he said Brandon looked like he was doing good. Some of his counts have started to drop and we wil check them later in the week to see if we need a transfusion. He also lost 2 more pounds. This usually happens during chemo and then he puts it back on later.
We just found out today that Brandon got a second wish trip granted to NY City. They will fly us all up to NY City. We will go to a Yankees game in a limo and he will get to to out on the field with the team during practice time and hang out in the dugout with the players. He can get autographs and his picture made with them. They also said our seats will be behind homeplate. We will also stay in NY City for the week and go two days to Cooperstown. He is very excited. We are planning to go the week of 7-15 to 7-21-07. Please pray that Brandon is over this chemo and feels good. We will do another round of chemo the week we get back and then repeat all his tests.
Thank you for checking in on us and for all your prayers and concerns. It means so much to us. We could not go thru this journey without the love and support from our family and friends. Please leave a message and let us know you were checking on us. We love to hear from you.
Love to all,
Anita
Sunday, June 24, 2007 10:15 PM CDT
Hello everyone sorry I have not updated sooner. Sometimes it is to much to deal with and I just wish it would all go away. By updating the info then it just makes me deal with it more then I want to.
We are going into the hospital on Monday to start two new types of chemo. Dr. McMahon was not able to tell us if the cancer was any better or worse since this last round of chemo. He just knows that the bone marrow came back positive in more then one place. He feels it is time to introduce something else and hopefully it can get the rest of the cancer gone. The plans are to do two rounds of this chemo and then repeat all the test again.
Brandon is still having really bad headaches and he is also complaining of back and leg pain again. He is walking with a limp. This is how this all started and it is very scary to think what is going on. I will let Dr. McMahon know about this tomorrow and he possibly will do some more testing to see what is going on. Please pray that it is nothing.
The chemo he is going to take can cause very bad colitis during the treatments and again later. It also has a lot of other side effects. Please pray that these do not effect Brandon very bad. The chemo is for 5 days in a row. We are not sure how long we will be in the hospital. It depends on how well he does. Dr. McMahon is concerned about the colitis due to his chrones disease.
We are trying to plan the trip to NY in between the two rounds of chemo. It is scary since we do not know how it will effect him. I have to tell you everytime we change the chemo it feels like we a starting over with all of the unknowns. Is it going to work and is it going to make him sick. This all stinks and the longer we do it the harder it is getting on everyone.
Brandon and I did get to go on Thurs to an event at Dakota's house. It was the first annnual party on the lake to honor Dakota's memory and life. They have a great place and had a lot of kids that have or had cancer came. They were able to swim, go out on the boats and go tubing. Brandon did get out one time on the boat and got in a 3 seat tube with his nurse Kristen and I. He payed for it later, but had fun. They also had food and great fireworks at the end. It was very nice to spend time with Lannette and her family and friends.
Monday is Brookes 13th birthday and I feel bad, because once again we cannot be together as a family for a special day of hers. We have been doing this for almost 3yrs now and have had a lot of special days not together as a family. Cancer sucks for Brandon and our whole family. My Uncle Dale came in from NJ on Wed and the whole family and Brookes friend Mia went out to eat to Nakatoes on Fri night to celebrate her birthday. I also took Mia and Brooke on Fri for a pedicure and to the mall shopping Sat. We do not have to be at the hospital until 1:30 on Monday, so we are all going out to eat lunch for Brookes birthday and then Brandon and I will go to the hospital and Scott is off for the day and will be with Brooke. We are also trying to plan a party for her at some point. She is either wanting to rent a limo and go out riding for the night with girl friends or if I can get it worked out to rent a boat for the day go out on the lake and go tubing. Can you see how tired I am. Oh and also we are moving Brooke from her room to the bonus rm and making her rm the home office/Scotts office. We must be crazy.
Thank you for checking in on us and for all your prayers and concerns. It means so much to us. We could not get thru this journey without the love and support from family and friends. Please go to Brandons guestbook and leave us a message. We love to hear from you.
Love to all,
Anita
Saturday, June 16, 2007 1:47 PM CDT
It was a very busy week. We had all of Brandon's test done except for the spinal tap. They were 3 1/2hrs behind in the MRI unit. it was going to be around 7:00pm when Dr. McMahon could get in there to do the MRI and he was gone. We got to the hospital about 12:00pm and did not get home until 10:00pm. Very long two days.
Brandon is very sore still from the bone marrow test. They went in 4 different spots. He has been just resting and watching TV.
We did get a call from Duke on Fri and got a package of info today. They wanted to see us next week, but I talked to Dr. McMahon late Fri and he said we need to cancel our trip to Duke for now. Brandons MRI of the head and spine is clear. Not sure where the headaches are coming from, but the bone marrow is not clear. They did not have all the results yet from the 4 spots, but what they had so far was not clean. He should have everything by Monday.
Our plan now is to go in Monday and we will go over all the results and what our next game plan is. We are gonna see if we can take a break and take Brandon to a Yankees game and to Cooperstown in NY (it is the baseball hall of fame). This is something Brandon has been asking for and he deserves it. We are going to do what we can to make it work.
I will update with more info when we have it. Thank you for all your prayers and concerns for Brandon and our family. It means so much to us. We could not get thru this journey without the love and support from our family and friends.
Love to all,
Anita
Monday, June 11, 2007 6:28 PM CDT
Brandon and I had a very busy day today. We had to go to his gastro. Dr early this morning to have him look at his feeding tube. He finally agreed with me that it is broken and we need to replace it. He wanted me to replace it at home and I told him no. I have never done that and the site is so sore and infected that I would not want Brandon to have that kind of pain. We are going to have it done on Thurs by the ped. surgeons nurse.
When we were done we had an appt. with Dr. McMahon. Brandon has gained a pound. We need more, but better then loosing weight. His counts are still trying to recover. They are not bad enough to have a transfusion, but not good enough for more chemo yet. We did have to stay and get his monthly antibiotic infusion.
Brandon is still having headaches, so I called the surgeons office last week and they were no help at all. He is also complaining of pain in his back again. I told Dr. McMahon and he wants to go ahead and do a full MRI of his head and spine and also do a spinal tap. We need to rule everything out before we go forward with the stem cell.
They are now working with the people at Duke and they have Brandons paperwork. So hopefully we will be going to talk to them soon. We also got the results from Scott, Brooke and my blood test and none of us were a match for Brandon. We just need to pray that he has his own stem cells.
Brandon is going to have a very tuff week. On Wed he is going to be put to sleep for a bone marrow aspiration in 4 different places. On Thurs we will go back and he is going to be put to sleep again and have a full MRI of head and spine and a spinal tap. They are also going to change his feeding tube. He is going to be very tired and sore.
Please say some extra prayers for him to heal well without a lot of pain. Also we need your prayers for good results. These test will determine the next step in his treatment. If all clear we will have a petscan done and if that is clear we can move forward with the stem cell transplant.
Thank you for keeping Brandon and our family in your prayers. We could not get thru this without the love and support from our family and friends. I will update with info when I can.
Love to all,
Anita
Monday, June 4, 2007 8:29 PM CDT
Hope everyone had a good weekend. We just hung out at home. Brandon was not feeling very well and had zero counts.
We had to go to the hospital Fri. to have a blood transfusion. They also cultured Brandons feeding tube site, because it was not looking very good and not feeling good. I was not even able to use it to feed him.
Brandon had an appt with Dr. McMahon today. He did not loose or gain any weight. The feeding tube culture came back positive for yeast and a bunch of other germs. He is now on IV and mouth antibiotics for the next week. We are also going to see the gastro Dr Monday to have him look at it and see if we need to put a new one in or not. Brandon also had to get platelets today. Needless to say it was another long day at the hospital, but at least we know why he was feeling so bad all weekend long.
He is also still fighting the headaches. They are still about the same. I'm gonna see how he does this week now that his counts are trying to recover. If they are not better. I'm gonna get him back in the surgeons office next week.
The nurse will come out to the house Wed to check his counts again. Hopefully we do not need anymore transfusions. Brandon is scheduled next Wed to have another bone marrow aspiration done. Dr. McMahon wants to see what this last round of chemo did. He still has not heard back from Duke and was going to work on that his week. Hopefully they will get things worked out so we can go there and meet the doctors and go over everything about the stem cell. He is trying to get this done before the next round of chemo. That is in two weeks. We will see.
Thank you for all your prayers and concerns. It means so much to have the love and support from family and friends. We could not get thru this without you. Please leave a message. We love to hear from you.
Please remember all the famlies going thru this and say an extra prayer for them too. Also please remember our friend Bobby and his family. He is having a tuff time and they are all having to deal with a lot. They can use your prayers.
Love to all,
Anita
Wednesday, May 30, 2007 6:57 PM CDT
Hello everyone! Not much new to report, but thought I should give an update. Brandon saw Dr. McMahon on Monday and has lost more weight. He is now at 71pds. That is not good. I'm trying to up his feeds at night. So far he has done good with them. His counts had not even started to drop yet.
The nurse came out today to check his counts and they have dropped a lot. He still did not have to get a transfusion, but they will check again on Fri and he will probably need platelets and blood.
He has not felt that great yesterday and today. This usally happens when his counts are dropping. It just wipes him out. He is still having headaches pretty much everyday all day long. I can imagine this does not help with everything else. I'm giving him medicine all day long to try and help with the headaches and naushea. Hopefully they go away soon or we will have to come up with a answer to why he is having them. It just breaks my heart to see him in pain all the time.
We still don't have any info on the stem cell transplant at Duke yet. It has been very frustrating. I hate to have to work around insurance.
Thank you for your prayers and concerns. It means so much to us to have the love and support from family and friends. We could not get thru this without you. Please leave a message. We love to hear from you.
Check out these websites about 24hrs of Booty. Brandon's team was in the lead.
www.active.com/donate/Booty2007/CCullen11
www.active.com/donate/Booty2007
Love to all,
Anita
Friday, May 25, 2007 10:10 PM CDT
Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay. We came home from the hospital late Wed night. It looks like the chemo is finally kicking in. Brandon has not had a very good night. Please pray this does not get any worse for him and that it will pass very quickly.
He is still having headaches. Some days he can handle them and some days they are very bad. We are hoping they get better soon.
We will go to Dr. McMahons office on Monday to check his counts. Hopefully they will still be ok without having to get any transfusions.
Have a great weekend and holiday. We are hanging at home since Brandon is just starting with all the effects from the chemo.
Thank you for all you prayers and concerns. We could not get thru this without the love and support from our family and friends.
Love to all,
Anita
Monday, May 21, 2007 5:32 PM CDT
Things are still up in the air about the stem cell transplant. Dr. McMahon had everything set up with Chapel Hill and we were gonna go there this week to go over everything, but my insurance does not let us go there so he is now checking on Duke and trying to get things set up there. It will be a longer process and not sure when we will go. Because of the delay we were admitted in the hospital today for another round of chemo. We are doing the same kind for now. We will be here until Wed night or Thurs.
One of Brandons chemo's can cause hearing loss, so he has to have a hearing test done often. We did one today and it showed change in his hearing. He already had some loss in both ears from the first time we did chemo and the test showed that it has gotten a lot worse with the chemo we have been doing. Dr. McMahon still wanted him to have his chemo today because it is working and if we change to something else it might not work as good. This is what I hate about all of this. You work hard to get the cancer gone, but have to worry about the damage the chemo does to everything else.
Brandon is still having really bad headaches. We went to the surgeons office last Thurs. and they did a CT scan and didn't see what would be causing the headaches. They changed the shunt # back to what we had it at to see if they will get better. So far it has not worked. We will just have to give it more time with the hopes of things getting better.
Thank you for concerns and prayers. I cannot tell you how much it means to us. We could not get thru this journey without our family and friends.
Love to all,
Anita
Monday, May 14, 2007 9:35PM
Just wanted to let everyone know we did meet with Dr. McMahon today about the bone marrow aspiration. His bone marrow is not clear, but it a little better then the last time. We are waiting to hear from Dr. McMahon about the next step. He is getting with the stem cell transplant team to go over Brandons case. As soon as I know anything I will update. Not much to report, but I knew people were waiting on the results.
Thank you for all you prayers and concerns. It means so much to us.
Love to all,
Anita
Friday, May 11,2007 12:20AM
Just wanted to let you know Brandon did get the bone marrow aspiration done today. His counts looked good so he will not have them checked again until Monday. It was another long day at the hospital. Brandon has been resting since we got home. He is very sore. Hopefully we will have all the results back when we see Dr. McMahon on Monday. I hope everyone has a great Mothers Day!. Please say an extra prayer for all the mothers that have lost a child to cancer and are having to celebrate without them and also for the mothers that are not sure what the future holds for their child that is still fighting cancer. It is such a horrible disease and I wish nobody would every have to go thru any of this.
Love to all,
Anita
Monday, May 7,2007 9:30 PM CDT
Sorry for the long overdue update. The days just go by so fast anymore. Between Dr. visits, nurse visits, transfusions and everyday stuff. Then you have Brooke and all her activities and running around.
There has not been a lot of changes with Brandon and how he is feeling. He is still getting his counts checked 3x a week and having to have transfusions. We are going in tomorrow to Dr. McMahon's office for a long day. He needs a platelet and blood transfusion. I hope this will be the last for this round of chemo. After each round it seems like he needs more transfusions and it is taking longer to recover. He should have started another round of chemo today, but he is not ready. As long as his platelets are good by Thurs they will go ahead with the bone marrow aspiration. This is usually very painful afterwards for Brandon. It takes about a week to feel better.
We did see his surgeon last week and he is not really sure why Brandon is having headaches. He said it could possibly be that the shunt is letting to much fluid drain as he is up and about during the day. We have raised the # on the shunt higher so that less fluid will drain off. We did this on Thurs and so far his headaches have not gotten better yet, they seem a little worse. I'm gonna give it a few more days to see if things get better.
Brandon finally got his golf cart last week. It is really nice. I will get a picture of him on it and add to the site. He is really excited, except for the fact that the first 5 minutes he was out in it someone from our neighborhood called the cops and complained. The cop went and pulled Brandon over with lights and all. He called me and said it is a law that he has to have a liscense and have the golf cart registered with all kinds of gadgets on it. People have no clue what we have been thru and what Brandon has had to give up. It was something for him to go out and have a little fun for a change. He does not get that very often. It has really put a damper on things. We are still letting him ride it around the house and if he goes far we are with him. I wish people could just mind there own business. He was hurting anything by riding around. If he was not sick he would be driving thru the neighborhood in a car.
Thank you for all your love and support. We could not get thru this without our family and friends.
If you are having trouble with www.brandonelam.com address. You can use www.caringbridge.org/nc/brandonelam We are not sure what is going on, but working on fixing it.
Please check out this website to find out info on 24hrs of Booty (Booty for Brandon) Some of you will remember this is the reason Brandon got to go to Austin TX and meet Lance Armstrong.
http://www.active.com/donate/Booty2007/CCullen11
Love to All,
Anita
Monday, April 30, 2007 9:49 PM CDT
Hello everyone hope you had a great weekend. Ours was ok. Brooke had a softball game Sat. and besides running her everywhere we didn't do much. With Brandons counts being low. He can't do much.
Brandon had an appt with Dr. McMahon today. He gained a pound back. It is little, but a start. His counts are still low. He needed a platelet transfusion. You never know what your day is going to be like with a child with cancer. I thought we would get his platelets and then go home, but this is Brandon we are talking about. He was almost finished with the transfusion and decided to have a reaction. He all of the sudden starting screaming and crying he was itchng very bad. I asked him to lift his shirt and was I shocked he had BIG hives all over his stomach and back. Everyone came in his room and started checking his breathing and stats and also gave him a dose of IV benadryl that was already in his system from earlier. It took a little bit, but things got better. We had to stay for awhile afterwards to make sure he was ok. He still has spots on him, but they got alot smaller and are only itching him a little bit.
Dr. McMahon is planning on doing his bone marrow aspiration next Thurs. We should have the results by Monday when we go back in for our appt. He is going to get with the transplant team if the marrow is clean or has gotten better since last time. We will know more after that. There is still the possibilty this will not happen. I'm just going to wait and see.
Brandon has an appt with Dr. Henegar (surgeon) on Tues. We hope he has an answer about Brandons headaches. He has still been having them. I hope is his shunt and they just need to adjust the pressure. I will try to update when we get home.
I also had Brookes Dr appt today. Her MRI is clear. That is great news. He said he had only given her one because of our history and he needed to rule out a tumor. I had already thought the same thing. It make me feel better to know that we ruled that out. He is just going to watch her for now. we will go back in Oct. to see if there are any changes. Hopefully it stays the same, because if not she will have to wear a brace.
Thank you for all your thougts and prayers. It means so much to us to know we have so many people that care. Also thank you for all of the guest entries. We love to read them.
If you are having trouble with the www.brandonelam.com
address you can use www.caringbridge.org/nc/brandonelam we are not sure what is goin on, but working on fixing it.
Please check out this website to find out info on 24hrs of Booty (Booty for Brandon) Some of you will remember this is the reason Brandon got to go to Austin TX and Meet Lance Armstrong.
http://www.active.com/donate/Booty2007/CCullen11
Love to all,
Anita
Thursday, April 26, 2007 2:52 PM CDT
Hello everyone! It has been a busy week with Dr. visits and nurse visits. Brandon is doing ok since chemo. We did see Dr. McMahon on Monday and Brandon has lost a lot of weight in a week. He was 76pds and now 72pds. We are working on trying to make that better. He was also dehydrated and his hemaglobin was low. It ended up being a long day getting fluids and blood. He has been having some bad headaches and we thought with his blood low that was why, but he is still having them. These have been a little different, because he is having pain in one of his eyes with it. Hopefully they will get better and go away.
We were at the hospital very early today for a routine MRI of his head and spine. I was very glad to be having one with the headaches. Brandon did very well and we are home and he is resting. I just got a call when I was leaving this message and Dr. McMahon said his MRI was clear. He does not have any tumor in his head or on the spine. That is great news. He also said the area in his head from the bleed is almost totally clear. He is going to up the platelet transfusion #. We were having to get platelets if they went below 50th, now we can go to 40th.
We will meet with Dr. Henegar (surgeon) on Tues and he will go over the results of the MRI with us. We will see if we need to change his shunt settings since the fluid is almost gone. This could be some of the reeason for headaches.
We are going to wait about three weeks or so. When his counts come back up and then they will do a bone marrow test to see what the rest of the tumors have done since the last two rounds of chemo. If things are good we will start to talk to the stem cell transplant team. Not sure of the plan if he is not clear enough for a stem cell transplant.
We do not have the results yet from Brookes MRI. We will meet with the doctor 4-30 Monday and go over the results.
Thank you for all your prayers and concerns. I cannot tell you how much it means to us. We could not get thru this without the support from our family and friends.
Love to all,
Anita
Friday, April 20, 2007 10:44 PM CDT
We are home from the hospital. After a long week of chemo and a very busy and crazy Thurs Scott and I were able to take Brandon and Brooke home around 12:00 Thurs.
Brandon has not been sick yet with the chemo. It usally starts a couple days after he is done. He has had a lot of nausea and is very tired. His feeding tube is still such a problem. We finished 10 days of antibiotics on Wed night and it already is getting very infected again. It was a little better when he was on the antibiotics, but now that we stopped it is looking bad and it hurts him. We will see Dr. McMahon on Monday and have labs done to see what his counts look like.
Brooke had her MRI on Thurs. It was an adventure. She was very brave and did well with the IV. When they started to put here asleep she went crazy and they had to have three people hold her down until they got her in a really deep sleep. She was fighting them and trying to to pull off all the wires they had attached to her. After they got her in a deep sleep she did fine for the test. When she got to the recovery rm and started waking up she did the same thing all over again. It took a little bit of time to get her to calm down. When she was finally calm she had everyone laughing at all the crazy things she was doing and asking. She was very nice to everyone except Scott and I. She did not want us to sit with her. It was a long day. We will meet with her Dr. on 4-30 and go over the MRI results.
Thank you very much for all your prayers and concerns. We could not get thru this without the love from our family and friends.
Love to All,
Anita
Sunday, April 15, 2007 8:40 PM CDT
Hello everyone! Brandon is hanging in there. We had a busy week over the Easter weekend and into the week. We had family come in from NJ. We were on the go a lot and Brandon went along with us. It was hard on him, but he was a trooper. We also had to go back and forth to the hospital for more transfusions. As of Fri his counts were still low. We are going in tomorrow with the plan that if his counts came up we will get admitted in and have chemo. Brandon and I are both really dreading it. The longer we do this the harder it is getting. I really hate packing bags with the possibilty that Brandon might not even be ready for chemo. If that is the case then we will come back home. It is really getting hard on Brandon. He has gotten to the point that he starts to get very down and upset when he knows he is going in the hospital. It really breaks my heart. I wish he never had to go thru this.
On Thurs very early in the morning 6:00am. We have to have Brooke at CMC for a MRI on her spine. She was diagnosed about a month ago with scoliosis of the spine. She was complaining of pain in her back. It had started over a year ago and I took her to the doctor then. They said she was fine and said it was from playing softball. When she was still complaining and not playing softball. I took her back. That is when they sent us to a specialist and he confirmed it. They said she should not be having the amount of pain she is having. That is why they decided to do the MRI and also to make mom happy. They don't think they will find anything, but we were told a few hrs before Brandons 1st MRI from a Neorologist that they would not find anything in Brandons MRI. So this will make me happy to make sure everything is ok. It is going to be a crazy week with both Brandon and Brooke. Scott is going to help me on Thurs. Brandon and I will probably still be in the hospital. Scott will just bring Brooke there and then I will go with her and Scott will stay with Brandon in the room.
Please pray that Brandons counts will be good and he can start chemo. Also pray that he does ok with the chemo. Please pray that his feeding tube would get better. We are now on our 2nd antibiotic in a week and still not better. I also need prayers for Brooke that she does ok with her MRI. She is going to be put to sleep because it will be long. Pray she does fine with anaesthesia. Also pray for good results. I'm not sure how much more Scott and I can handle. It would be nice to have well children. Brooke told Scott and I that is was a good thing we only had two children, because we sure do know how to screw them up. It was funny to hear her tell us this, but It would be really nice to have happy healthy children. I don't think I'm asking for a lot.
Sorry the message it so long and that I have so many requests for prayers, but we could really use them this week. Thank you always for all your prayers and concerns. You do not know how much it means to us and how it keeps us going.
Love to all,
Anita
Monday, April 16,2007
Quick update We are in the hospital getting chemo. Brandon counts just passed enough to get another round of chemo. We should be in here until Thurs.
Love to All,
Anita
Thursday, April 5, 2007 10:28 PM CDT
I hope everyone is doing well. We are making it at the Elam's. Brandon has done ok with this round of chemo. We were all scared what he would do since we made the dose higher. He has had to have a lot of platelet transfusions. We are getting them every couple of days. He has only had 1 blood transfusion so far. We went in today to get another platelet transfusion. Dr. McMahon is going to let him wait until Monday to get checked again. Hopefully his counts will be good. His platelets today were 23,000 and his blood count was 9.9. He is still taking medicine to bring his white counts up. We will stop that Sat. Brandon is due for chemo again on Monday, but he will be delayed again this time. He has to be fully recover before they can give it again.
It is very tuff on Brandon and myself to either be at the hospital all day getting transfusions or on the other days having the nurse come out to the house to get labs and then wait and see if we need to go to the hospital for a transfusion. I stay very tired, so I can only imagine how hard it is on Brandon. He sleeps a lot when we are at home. He is also not eating very much at all these days. We still do feedings every night in his feeding tube. That is keeping his wait stable. He is anywhere from 74 to 76pds.
Brandon's feeding tube has become such a problem. We are still trying to get the infection gone. I cannot tell you the last time it was not infected. We were using an topical antibiotic on it for awhile and it seemed like it was trying to clear up. Yesterday I noticed that it was getting very red again and getting a big blister again. Brandon said it was hurting. Today it looks worse and feels worse for him. When it gets like this it makes him feel really bad. Dr. McMahon is having us try the IV antibiotics again for 7days and see what happens.
I hope everyone liked the pictures I added from Brandons Birthday weekend. It was so much fun. Brandon got a lot of cards for his birtday. He is still in the process of opening them. We have not added them all up yet. When we do I will let you know the total. He also got a lot of money (about $2500 cash) and gift cards. With his money he wants a golf cart. He has been looking at them and seeing how expensive they are. He wants it pimp out. That is what makes them very high. Hopefully him and Scott can find one that Brandon can be happy with. Thank you to everyone for the cards and gifts. It has made his birthday very very special. I have never seen so many cards in my life. I have boxes and baskets all over my house and they are still coming everyday.
Please pray that Brandon's counts recover for the next round of chemo. Pray that Brandon starts to have more energy and that he feels better very soon. Please continue to pray that the chemo is working on clearing his bone marrow.
I want to wish everyone a Happy Easter. Enjoy the time with your family and friends. Please think about all the children and families that are fighting this battle and pray that they are able to be home and share time with family and friends. Thank you for caring about Brandon and our family so much. We could not get thru this long journey without our family and friends.
Love to all,
Anita
Tuesday, March 27, 2007 10:45 PM CDT
Sorry I have not updated sooner, but life is still very crazy. We came home from the hospital Wed night after Brandon's last round of chemo. Brandon did ok until Sat. He started feeling bad that afternoon. It started about 5:00pm until about 10:30pm when he went to bed, he was sick 6x. Most of this was at the Charlotte Speedway in Concord were Brandon was an honored guest. He also had his ELAM-N8 CANCER logo on a racecar. He is a trooper and was going to stay until the end when his car was racing. It was a great night. He also got to ride in the pace car at the start of the race. Thank you again to Chris & Brittney Poppa and everyone else that helped with this event. It was a great night.
Now back to how Brandon's been feeling. We went to Dr. McMahon's yesterday and ended up staying all day to have fluids for dehydration and also needed a blood transfusion. Brandon is also having to take medicine for his potassium and calcium, because his levels were low when they checked his blood. The nurse will come out to the house tomorrow (Wed) to do labs again. They will check his counts and also his potassium and calcium levels again. Hopefully they will have gotten better on there own and we can stop the medicine. Brandons feeding tube is still infected after being on an IV antibiotic for 14 days. Dr. McMahon thinks that since Brandon has taken this antibiotic so many times now that it will not work for him anymore. He is trying an topical antibiotic now. If it does not work we will have to go on another IV antibiotic that is stronger. He is trying not to use this one if he doesn't have to, because it is very hard on your kidneys and with the labs they did on Monday it shows that he is already having issues with a lot of levels that go with your kidney function. I'm hoping we will not have to go in for a platlet transfusion tomorrow, but I'm ready if we have to. His platlets were 80th on Monday and we have to keep Brandon's above 50th from the bleed he had in the brain. His white counts also dropped down to 2.3. I know they will be much lower tomorrow.
I will get pictures on here as soon as I can from his birthday party. If you have pictures that you took can you either email them to me at selam46@carolina.rr.com or put on a disc and mail to 376 Killian Ct
Matthews, NC 28104
With everything going on we could not take pictures. Thank you to the ones who have already got me some.
Thank you for keeping Brandon and our family in your prayers. We could not go thru this journey without all the love and support we get from all our family and friends. Also thank you to everyone at CMC that helps take care of Brandon. Dr. McMahon, Kathy all the nurses, Child Life and everyone else. You are all family to us and thank you for loving Brandon like you do.
Love to all,
Anita
Monday, March 19, 2007 10:21 PM CDT
Happy Birthday Brandon! We were so busy this weekend celebrating I could not update on your Birthday 3-18-07. I hope your 16th birthday was something you will never forget. Sat was your Birthday Ride at your school that was a great turn out and Sunday was the Big Surprise party. I sure hope you had a great time and I know we totally surprised you. You finally got your Hummer Limo ride that you always wanted. We had a lot of our friends and family that helped to make your party such a great night. Thank you again to everyone that helped with the party. It means so much to all of us. Also to everyone who came and celebrated with us. I hope you had a great time and loved all the decorations. It was a very magical night.
We went in the hospital today for another round of chemo. Please pray that Brandon does not get very sick and can recover quickly. We got the results from the Bone Marrow and Pet Scan on Fri. The news was very good. It looks like the tumors are about 75% gone. We are going to do two more rounds of chemo and then do another bone marrow. If it is clean we talk about trying to do a stem cell transplant. This is something that we were not expecting, so it was a great birthday gift. Dr. McMahon has made the doses of chemo higher with hopes of killing everthing. Please pray that this works and that Brandon can handle it.
Thank you for all your support and prayers. It means so much to us. We could not get thru it without friends and family.
Love to all,
Anita
Tuesday, March 13, 2007 10:47 AM CDT
Quick Update You can hear Brandon and me on the radio Fri 3-16-07 at 4:45pm on 1190 am wixe
BRANDON'S 16TH BIRTHDAY WEEK PARTY PARTY!!!!
Brandon had an appt with Dr. McMahon yesterday morning. His counts looked good. He was dehydrated, so he had to get fluids. He also lost a couple of pounds. We think this is all because he woke up Sat with a really bad infection in his feeding tube again. He did not feel good all weekend long. He is back on IV antibiotics. Brandon also had his Bone Marrow test yesterday. It was a very long day. For some reason he did't want to wake up from the anathsia. He slept for three hrs in the recovery rm and his blood pressure was very low. We had to go back to Dr. McMahons office after that to get two IV med. Needless to say we had to be there at 8:30am and didn't leave until 5:30pm to come home. He is very sore from the procedure.
We are going on Wed for his Pet Scan in the morning and when we are done with that we have to go to his surgeons office for another CT Scan on his head. This is to see what the fluid is doing.
It is a very busy week with all of the test's, but we need to see what the chemo has done. This will tell us if we need to continue with what we are doing or try to find something else.
Please pray that Brandon heals very quickly from the Bone Marrow and also his feeding tube gets better. Also pray for good results from the tests. This is Brandons birthday weekend and we are celebrating BIG. No matter what happens we are not going to let it take away from any of our celebrating. For two days we are not going to even think CANCER.
We did get Brandon's room done. He got to enjoy it all weekend long. We still have some things to hang up on the walls. It looks really good.
I say it all the time, but thank you for caring so much about Brandon and our family. We could not get thru this without friends and family.
On Friday 3-16 Brandon is going to be the newspaper The Charlotte Weekly. You can get them at Harris Teeters and if you get the Charlotte Observer it should come to your house. The girl that did the interview was very nice and I think it should be a good article. There have been other articles out there that we did not know of. If you see one can you let us know and save me a copy if possible. Im trying to keep all of them for a scrapbook some day when I have time.
Love to all,
Anita
For Birthday please mail to
Brandon Elam
The Brandon Elam Fund
7900-D Stevens Mill Road #138
Matthews, NC 28104
For info on Brandons Birthday Ride on March 17th please go to www.teambicyclesport.com
Tuesday, February 27, 2007 11:05 PM CST
NEW UPDATE BELOW
I need to get some info out before I give you an update. As most of you know Brandon's 16th Birthday is March 18th. We are making it big with help from everyone. On Sat March 17th there is a bike ride in honor of Brandon's Birthday. The bike ride is called "Brandon's Birthday Ride to Elam-N8 Cancer". For more info please go to this website.
www.teambicyclesport.com
We also need you help. We want to have TONS of cards to give to Brandon on his 16th Birthday. Please mail a Birthday card to Brandon. If possible, please enclose a photo of you and your family. We can't break a record for Guinness since they retired the category, but we can certainly bring a smile to Brandon's face when he sees TONS of Birthday Cards! Please mail card to Brandon Elam @ The Brandon Elam Fund 7900-D Stevens Mill Road #138 Matthews, NC 28104. Thank you
Brandon was due to start his next round of chemo on Monday 2-26-07, but was not ready because of his platlets. We lived at Dr. McMahons office last week getting transfusions. He had a platlet transfusion last Monday and Wed. On Fri he had to have a blood transfusion. When we went in yesterday his platlets dropped again from 64,000 to 29,000. Needless to say we stayed and got another platlet transfusion. The nurse will come out on Thurs to check his counts again. Hopefully he will be fine until the next round of chemo. Since we have had to delay the chemo this week we did decide to wait until 3-19-07 for the next round. That will be the day after his birthday. It is scary to delay, but Dr. McMahon, Scott and I think it is the best thing. So he can enjoy his birthday.
Brandon is doing ok with not getting sick a lot. He still does not have a very big appetite. We let him eat whatever he wants. I still do the ensure feedings everynight and that is keeping his weight steady. He is at 77pds. He is still sleeping a lot. We try to get him out some, but then he usually is wiped out the next day. Since Brandon is having a hard time going up and down the stairs we are turning are spare bedroom on the 1st floor into a hang out/xbox playing/tv rm for Brandon for his birthday. We are getting him a flatscreen tv and tv stand to go in there. We are also looking to put a black leather couch with incliners. He has requested it to be in Panther colors. I have a friend coming out to look at painting it for us tomorrow. He is very excited.
Please continue to pray for Brandon and our family. These are very tuff times for all of us. Please pray that Dr. McMahon, Scott and I make all the right choices for Brandon's treatments. Please pray that the chemo is working to heal Brandon and that Brandon and his tired body can keep fighting. We are just so blessed to have people that care so much for our family and thank you for everything you do.
Love to all,
Anita
Tuesday, March 6, 2007 8:20PM
I just wanted to give a quick update. We saw Dr. MCMahon yesterday and Brandon's counts finally recovered. He could start chemo, but we still are going to wait until after his birthday weekend. It is going to be great. On Sat it is the Birthday Ride for him and Sun we will celebrate his Birthday. We need him to feel good. I did talk to Dr. McMahon today and since we have decided to hold off on chemo he is going to do a Pet Scan and a Bone Marrow asperation to see what the chemo has done up to this point. I will let you know when they are scheduled. We will get together afterwards and see if we need to continue with what we are doing or look at new options. Please pray that the chemo is working and we do not have to make any new choices. I would not wish this journey on anyone. It is so hard to decide what is the right thing to do. Please continue to pray for Dr. McMahon, Scott, and I to come up with the best plan for Brandon.
The break from chemo has been nice. We have been able to get Brandon out more and we have everything coming together for his room. It is going to look great.
I took Brandon to the varsity baseball game today for Porter Ridge High. He had a really good time. The boys played a good game and won. After the game the coaches and the boys came out to see Brandon and gave him some baseballs. We took some good pictures. It was really nice of them and made Brandons day.
Thank you to everyone for caring so much and keeping Brandon and our family in you thoughts and prayers. It means a lot to us.
Love to all,
Anita
Friday, February 16, 2007 11:38 AM CST
Hello everyone hope you all had a good Valentines Day. I wanted to give a quick update on how the week has been. We have had a couple of Dr. appts and nurse visits to see how Brandon is doing and check his counts. On Wed Brandon did have to get a platlet transfusion. All his other counts still looked good until today. He finally bombed. He has no white counts. Dr. McMahon is going to let us wait until Monday for anymore transfusions. We will probably need platlets and blood then. We will plan for a long day. He felt his counts would be ok for the weekend. They are still keeping his platlets higher then the normal protocol. Because he could start to bleed in the brain again. They are still trying to fix that area and get rid of the fluid.
Brandon is still having headaches, but we can usually keep them from getting bad with the morpine. He is tired and sleeping a lot. He does not have a very big appitite and is still vomitting from the chemo. He is a fighter and is giving everything he has, but with his weight loss and the chemo it makes his body very week.
Please continue to pray for Brandon and our family. With each chemo treatment it gets harder on Brandon. Please continue to pray he has the power to fight and beat this beast. Thank you for all your prayers and thoughts. Without family and friends we could not get through this.
Love to all,
Anita
Monday, February 19,2007 10:50pm
Quick update on todays appt. with Dr. McMahon. Brandon's counts are starting to try and recover except his platlets. They dropped really bad since Fri. On Fri. they were 64,000 and today they were 18,000. Needless to say we had to get a platlet transfusion. We will have his counts checked again on Wed. to see how things are. Brandon is due to have chemo again next week, but Dr. McMahon feels he will not be ready. We are going to postpone his next chemo treatment until the day after his birthday. His birthday is March 18th and we want to be able to celebrate. If we do the chemo in two weeks he will still be down when his birthday is here.
Please continue to pray that the chemo does what it should. Also pray for Dr. McMahon, Scott and I to make all the best decisions for Brandon's treatment. Thank you for everything. It means so much to us.
Love to all,
Anita
Sunday, February 11, 2007 5:05 PM CST
We came home from the hospital on Fri afternoon. Brandon had a very busy week at the hospital. He was put in the hospital on Monday and started antibiotics for another infection in his feeding tube. Brandon also had to get a blood transfusion. Between the two things he was feeling pretty bad. Tues and Wed he had chemo. He did good with it. He was sick only one time in the hospital. On Thurs he had an Mri on his head and spine. Everything looked good. The two spots that were on his spine the last time did not show up. We should get the final reading on Monday when we go to Dr McMahons office. The Mri also showed that the fluid has not changed either way. The shunt changed when we were having the MRI done and the surgeon left it at that setting. It was at 50 and they went to 70. Please pray this works without making Brandon really sick and not having really bad headaches. We had to stay Fri and get one last dose of his antibiotics before we could go home.
Chemo has kicked in since we are home. On Sat Brandon was still feeling ok in the day, so we decided to try and go get something to eat and take him to the movies before his counts drop. He got sick once before we left. When we were in the restaurant he started feeling sick again, but never did get sick. He also didn't eat anything. He still wanted to go to the movies so we did. During the movies Scott had to take him twice to the bathroom to get sick. It was an adventure. When we got home he was feeling really bad and got sick again before he went to bed.
Sunday was another bad day. He slept until about 4:00pm and didn't get out of bed until 5:00pm. He has been sick only one time so far, but does not feel good at all. My mom just brought us dinner over and he is going to try and eat something. I hope he does ok. We go to Dr. McMahons office tomorrow to see how his counts are.
Please continue to pray for him and our family that he can recover fast from this round of chemo without getting really sick. Thank you for all your prayers for us and all the families that are going thru this. It means so much to us.
Love to all,
Anita
Friday, February 2, 2007 10:42 PM CST
Hello everyone I just wanted to give a quick update on Brandon. He has had an ok week. He is still fighting headaches, vomitting, and naushea. We think this is all do to the bleeding in the brain and then the extra fluid from it. They have been turning the shunt up slowly and his head is having a hard time adjusting to the new pressure. I had to take him back to the surgeon today for another ct scan because the past couple of days everything has gotten worse. The ct scan still looked the same from the one done a week or so ago. We are going to leave the shunt alone for now. On Thurs 2-8 we are having another MRI of the head and spine. They want to see what that shows. Please pray no new tumors in the head and spine and the two they saw on the spine in the MRI we did about 5weeks ago have not gotten any bigger.
They checked Brandons counts today and we passed to start chemo on Monday. His white count and hemoglobin dropped some. We might have to have a blood transfusion before we start the chemo. His platlets finally came up. Dr. McMahon was ok with all of them. We plan to go in Monday morning and do 3days of chemo and stay to have the MRI on Thurs. If everything is ok after the MRI come home late Thurs. Brandon's feeding tube site also looks like it is getting infected again. Please pray that it does not get really bad. We just finished antibiotics from the last infection on Monday.
When you are praying for Brandon can you also remember all the other families that need prayers answered too. Please say some extra prayers for ^Dakotas^ and ^Jennas^ families and also for another family ^Sam Keziah^ he got his wings today. Katie and her family still need prayers for her MRI next week and also another friend of ours. He just found out his cancer is back and has spread. He is getting all his options for treatment. His name is Bobby and his wife and three kids need your prayers. Thank you once again for everything. It means so much to us that you continue to support Brandon and our family with this fight we are fighting. As you can see from all my extra prayers lately. Cancer is winning in alot of cases and you just never know how easily it could be your family. So cherish all the times you can share with you family and friends, because you never know when it could change.
Love to All,
Anita
Wednesday, January 24, 2007 9:03 PM CST
SEE THE NEW UPDATE BELOW
We have had a lot going on since the last update. We did the MRI on Brandon's hip and pelvis yesterday and Dr. McMahon said it looks like the cancer has not spread from the last scan and it possibly might be a little smaller. I just got this info over the phone today from his nurse. When I meet with him I will get all the details and what the next plan is.
Brandon has had a very ruff time from the chemo. We have had to go and get blood and platlets transfusions a few times already. On fri we went and saw Dr. McMahon and because the way Brandon was feeling during the week and from his exam they decided to do a CT scan of his head. (Brandon has been sleeping alot, still having bad headaches and having vision problems) They found out that he has a subdural hematoma on the brain (bleeding). Because of the chemo Brandons platelets are very low and when this happens you can bleed and bruise very easily. They think this is why it has happened. We are having to keep Brandon's platelets up and they hope it will clear up on its own.
We have a very busy day tomorrow. We have to go by Dr. McMahon's office and have his counts checked. They were done today from home and his platlets were dropping again. After that we have to go to his surgeons office and have another CT scan of the head done to see what is going on with the bleeding and then meet with the surgeon to see if we need to do anything about the bleeding. If he does need a platelet or blood transfusion we will have to go back to Dr. McMahons office after we are done in the surgeons office to get the transfusion.
We are planning on going to the Celebration of Hope gala on Friday night as long as Brandon's white counts come up and he is feeling good. He is really excited about going. We heard it is very nice every year. We are all going to be dressed really nice. Scott and Brandon have tux's and Brooke and I have very nice gowns. We will take a lot of pictures.
Thank you again for all your prayers and concerns. It means so much to us. Please continue to pray that Brandon can handle the chemo and it starts to kill all the tumors. Also pray that he is feeling good to go Fri night. He is not able to get out and do much anymore. This will be good for him. It will be good for all of us to be out as a family. We do not get to do that much anymore and we cherish everytime we can.
Love to all,
Anita
Sat, January 27,2007 8:21 PM
I just wanted to give a quick update. As you can see from the pictures we did get to go to the Celebration of Hope. We had a very good time. It was so nice to meet the Stout's. They are great people. It was so nice to get dressed up like that and go out as a family. We do not get to do that much anymore and we cherish it when we can. This time was a little more special.
We did go to the surgeon on Thurs and they did a CT scan on Brandon's head and it showed that the blood spot is not any bigger, but now the area is filling up with spinal fluid. He thinks the blood has blocked off the area to let the fluid drain off. He changed the pressure in his shunt and they hope by doing this it will have the area where the brain is expand and push on the area where the fluid is and push it out. They will have to do this very slowly, so we will have to go back next week a few times. If this does not work we will have to have a shunt placed in this area of his head. Please pray that this works and that it does not make Brandon very sick. Also pray that it works fast so we can move forward with the next step in his treatment. We are not sure what that is at this point. We will see Dr. McMahon on Monday and go over everything from the MRI on his hips. We are repeating his MRI of his head and spine on 2-8-07 to see if the two spots they saw the last time are any different. We are also going to see about doing another pet scan. Please pray that Scott and I and all his Dr's. can come up with a plan of treatment that works and does not make him very sick. We also had to go to Dr. McMahons office on Thurs and get platelets again. They are not recovering as fast as they should.
As always thank you very much for all your prayers and support. It means so much to us.
Please pray for all the familes that are fighting this fight and for all the familes that have ^angles^ because they lost the fight. Please say an extra prayer for Dakotas family and Jenna's family. Also Katies family can use some extra prayers as they get ready for another MRI on her leg. Please pray that everything is all clear.
Love to all,
Anita
Tuesday, January 16, 2007 11:29 PM CST
Brandon's Chemo has hit him really hard. He has been sick everyday and not able to eat or drink. He is getting naushea and pain meds around the clock to try and make him rest better. He sleeps most of the day.
We saw Dr. McMahon on Fri. Brandon had lost 4pds and was dehydrated. They gave him a big bag of fluids to get him feeling better. His counts starting dropping already. His white counts were very low. His others are dropping, but not serious yet. They sent the nurse out to the house on Monday to do labs and his platlets dropped very low and we had to go in to get a transfusion. The nurse is coiming out Wed morning to check his counts again. I'm sure by the way he looks and is feeling we will have to go in again and get a blood transfusion. Please pray that he keeps any infections or fevers away. With him having no white counts to fight anything off, that will put him in the hospital.
We are scheduled to have a MRI of his hips and pelvis area on 1-23-07 to see what the tumors look like since the second round of chemo. Depending on what they see we could have another petscan done also. If it is up to me and Scott we are going to push for the petscan either way. Please pray that the chemo is working. At this point brandon's body cannot handle anything stronger.
I went to ^Dakotas^ Celebration on Fri and Lannette did a great job. It was very nice. It was very hard to be there. We have gotten close with him and Lannette. He is the same age as Brandon and they both have Medullablastoma. They also favor each other in a lot of ways and looks. Please continue to pray for Lannette and her family. Here is his website www.caringbridge.org/sc/dakota leave them an encouring message. It is just very sad to see what these kids go thru and it ends this way. I will never understand WHY. Also say a prayer for all the people in Dr McMahons office and on the 7th tower. There has been a lot of loss in the past few weeks and it has to be hard on them also. Please pray for all of the famlies that are going thru this and for the ones who have lost the battle. You could not imagine how hard this is and I hope you never have to.
Thank you for checking in on us and for all of your prayers. It means so much to us.
Love to all,
Anita
Monday, January 8, 2007 1:16 PM CST
Wed 1-10-07
Please add ^Dakota^ family to your prayer list he earned is wings last night. He was very special to us and will be missed a lot. His website is www.caringbridge.org/sc/dakota
Thanks
We finally got to come home from the hospital today. It is nice to be back in our own house. Brandon has been sleeping most of the day. I'm giving him pain medicine and naushea medicine around the clock to keep him comfortable.
In the hospital they treated Brandon for an infection in his hickman, but nothing ever grew in the cultures. On Fri his counts dropped very low, so he needed to get a blood transfusion. Dr. McMahon decided to start his Chemo Fri night. He got two diffirent kinds. On Sat he got another dose. He had not been feeling well all day and once the chemo started he was very sick for hrs afterwards. We finally got him feeling better and he went to sleep. On Sunday when Dr. McMahon saw how bad he had done with the chemo and that his counts were low to start with he decided to not give him his last dose. He is still having moments of getting sick, but with the medicine that he has been getting it is keeping it under control.
Please pray for a good week at home. Pray that Brandon's naushea and bowl's stay under control. Also pray that his counts don't drop really low and we keep fevers and infections away. That will put us back in the hospital.We have to go back to Dr. McMahon's office on Fri.
Thank you for all your prayers and concerns. It means so much to us. Thank you again for all of the gifts and donations you have sent. Thank you is not enough, but THANK YOU from the bottom of out hearts. Without you we coult not get thru this.
Love to all,
Anita
Wednesday, January 3, 2007 10:38 PM CST
I just wanted to give everyone a quick update. We met Dr. McMahon this morning about the MRI. We are waiting for the official report, but for now they show no new tumor in the head, but there are some new tumors on his spine. I do not have all the details on how many, what size and where they are.
Brandon was admitted in the hospital today. He woke up very early not feeling good. Bad headache, naushea, very cold and shaking real bad. I thought he would have had a fever, but he didn't. When we got him up to go to Dr. McMahon's office he was not doing any better. They admitted in because Dr. M said he was having all the symtoms of a infection in his hickman. We were in his room for about an hour and he spiked a fever to 102.8. He has kept a fever for most of the day and sleeping a lot. We have cultures growing to see if there is an infection and they are already giving him antibiotics.
The plans are to go ahead with the next round of Chemo when we figure all this out. I will update if things change.
Thank you to everyone for all your prayers and concerns. It amazes us that we have so many people still out there fighting the fight with us. It has been a long journey and we could not do it without you.
Please say some extra prayers for 4 of our cancers families. Three of them have lost their battle to this beast in the last week 1/2 and one does not have very much time left. ^Sara^ , ^Jenna^, and ^Brittnay^ are special angels now. Dakota is fighting the beast as hard as he can, but he is loosing.
Love to all,
Anita
Thursday, December 28, 2006 11:00 PM CST
I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Ours was busy, but nice. Brandon and Brooke got everything they wanted and more. Mom and dad also got what they wanted. Brandon home from the hospital and feeling pretty good for Christmas.
Brandon is still having headaches. They got really bad this week. On Tues it got really bad. We could not get the pain or the vomiting under control. We were going to take him into the hospital that night, but Brandon finally fell asleep. When he woke up Wed morning his headache was still very bad and he started vomiting as soon as he sat up in bed. We took him into the hospital and they did a CT scan to see if his shunt was working and that all looked ok. They sent me home with IV morphine and other IV medicine for the nausea. We went back to the hospital today to see Brandon's Dr. He was on vac yesterday and we wanted to see what he wanted to do. He want's me to continue with the medicine, because it seems to be helping Brandon. We have to go in on Tues to have a MRI of the head and spine to see if there are any new tumors. This is very scary to us, because this is what Brandon did when he had his brain tumor. We have gone so long without headaches and now they are back and just as bad as last time.
As you see we did not get admitted in for Chemo today. Dr. McMahon wants to wait until we have the results from the MRI, because if there is a tumor they need to have his ammune system good if they need to do surgery. The last chemo wiped him out for almost 1month. Please continue to pray that the MRI is ok and we can go forward with the next round of chemo. It has been delayed two weeks already. The more we wait it gives the cancer time to spread.
Thank you for all the love and support you continue to give to our family. It means so much to us that there are so many people that care. Also thank for all the donation's and gift's you have sent. Saying thank you is not enough, but THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
We love all of you very much and could not go thru this journey without you.
Love to all,
Anita
Sunday, December 24, 2006 4:52 PM CST
Sorry I have not updated sooner. It has been a very busy time since we got home from the hospital. It is very hard to try and get ready for Christmas and also take care of a sick child.
Brandon has been sick on and off this week. He has had really bad headaches. We thought they were coming from the TPN (IV Nutrition), but we stopped the TPN on Monday and started using his feeding tube. He is still having the headaches. They are so bad at times, that he gets sick on his stomach. We have had to go to the hospital a couple times this past week and have the nurse come to the house to have his counts checked. They are still dropping. He had to get a platlet transfusion on Fri. The nurse will come out to the house again on Tues to check his counts. If everything is good we plan to go in the hospital on Thurs for his next chemo treatment.
I hope everyone has a great christmas. Thank you for all your love and support. It means so much to us.
Love to all,
Anita
Wednesday, December 13, 2006 11:14 PM CST
Sat. December 16, 2006
Brandon got to come home late Fri night from the hospital. He is still not feeling great. We go to the doctor on Mon. I will update more then.
I just wanted to give everyone a quick update. We are still in the hospital. Brandon has had a very tuff time trying to recover from the chemo.
He is still on a lot of antibiotics for his feeding tube infections. This still looks very bad and is not healing. His counts are starting to recover and hopefully the feedingtube site will start to get better soon.
His stomach is still hurting him a lot. He is on a few new medicines for this also and hopfully in a few days it will start to get better. Dr. McMahon did a test to see if he had a bacteria in his intestines that you can get if you have no immune system. It was negative, so he still thinks this is coming from colitis.
He is still not eating any food and they are giving him TPN (IV Nutrition) only at night now for 14hrs. He has started to drink some gatorade. He still is feeling sick on his stomach, which makes it hard to eat. He is still throwing up and yesterday he started throwing up a lot of blood. If this continues they are going to have to scope his stomach to see what is going on. In the meantime we are getting platlets everyday to keep the bleeding down.
Dr. McMahon is pushing for us to go home Friday. Please pray that everything gets better so we can.
Thank you for all your prayers and concerns. It mean's so much to us to know that everyone cares so much. Thank you for all the messages on his guestbook.
Love to all,
Anita
Saturday, December 9, 2006 6:52 PM CST
Brandon is still in the hospital. He had three diffirent germs grow on his feeding tube site. He also has enduced colitis from the chemo. This is why he is having so much pain in his stomach. They had him on 4 diffirent types of antibiotics to clear everything up, but they had to stop one of them today because it can cause damage to your kidneys. On some of the blood work they did it was showing signs of this.
We started TPN (IV Nutrition) today, because Brandon has not been able to eat a lot and is throwing up when he does try to eat.
His counts are still very low. He had to get platlets yesterday. We are waiting still for the white counts to come up. The doctor said maybe in a few more days. Then hopefully we will get to go home soon after that.
Thank you for all your prayers and concerns. We could not get through this without all the love and support.
Love to All,
Anita
Wednesday, December 6, 2006 10:40 AM CST
Hello everyone! I'm so sorry for not updating sooner. Life is very crazy. Brandon did very well last week with the chemo, but by Sunday he got sick some and was very tired. We saw Dr. McMahon on Monday and Brandon's counts were dropping. We had to stay and get a blood transfusion. We were here from 11:00am to 8:00pm. He did get home in time to watch the Panthers. When I unhooked him from his feeding Tues morning his feeding tube area was very red and sore. I called Dr. McMahon and he said we would have to come in the hospital and stay. We are still here and they are giving him antibiotics. They have done cultures on the site and also his hickman lines. We still don't know anything from that yet. This will tell them what germ they are dealing with. His counts are still dropping and he will probably end up having more transfusions before we are done. We don't have any idea when we might go home. He has been running a fever some. That always changes when you will leave. His pain has not gone away since the chemo, but is a little bit better. I hope that means the chemo is doing what it should. He does have new pain in his stomach and it seems to be bothering him a lot. I think this is coming from the chemo. He did this last time. We are getting pain medicine around the clock to help him be more comfortable.
Thank you to everyone for you continued prayers and concerns. It means so much to us to have everyone fighting the fight with us. Thank you for EVERYTHING you do and for all the messages.
Love to all,
Anita
Tuesday, November 28, 2006 3:58 PM CST
We are home from our trip to New York and New Jersey. We had a lot of fun. It is very nice to be in the city around the holidays. We were able to see everything we wanted and to go to see the Rockets and also go see a broadway show (Grinch Who Stole Christmas). Our veiw from our hotel room was great. We were on the 39th floor and could see the Empire State Building. Brandon did very well on the trip. He is a tuff kid. It amazes me how he keeps going.
We came in the hospital Monday morning to start his new Chemo. So far Brandon has done very well. He is in a lot of pain and they are giving him IV Morphine every 2 to 4hrs. It seems to help with some of the pain. The plans are to get another dose of Chemo on Wed. and if Brandon is still doing good he will go home later in the day. Please pray that the chemo does what it should and Brandon continues to feel good. Also pray that his counts can recover enough to start the next chemo treatment in time.
On Thurs Nov 30th Brandon and our Family will be doing a live interview on the radio. It is going to be at 5:30pm on lite 102.9 with Tony and Jen. This is the same telethon they do every year to raise money for the hospital. We did it last year for the first time. I'm not sure if they will play the song along with the interview like last year. If I find more info I will let you know.
Thanks for all your prayers and concerns. It is what keeps us going.
Love to all,
Anita
Monday, November 13, 2006 7:42 PM CST
We are home from the hospital. We got home Sat. afternoon around 4:30. It is so nice to be in our own house and in our own bed's. Brandon's pain is getting better everyday and his energy and strength level is getting better also.
We will have to go see Dr. McMahon on Wed this week and also go see the surgeon on Thurs. Dr. McMahon told us Brandon needed time to heal from all this, before we start Chemo. I have talked him into waiting until the Monday after Thanksgiving. We have also got permission to take Brandon out of town on a trip. He has always wanted go to New York City. We are going from Monday thru Sat with my family(Mom, brother and sister-in-law). We are going to fly, because the car ride is so long and Brandon will not be able to do that. We are planning on staying in New York from Monday to Thurs. We are going to try to get into a broadway show and stay for the Macy's Day Parade. My cousin's kids our in the parade, then we will leave and go to New Jersey to have Thanksgiving dinner with my relatives. We will stay the rest of the time in New Jersey and visit with family. My family is only about 45min. from New York City. Brandon is very excited. Please pray that his health stays good and he can handle the trip.
If Brandon is feeling good on Wed night Nov 15th this week, Donnie Dixon (with Home Town Heroes) has invited us to go to the Grand opening of Lone Star Steakhouse in Monroe. Brandon is going to be the guest of honor. It is open to the public. The time is from 5-8pm. The cost is $10.00 for food and drinks. All the money will go to the Home Town Heroes (they help familes with sick children).
Thank you again for all your love and support. It means so much to us to know that we have so many family and friends fighting this figh with us.
Love to all,
Anita
Thursday, November 9, 2006 9:16 PM CST
Brandon is still in the hospital. He had to have surgery again yesterday (wed). He started having a lot of pain and a hard time breathing from his right lung. After a couple of xrays and an ultrasound they found out he was leaking blood around the lung from the main artery that they put the new hickman in. In surgery they had to remove the chest tube from the left lung (it was healed), remove the new hickman and put in another new hickman in a different spot, and put a chest tube in the right lung to drain out the blood. He was in a lot of pain when he came out of surgery, but they were giving him pain meds around the clock. We hope to get the chest tube out by Fri or Sat and go home soon after that.
Brandon is having to use a regular IV for all his pain meds and fluids right now, because they need for the main artery to heal. He is really hating that. He is still getting pain meds around the clock because of his pain. We still do not know when we will start the chemo. We need to get out of here first and give Brandon time to recover.
Thank you for all the messages. With out all the love and support we could not get thru this.
Love to all,
Anita
Saturday, November 4, 2006 8:25 PM CST
I'm sorry I have not updated sooner. It has been another very busy week with lot's of visits to the hospital. We saw Dr. McMahon on Monday and Brandon's counts were still bad. We had to come back in on Tues. for a blood transfusion. Wed. we got to stay home and rest. Thurs we had to be back very early to have Brandon's counts checked and have his hickman put in. We went home late in the afternoon. Brandon was in alot of pain and having a hard time breathing Thurs night and into Fri morning. I called Dr. McMahon's office and told them what was going on and I think his lung was punctured when they put the hickman in. They had me bring him in for an x-ray and it was punctured. He had to have surgery and have an chestube put in. We are still in the hospital and will be here for a few more day's. The hole in his lung has to heal up before they can take the chestube out. Brandon is in good spirits for the most part. He has a lot of pain, but can breath a lot better. Please pray his lung heals fast so we can go home. This is the second time this has happened to him. The first time he was diagnosed and they put his line in they punctured the lung. He never gets a break.
We were going to start chemo on Monday, but that has been postponed for now. It will probably next Monday before we can get started. Dr. McMahon made some calls to other doctors and they came up with a treatment for us to try. It is called ICE (Ifosamide, Carboplatin, Etoposide). Please pray these work for Brandon and do not make him very sick. The doctors are very concerned that these will make his counts drop really bad.
Thank you for all your prayers and concerns. We could not get thru this without all the love and support from family and friends. I will update when we go home and find out when we will start the new chemo.
Love to all,
Anita
Thursday, October 26, 2006 8:41 PM CDT
Friday, October27,2006
I know everyone has been praying for Brandon, but we really need some extra prayers please. We got the results from the MRI today and they are not good. The chemo did not work and there is more growth. We have to meet with Dr. McMahon on Monday and talk about starting harder chemo. If we do this it can be very hard on Brandon and can make him very sick.
Thanks
Anita
It has been a long week. Brandon started feeling bad on Sun. and was not able to go to school on Monday. We had an appt. with Dr. McMahon later in the day, but I got it moved up earlier. We ended up being there all day. Brandon's counts dropped really bad and his infection in his feeding tube was worse. They had to put and IV in his arm and give him an injection of antibiotics. Dr. McMahon was concerned with the amount of pain Brandon is having, he gave us pain pills to make Brandon feel more comfortable and help him sleep better. He has been taking them at night before he goes to bed and it seems to help.
The nurse came out to the house on Tues to give him another injection of antibiotics. When she was done he made her take out the IV, because it was bothering him.
Wed. was another long day at the hospital. We started at 9:30am with the orthopedic Dr. He x-rayed Brandon's hip that had the radiation and was pleased with the results, then we had to see Dr. McMahon. They checked Brandon's counts and they had dropped more. Dr. McMahon is starting him on neupogen shots to bring his counts back up. His infection is not better yet, so he had to get another IV in his arm and they will continue the antibiotics until Fri. Dr. McMahon scheduled an MRI of his hips and pelvis to see what the chemo did. We went and got some lunch and then headed to have his MRI done. Before heading home we had to go by his surgeons office to have his shunt programmed. We finally got home around 4:30pm.
Thurs. Brandon relaxed at home watching TV. The nurse had to come out to the house to give Brandon another dose of antibiotics.
Fri we will go back to Dr. McMahon's office and get Brandon's counts checked. He will also see what his infection looks like. Hopefully we can stop the antibiotics and brandon can be free from an IV. When Brandon's counts recover will we talk about getting a hickman put in to keep Brandon from getting stuck all the time. We should also get the results from the MRI and deside what type of treatment we will do next.
It has been very hard on Brandon this week, Scott and I have had a very hard time in the Hospital also. It was 2yrs ago this week that this all started. On 10-22-04 we were told Brandon had cancer and on 10-25-04 he had his brain surgery. It has brought up a lot of old memories along with these new ones.
Please pray that Brandon's counts get better by Monday so he can go back to school and be with his friends.
Thank you for all your messages. Also thank you to everyone who has purchased an armband. We could not get thru this without all the love and support from family and friends.
Love to all,
Anita
Wednesday, October 18, 2006 8:42 PM CDT
Thursday 10-19-06
Quick Update
Brandon had an article in the Charlotte Observer today in the Union Neighbors section of the paper
Life has been very busy for us. Brandon had his last Radiation treatment this past Fri. He is on the 17th day of the 21 day cycle of chemo. So far it has not been that bad for him. He has only felt sick a few times, but is very tired. I'm hoping that is coming from the radiation and will get better. Brandon saw Dr. McMahon on Monday and got a pretty good report with a couple of concerns. His leg does not seem to be bothering him since we have done the radiation. We hope that is a good sign, but he has had a lot of pain in his back. Dr. McMahon said if it is still bothering him by next week when we are finished with the first cycle of chemo. He is going to repeat some test's to see what is going on. Brandon also has an infection in his feeding tube site. He is having to take an antibiotic on top of all the other medicine. Thru all this Brandon is still going to school everyday. We are so proud of him.
This past Fri night was great for all of us. Brandon was able to have breakfast and dinner with the football team, he got to ride in a hummer to the game with some friends, he called the coin toss and won it, he was honored by the town of stallings and Sat 10-14-06 was declared Brandon Elam day and he got to stand on the sidelines with the foot ball team for the game. The best part to the ending was that Porter Ridge won and the team was so honored to have Brandon be part of it. We also had so many friends and family come out and share the joy with us. Thank you for giving up your Fri night to honor Brandon it means so much to us. It was also a huge success for the ELAM-N8 CANCER bands and donations. Thank you! Brandon was also very busy with all the interviews he did. He was in the paper three times and he also was on the news three times. He did great with everything.
It just amazes me that there are so many people out there still helping us with this fight that we have been battling for two years now. We truly thank you from the bottom of our hearts, for everyone that makes the events happen and for all who have given to us one way or another and still continue to. People always ask how we handle everyday life, because of Brandons spirit and all the love and support from everyone, that is how we get thru this horrible disease.
We also wanted everyone to get your DVR ready for Fri night. On channel 9 news at 5:30pm they are doing a segment on our family (Family Focus). They came out to the house yesterday and did a really nice interview on all of us.
Thank you again and we love you,
Anita
Tuesday, October 10, 2006 8:56 PM CDT
Today was our 7th day of radiation and chemo. We have 3 more treatment's left on the radiation, but will continue the chemo. Brandon has done very well with both of them. He has gone to school everyday until 1:30pm when I pick him up for his radiation treatment. We are very happy and hope things stay this way. Brandon has been getting tired more from the radiation and usually sleeps in the car on the way home. Yesterday and today he has complained a little bit about his stomach bothering him. I just pray it does not get any worse. We say Dr. McMahon yesterday and everything was still about the same. That is good news at this point. We will still do two rounds of chemo. At that time they will repeat his test's to see what the tumors look like.
Brandon's school has asked for Brandon to be a Honorary Captain for the Varsity football team this Fri night. He get's to go with the team in the morning for breakfast and for the dinner before the game, he will have his own jersey, he will go out for the coin toss and then be on the sidelines for the game. We are all very excited. The Mayor of the town of Stallings is also going to come out there and declair Sat 10-14-06 Brandon Elam day in the town of Stallings. They have also made armbands (like the Lance Armstrong one), but these are for Brandon and they will be selling them at the game. Brandon helped with the design.
It is so hard to believe that we still have so much love and support from everyone. People will always ask us how are you handling this. I respond by telling them how positive Brandon is and also by all the love and support we get from everyone. It is what keeps you going. Thank you to everyone for everything. It means so much to us and we love you for it. If you can please come out to the football game Fri night at Porter Ridge High School and share the joy with us.
If you go to this website it will give you all the info for Fri night. Thanks again!
www.thebrandonelamfund.zoomshare.com
Love to All,
Anita
Monday, October 2, 2006 11:06 AM CDT
It has been a very busy two weeks. Brandon had to have a lot of test's done last week to see what we are dealing with and give the doctor's answer's on how to treat it. We have all the result's in except for the test on Fri. Brandon has medullablastoma that spread outside his central nervous system. This is very rare. As of now it is in his bone marrow. He has tumors in his shoulder's, arm's, spine, hips, pelvis and upper leg's. He also has Osteoporosis. Between the two of them it is making Brandon's bones very week and he can break a bone very easily. They have decided to do some radiation on his left hip. He has a tumor about the size of a grapefruit and can have it break very easily. We will be starting radiation today. He will have 10 treatments and then see what the area looks like to see if we need to do anything else. We are also starting Chemo today. He will be taking a pill at home. We will take a pill 21days and be off for 5days. If his counts are ok we will start the cycle over.
Brandon is in very good spirits. He is a trooper. We are very proud of him. He went to school today. Please continue to pray that he feels good enough to keep going after he starts treatment's. He has missed so much school in the past and was so excited to be able to go again.
Thank you for all you prayer's and concern's. It makes it so much easier to know we have so many family and friend's
fighting for us. Thank you for all of messages in Brandon's guest book. It is so nice to read all of the kind word's.
Love to all,
Anita
Saturday, September 23, 2006 10:06 AM CDT
This is the hardest thing I have ever had to write since we started this website. As you all read in my last update Brandon has been having problems with his hip and legs bothering him. We just found out yesterday through an MRI that Brandon's cancer is back. It is still Medullablastoma that has spread to his hips and pelvis area. It is in his bones and bone marrow. We have a lot more test's and DR. Appts. next week. If you could please continue to pray for all of us during this difficult time. I will update when we have more info.
Love to all,
Anita
Tuesday, September 5, 2006 8:59 PM CDT
I cannot believe I'm finally able to type this. Brandon started back to school with everyone else on a fulltime schedule. This is the first time in two years. He is riding the bus in the morning and afternoon. It has been a very big change for me and him. We have been together all the time for the past two years. He is doing really well with it. He was very tired last week when he got home. There have been some naps and early bedtimes. That is ok with me as long as he is in school. So far he seems to be doing ok with picking back up on the school work. We have given him a easy schedule. I hope as time goes by it will get easier for him. We will have to wait and see. I cannot tell you how it makes us feel to be taking such a big step. I never thought we would get back here. I know we still have a lot of issues to deal with and more to come, but for now we are happy to see him living his life more like a 15yr old should.
We have not seen Dr. McMahon since our scans. He will go for a check up next week. Brandon is still having headaches, vomiting and pain in his back and legs. We wish all of the pain would go away. You would think after everything he went thru, he would be pain free. Cancer does not work that way. It does get better as time goes on.
We are still giving him his growth hormone shots and watching for any new changes that could come from them. He is still being fed thru his feeding tube at night. His appetite is still not good and with going to school he has to keep his energy level as high as we can get it.
Brandon's baseball team finished up for the summer. This will be good since school is all he can handle for now. Brooke finished two weeks ago with her traveling softball team, but we are now playing rec. softball. We will have our first game in two weeks. We love to go and watch her. It makes us feel more like a normal family and not just a cancer family.
I'm not trying to jinks us, but if Brandon continues to do well with school. I'm going to start looking for a partime job. I always worked fulltime before he was sick, but I need to be here in the afternoons with all of his Dr. appts still. I also feel I need to be there for my kids if I can, because you never know when things could change.
Thanks for checking in and please sign the guestbook. I also finally added new pictures. Brandon said I needed to put new ones, but I can't let the old ones go. They all mean so much to me for different reasons.
On Friday Sept 8th Hometown Heroes is having a poker ride to raise money for familes like ours. They have asked if they could take Brandon to school as there first stop and then they will be going to Tenn. and back. We will go to Freedom Chevrolet in the morning and then they will take brandon to school from there. We are excited and think world of them. Brandon is also on 1190am radio talking about his battle and what hometown heroes has done for him. You can also get that station on cable tv our station is 17. Look at their web and see more on Brandon and the event www.hometownheroesonline.com
Love to all,
Anita
Tuesday, August 15, 2006 12:54 AM CDT
We met with Dr. McMahon yesterday and Brandons scans are CLEAN. You do not know how good it makes me feel to be able to let everyone know they were clean. I feel we can move forward now and get Brandon ready for school. He has waited for this for two years and he deserves it. We have to go for some tests tomorrow about the pain in his back. Hopefully they will see what is going on and we can take care of that. We can handle anything as long as it is not the cancer coming back.
We will be very busy for the next two weeks getting Brandon and Brooke ready for school. We have not done any clothes or supplies shopping yet. I also have to meet with Brandon's school and get everything set up there. He did not get the schedule that we picked out, so I need to do a little screaming and hopefully everything will get changed.
Thanks for all the extra prayers this last week. They worked and we needed them. We are so happy to have a miracle in our family. When I look at Brandon and all that he has been thru he is my miracle child. I'm so proud of him. I'm also so proud of Brooke. This has effected her so much for the past two yrs and she is a tropper. I love you both very much and could not ask for any better children.
Love to all,
Anita
Tuesday, August 8, 2006 8:04 PM CDT
We are back from our trip. We had a really good time. Atlantis is a very big place. We had so much walking to do. We had to end up using the wheelchair we got for Brandon. He would have never made it. Our favorite part was swimming with the Dolphins. Thanks again to Ralph and everyone who made this happen. I will update pictures soon.
Brandon's infection healed up from his feedind tube. We are still not using it. He has done good eating on his own. We want to see how he will do gaining weight. He is still having headaches and some back pain. We have moved his scans up to this Fri. Please pray there is nothing there and all this will go away. We are ready to just have the scans and deal with the results.
We started his growth hormone shots yesterday. I hope this works without any of the side effects.
We are trying to get all this out of the way and plan for school. The kids go back on Aug 25th. It will be here before we know it. I still have to have another meeting with school to make sure everything is taken care of for Brandon to start.
Thanks for checking in and please keep us in your prayers for the scans to be clear. Also sign the guestbook and leave Brandon a message. He loves to hear from you.
Love to all,
Anita
Thursday, July 27, 2006 10:29 PM CDT
Just as soon as we let are guard down and tell everyone Brandon is doing good. It changes so fast. Brandon started not feeling well the end of last week. He is having really bad headaches again. He is also complaining of his back hurting along with some leg pain and balance issues. It is very scary to think what could be going on, but we are trying to stay very positive until his scan's. Dr. McMahon did have us come in yesterday and we had a CT of his head to make sure his shunt was working. Everything looked good. Per my request and the ok from Dr. McMahon we are not going to do a MRI any sooner. My main reason is we are finally taking Brandon's Make-a-Wish trip. We are leaving Sunday morning for the Bahamas. We have all waited so long for this and Brandon deserves it. God for bid if there is anything going on we will have needed this trip to be able to handle what happens next. I'm just praying this all goes away. Brandon also desided to get an infection in his feeding tube. We hope we caught it soon and that we are giving him the correct medicine to clear the infection. If not we could end up back in the hospital and maybe have to put the trip off. His site looks better today and also is feeling better. I'm praying that is a good sign.
I know we have asked a lot of people for the past two year's, but I'm really asking if everyone could be praying for Brandon's infection to heal and we can go on our trip. Also that Brandon feels we'll enough why we are there to have a really good time. Last but not least that Brandon's scans are CLEAN. I have been scared in the past about his scan's, but Dr. McMahon always would say he thinks everything is fine. That was not the case yesterday. He also had concerns.
I will update again if anything changes from now to Sunday when we leave, but if not we are in the Bahamas enjoying The Atlantis resort and trying to leave all our worries behind.
Love to all,
Anita
Friday,July 28,2006
I also forgot to let everyone know about this evening. I don't know if you remember last year the 24hrs of Booty bike ride. This is what got Brandon to Austin to meet Lance Armstrong. The kick off for that is tonight and Spencer Lueders who is over the event has asked Brandon to be there for the kickoff. We are very honored and excited. This event is down by the Queens College. Also again Chuck Cullens has got a team together for Brandon. It id called Brandons Booty Team. Thank You to everyone who has helped put this together.
Love to All,
Anita
Saturday, July 15, 2006 10:55 AM CDT
We picked Brandon and Brooke up Sat from camp. It was so good to see them. Brandon looked really good. We thought after a week with camp food, being away from home and the busy schedule, he might not look as good as when he left. We were very shocked. He looked great. They both had a good time. It was tuff for Brandon in the beginning, but he had fun later in the week. They both say they will probably go back next year. They both told us we had to move to the lake and get a boat. Scott and I are still looking for the money tree they think we have. That was their favorite part of camp. Getting pulled behind the boat on a tube. We were glad to hear Brandon could do that, because there was a lot of things he couldn't do.
Scott and I had a great time at the beach. We had some friends down there and met up with one couple on Tues and the other couple on Wed. I didn't care what we did, I was just glad to be away without anything or anyone to take care of. When Friday came I did not want to go back home to reality.
Brandon saw Dr. McMahon on Monday and he was very pleased with his progress. He said he looked the best he has ever seen him. We were not in there long at all. He didn't even draw any blood. Brandon now weighs 83pds. He has gained 5pds in a month. He has never weighed this much in his life. We are all excited. Brandon asked Dr. McMahon about getting his feeding tube out. He said we could start to reduce the feedings. We are going to wait and see how he does after the growth hormone shots start. We are stopping the magace (med. to increase appitite) and we need to make sure he still is eating enough. It will take awhile before the shots start to increase his appetite and give him the energy. We are not going to do anything to fast. He has made so much progress and we do not want to go backwards now. We also have scans in three weeks so we want to make sure everything is ok.
It has been very quiet around the house this week. Brooke got home from camp last Sat and left Sun. for the beach with friends of ours. She has had a really good time. They are coming home later today.
We will be busy again with Softball and Baseball. Brandon's team was in the District tourn. this past week and came in first place. Now we are going to Cherryville Sat to start the State tourn. Brooke is missing a tourn. today and if they continue playing tomorrow we will be out there all day. She also has another tourn. next weekend, so one will go with Brandon and one with Brooke. It sounds crazy, but it is better then being in the hospital. This is the way life should be.
We are getting very excited about our Make-a-Wish trip to the Bahamas. We found out our flight times yesterday and should be getting everything next week.
Thanks for checking in and continuing to pray for Brandon and our family. Please sign the guestbook.
Love to all,
Anita
Monday, July 3, 2006 3:53 PM CDT
The summer has been very busy already. Brandon just got done taking the class part to driver's ed. We are now waiting to hear from the DMV to see when he takes the written test and then the driving part.
We went last week back to the endocronologist for the results. We did find out that his pituitary gland does not work. This mean's he will have to take growth hormone shot's everyday for the rest of his life. That was a shock to us. We hope the shot work's. They will not make any promises. It also can cause his tumor to come back. So please pray that it does what it should and no tumor growth. The pituitary gland does other function's then just growth. This is why we are going ahead with it. They want to hold off as long as they can to make him go into puberty. This will give us more time to catch his growth up.
Brandon and Brooke left today for Camp Care. It was very hard to leave him. We have been together for two year's. I hope he is doing ok. There were tear's from both of us. Brooke on the other hand was just fine. I think she was glad to leave. From what we are told they will have a blast. Scott and I are leaving for Myrtle beach tues and coming back Fri. I'm very excited to get away. It will be the first time in two years.
Brooke is doing traveling softball this summer. That keeps us very busy. Brandon is still helping out on the baseball team when he can. We are also counting down to our Bahamas trip. We leave July 30. We are all excited.
Thanks for checking in and I will let you know how the week went at camp.
Love to all,
Anita
Thursday, June 15, 2006 12:24 AM CDT
We saw Dr. McMahon on Monday. Thing's are still about the same. Brandon did gain two more pds. He weighs 78pds now. Everthing else is still about the same. I did ask him about the results from his neuro. test. He did agree that Brandon has some problem areas. He has issues with his motor skills, his comprehension when he reads and also with his attention span. They hope as time goes by they will get better, but they don't know and how much. It will make school harder for him, but we will do what we have to get him thru school. As far as his motor skills we don't know what will happen with his driving. Dr. McMahon did say he could still take driver's ed, but maybe have to wait until he can drive with his permit. He is starting driver's ed Monday. It will be 36hrs of class time and 6hrs driving time.
We went back to the endocronologist very early this morning. Brandon had to take the test to see if his pituitary gland is working. He was a trooper as usual. He slept thru most of the test. They give you two types of medicine. One of them makes you very sleepy. They have to draw blood every fifteen minutes. His blood count is still not very high. As of Monday it was only 10.1. That is not very low, but when you have somebody take that much blood from you and yours is already low. It is very draining. We had to stay a little bit after the test, because Brandon's blood pressure was very low and his heart was racing. They gave him some extra fluids fast. It usually will bring your blood pressure up. We are at home now and Brandon is sleeping off everything. We go back in two weeks to go over the results.
We finally found out yesterday about our make-a-wish trip. We are going to the Bahamas and staying at the Atlantis resort. We are very excited. We didn't get the dates we wanted. We have to wait until July 30th. We wanted to go sooner. We will leave on July 30th and return on Aug 3rd. We don't know any of the other arrangement's yet. They will get them to us as soon as they can.
We have still been busy with Baseball and Softball. I took Brandon to our pool on Sat. He went swimming for the first time in two years. He said it was great. It gives him a good workout. We plan on going a lot more this summer. Brookes birthday party is Fri night. We rented out our clubhouse and she has invited 30 of her friends (girls and boys). She is having a dance party. Then she is having 5 or 6 girls spend the night. It will keep me busy. I still have not done anything for the party yet. I hope to go later today to get some stuff.
Have a great week and thanks for checking in.
Love to all,
Anita
Wednesday, June 7, 2006 12:01 AM CDT
Sorry it has taken so long to update on the scans. We just found out late Monday and I have finally got my computer fixed. They were CLEAN. I just cannot explain to people how you wait for the news of clean scan's. The way we have learned to live now is every three months. Now we plan to enjoy our summer and plan for Brandon to go back to school as a fulltime student in the fall. Please pray that everything works out like it should with no suprises. I think Brandon and our family deserve it.
I don't really have a lot to report since the last update. We will go to Dr. McMahon next week and the following week we go back to the endo. Dr. for our big test.
We have been busy with Baseball and Softball. I will take that anyday over hospital stay's. We have also been busy with school ending and the EOG's. We have his teacher here now and he is taking his english EOG. Please pray he can do ok with it and pass. This has been a very tuff class for him.
Have a great week and I will update next week with any new news from Dr. McMahon.
Love to all,
Anita
Friday, May 26, 2006 7:56 PM CDT
Brandon has had a lot of doctor appts. and we are learning a lot of new things to deal with. First off Brandon had to go see Dr. McMahon last Monday to get a xray on his hip. He has been falling a lot when he is in the grass. He had a fall and was having a hard time walking and getting up the stairs. There was no break thank god, but we need to just be careful with the falls, because his bones are not very strong from the chemo and radiation. He can also have issues with bleeding inside around the bones. We think everything has healed ok.
We went back and got the results from the neurophysic testing. Brandon does have some issues. He has a hard time reading and comprehending the info, he also has a hard time staying focused for a long time and the one thing that has really bothered both of us is his motor skills. The way I understood it was his brain does not tell his hands or feet to react and move like they should. The doctor told us Brandon may not be able to drive for another year or two. I'm trying to not get to upset yet. I want to talk to Dr. McMahon and see what he thinks about the results.
We also went to a endocronologist this Monday. The info I had to learn was very overwhelming. At this point they do not think Brandon is in puberty (that is good news). They are pretty sure his Pituitary Gland is not working. This is what throws out growth hormones into your body to make you grow. He thinks Brandon's has not worked for a long time (even before the tumor was removed). It can answer some question's if so. They did a bone scan on him to measure his bone growth and it measured between a 13 to young 14 year old. He is 15yrs old. Now you can see how much he needs to make up in size and we are on very little time. We have to go back on June 15th and do a study for 4hrs long and it will let them know if things are working or not. I will update after that on more info as we learn it. We do know he will have to go on growth hormone shots and they cost $40thousand a year. The Dr. said he has to do a lot of test's for insurance to approve the medicine.
We are all very anxious for next Wed May 31 Brandon will have his 3month scans done. We try not to spend our time thinking about them, but the closer they get the harder it is. I will update as soon as we know anything.
Thanks for checking in and PLEASE sign the guestbook. We love to hear from you.
Love to all,
Anita
Wednesday, May 10, 2006 10:32 AM CDT
UPDATE Thur. afternoon May 11
Brandon's procedure went fine this morning. We are home and he is sleeping. Thanks for checking in.
We have been very busy with Dr. appt's. Last week Brandon had to go for two day's and have neurophysic testing done. It was very long and tiring for him. We will go back next week and get the results. This will help us with school. He also had a couple other appt's. We went on Monday to see Dr. McMahon. It has been 4week's since the last appt. This was a first for us. Dr. McMahon was very pleased with his weight. He gained 4 pound's and is now at 77pds. This was really exciting for all of us, because we had cut his ensure in 1/2 since the last visit. This mean's a lot of the weight gain was done by Brandon. They did a bunch of blood work and checked everything. It was all good. Brandon is having a lot of cramping in his hand and leg's still. He is having a hard time with writing and holding silverware. We had hoped maybe some of the chemicals were off and would be causing this. That was not the case. He has nerve damage from the chemo and at this point it could be permanent. We will have to wait and see as time goes by. Dr. McMahon gave him a medicine to try to help with the problem. We also had to have a xray on his left wrist done. They are measuring his bones for growth. We are going to see a endocrinologist on May 22 to talk about his weight and height. Also to see about going into puberty. He still is not showing signs of anything. This was stopped from the chemo and radiation. They have a lot of test's they can do to tell them what is going on. I will know more after his appt.
We are going very early Thurs morning to the hospital to have his feeding tube changed over to a button. This will allow him to be able to swim this summer. I also hope it makes the area around the tube get better. We are still having problem's with the skin. Please pray that everything goes fine. I will try to update when we get home.
Brandon got permission from Dr. McMahon to be able to take drivers ed and get his permit. He is very excited. I have to get with the school and see what I can do to get started.
Brooke has been very busy with school, her social life and softball. She is playing on two teams. Her rec. team is the main one for now. Scott is the coach and Brandon is still helping him with it. They are doing very well. They have won 7 and lost one. The other team is a traveling team she will play on over the summer.
We are planning a very busy summer. We are working on our Make-a-wish trip again. They have granted us a trip to the Bahamas (Atlantis Resort). We think this will be better then trying to put Brandon on a cruise. They have some dates that they are working on for us. Brandon and Brooke are also going to Campcare for a week. Then we will be spending a lot of time running from one softball game to another. I will take this anyday over watching Brandon being so sick in a hospital bed.
Please think CLEAN SCANS for Brandon. We have them on May 30th.
Thanks for checking in on us and PLEASE sign the guest book.
Love to all,
Anita
Wednesday, April 26, 2006 12:15 AM CDT
It has been very busy at the Elam house. Some doctor appts., some homebound school work, but most of it has been fun stuff.
We had to go to see Dr. Sandberg last Thurs about Brandon's feeding tube. There has been a place on his skin around the tube that is not healing. It has been about 13 weeks since the tube was put in and we have been using a cream to heal this area,but it is not working. I now am having to be the mean nurse mom again. I have to put silver nitrate on this area everyday and it is very painful. So far it looks like it is getting worse then better. I hope it starts to work soon. It is just so hard to continue to have to do things to Brandon that hurt so bad, that is makes him cry. This is when I really start asking why him, why us. How much can one family take? I just don't understand why any family should ever have to go thru anything like this. We are planning on having the tube removed on May 11 and put a more perminent tube in. This will allow Brandon to be able to swim this summer. So it has to hurry up and heal or we will not be able to have the procedure done.
Brandon is still ok with eating and not getting sick. We do not go back to Dr. McMahon until May 8th. Then we will know how much weight he has gained, if any. At this point as long as he is eating and keeping it down. We are happy. The headaches seem to be a little better, but still there when he tries some activities. We have scans at the end of May. I will feel a little better about the headaches when we do the scan's and they tell us they are clean.
Now on to some of the fun stuff that Brandon has done. This past Sat. we had a lady come out from the Mint Hill paper and interview all of us and take pictures. They will have this in the paper this Thurs. We were thrilled to do the interview. On Sunday night we were invited to a party for a friend that we met from this nightmare. His name is Dakota and he and Brandon our the same age and were diagonosed with Medullablastoma. Dakota and his mom our just great people. We were so happy to be invited to this big party they had for him. It was on Lake Wyle and they had dinner and fireworks. It was a lot of fun. Last night we went to a golf outing at Pine Lake Country Club. It was sponsored by Meineke. The money that was raised is for Children's Miracle Network and goes to the new hospital. Brandon got to present the check to the hospital and gave a little speech. He did very good. It was all taped and will be aired on the event on channel 6 June 2-4. We want to thank everyone again that had us there and for all the gift's that were givin to Brandon and Brooke. We had a really nice time.
Brandon and I are meeting Dakota and his mom at Celebration station Thurs afternoon. Dakota it having a fun day for himself and this is one of the things he choose to do and wanted Brandon to go. I think they will have a lot of fun.
We have also been very busy with Brooke. She is playing softball on a rec. team that Scott is the head coach and also playing on a traveling team for the summer. They have practice on Sunday afternoon. Scott is also helping coach this team. It keeps us very busy. Her rec. team is doing very good they are 6win's and 1lost. Brandon has been helping Scott with the team. He coaches 1st. base and having a lot of fun.
Thanks for checking in on us and PLEASE remeber to sign the guestbook. Brandon loves to read your messages. Also get his website out to anyone you know that would love to know how he is doing.
Click on the link to Children's Miracle Network below and go to news and events. Then click on Meineke gives $55 to children's hospital. You will see Brandon and our Family presenting the check. This will also be aired on TV the weekend of June 2-4th.
Love to all,
Anita
Thursday, April 13, 2006 9:16 PM CDT
Brandon had his 3 week check up (this is a first) with Dr. McMahon yesterday. He was pleased with his progress. Brandon has gained 3 more pounds. His is still gaining a pound a week. That makes him 73pds now. Dr. McMahon wants me to cut back with the feeding's and see if Brandon will start to eat more by mouth. I hope this work's. We all would love for him to be able to get the tube out and eat everything by mouth. I know this is going to take some time, but hopefully we are heading in the right direction.
We talked about Brandon still having a lot of headaches and Dr. McMahon can't explain why. This is something I have learned thru this battle. There are a lot of times they do not have a answer for you. We just hope as time goes by this will get better. Brandon still has a lot of issues with his leg's and feet. We don't know if this is perm. or temp. As we get further out from chemo and he get's stronger we will know more.
We do not have to go back to Dr. McMahon until 4weeks. That will be in May. That is a busy month for us. Brandon will have his 3month scan's and also we will have some neurological testing on his brain. This will be helpful for Brandon with his school work. It is a very long test. I got is broke up in two day's. We just hope Brandon will be able to do all of it without getting a headache.
This past Sat. Brandon got to throw out the opening pitch for Mint Hill Baseball. He had a good time. It was so nice to be out there again and see everyone. It brought up a lot of good memories. Thanks again to everyone for everything you have done for us.
Brandon and I were intervied by WCNC channel 6 and Children's Miracle Network yesterday at the hospital. On June 2-4 they will have it on TV. I will post the times as we get closer. Brandon did such a great job answering the questions and telling his story. It makes me so sad that he knows all this stuff at a young age, but it also makes me so proud how much he pays attention to his illness and can tell you all about it.
We were supposed to leave this past Sat. on our Make a Wish cruise, but because Brandon has his feeding tube and is still not strong enough we postponed it for now. We decided to take a few day's and go away to Gatlinburg Tenn. We left on Sun and came back late Tues night. It was so nice to get away. We have not been on a vac. in almost 3years. I think we were due. We did not go the summer before Brandon was diganosed because we had just moved in our house and he has been to sick to go since. We were limited to a lot that we could due, but it didn't matter. We were glad to get away and have some fun. Brandon was a trooper. He was very tired, but went as much as he could. He told us Monday night that he know's why we cancelled our cruise. He said he would have never made it. We had to send Scott to get our car at the hotel Monday afternoon, because Brandon could not walk anymore. We sat on a bench in downtown Gatlinburg and Brandon fell asleep on me. He is such a tuff kid. It just amazes us how he keeps going.
I hope everyone has a great Easter. I will try to put pictures from the golf outing, Baseball outing and Trip soon.
Love to all,
Anita
Tuesday, April 4, 2006 1:22 PM CDT
When we were told that Brandon had cancer it felt like there would never be happy day's for our family again. I can tell you there are a lot of times that you are not happy, but there are a lot of good times also. I also never thought how friend's, family, and people you do not even know would become a part of your life. It was amazing how people just started showing up at the hospital to support us and to comfort us. It has been a very long journey so far and we still have a long way to go, but I can say people are still so caring and giving.
How do you ever thank people enough for everything they have done for you and still continue to do. We have already had fundraiser's done for us, which meant so much to us. Friend's are still going out of their way and continue to support us by having more fundraiser's. No matter what the future is for our family. We will alway's be so greatful for everything everyone has done for us.
Yesterday we had our 2nd annual golf outing and silent auction. It was so nice to see everyone that came out for our family. At the 1st outing Brandon had just come home from the hospital, after his brain surgery. We were able to bring him out there for only a little bit. This time we were able to be there for the whole event. Brandon got to go out with the golfer's and do some golfing. He had such a really good time. He even got up in front of everyone and thanked them. I really want to thank Kim Bellinghausen and Robin Smith for putting this event together. I also want to thank everyone else that helped out with the event. It mean's so much to us to have such great friend's.
Brandon has played baseball since he was four and has alway's loved to be on the ball field. This has been one of the hardest thing's for him since he got sick. He want's to be able to get back on the baseball field and play with all his friend's again. We hope that will happen in the future, but we just don't know. He played for Mint Hill all those years. We found out yesterday that they want to do a fundraiser for us this weekend. It is their opening day for baseball. They asked if Brandon would come out and throw out the first pitch. We all are very excited and can't wait. I will take a lot of pictures. I know I have said it a lot in this message, but I have to say it again. THANK YOU everyone for everything you have done for us. It makes Brandon so happy to know that he has so many people out there that care. As a mother that has to watch your child go thru this horrible disease that takes so much away from your life. When you see them happy over the things people do for them. It makes me happy.
Brandon is still being feed thru his feeding tube, but eating a little bit by mouth. We have not been back to Dr. McMahon's office in two weeks, so I don't know about his weight. He is starting to have more day's feeling good then not feeling. We are still having a lot of headaches when he tries to get out and do anything. We hope this is just because he still has a long way to go on recovery. Thanks again for checking in on his progress.
Love to all,
Anita
Thursday, March 23, 2006 10:42 PM CST
Sat. 3-18 was a big day for the Elam's. Brandon turned 15yrs old. He was at home and feeling well. This was much better then last year. We made it a special day. He wanted to get our family and one of his close friends together and go out to eat at Nakatos. He had a really good time and also made out with his gift's. He got over $700 and is planning to buy a flat screen TV for his room.
We went to Dr. McMahon's on Monday for our check up. Brandon has gained two pds. That has been a pound a week. Dr. McMahon said he was happy with that, but the sooner we can get the weight on him the better it would be. He wants me to try to get more Ensure in him. We are doing what we can. Everything else was stable and Dr. McMahon say's as he gets stronger we should see his legs and hands get stronger. We will have to wait and see.
We still have his teacher coming out to the house for English. He is doing ok with it. We hope as time goes on school will get easier. He is having a hard time with putting everything together. Hopefully over time things will get easier for him. We were wanting to also have him take math at home, but the school could not get anyone to come out to the house and do the homebound. It has been really hard to get things done at school. It is such a shame, because Brandon is the one who suffer's from it. I have had to fight to get everything done and sometimes I don't have the time or energy.
We have friend's doing a 2nd annual golf fund raiser for us on April 3rd. Brandon is very excited. AT last year's fundraiser, he had just come home the day before after a 3week stay in the hospital from brain surgery. This year they have set it up so he can go out and golf with the other's.
If there is one thing that I have learned from this nightmare that I would never wish on anyone. How much people care. Family, friends and people you do not even know. Once again THANK YOU everyone for all you have done for us and continue to do.
We Love All Of You!
Anita
SPECIAL FUNDRAISER FOR THE BRANDONELAM FUND
The big day is Monday, April 3, 2006!
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Saturday, March 18, 2006 0:04 AM CST
HAPPY 15TH BIRTHDAY, BRANDON
Dear Brandon,
It is hard to believe you are 15yrs old today. It just seem's like yesterday that you were my sweet little baby boy and now you have turned into a fine young man.
Dad and I could have not asked for a better son then you. You have made us so happy and proud over the past15yrs. I know you will continue to make us proud for years to come.
The past 2yrs have been very tuff on you and our family. You are such a strong and brave young man. You have and will continue to touch many peoples hearts. It amazes me how you handled going thru brain surgery, radiation, chemo and all the other complication's that came along with it. As a mother I wish you never would have had to go thru any of this, but I'm so proud how well you are handling all of it. I know you still have along road ahead of you, but I also know you will get thru it. Remember you will never be alone. We will always be there for you. My Birthday wish for you is to get better and start LIVING LIFE like 15yr old's do, to not hurt or feel sick anymore and to NEVER NEVER EVER have to deal with cancer again.
This is such a special day for all of us to celebrate your life with many many more birthday's to come.
I Love You very very much and I'm so proud to be your mom.
Love,
Mom
SPECIAL FUNDRAISER FOR THE BRANDON ELAM FUND
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Tuesday, February 28, 2006 6:30 PM CST
In the last update I had said Dr. McMahon wanted to see Brandon on Thurs 2-23 if the headaches did not get better. When Thurs came he was still having bad headaches and a lot of vomiting. We went in to Dr. McMahon and had to have blood work done and a CT Scan to make sure it was not his shunt. Everything was fine with both. We were sent over to Southeast pain to have a blood patch done. When we got there they were asking a lot of questions. One was did we try caffine help with the headache. We had not been told to do that. They wanted to give Brandon fluids with caffine in it first and if that did not work then they would do the blood patch. As of Monday Brandon was still not doing good so they had us come in today and we had to have the blood patch done. This is a procedure that is done like the spinal tap. They first knumb your back and then put a cathiter in your back. When all that is set up they draw blood from your arm and push it in your back thru the cathiter. You have to lay flat for about 30minutes and then they slowly start to raise your head. The blood is supposed to be like a band aid and heal the hole from the spinal tap. This is where the spinal fluid was leaking out and causing the headaches.
It was a little complicated, because you need to lay on your stomach and go under a xray machine so the doctor can see the place to put the blood. Brandon can't lay on his stomach because of the feeding tube. They had him sit up and lay his head infront of him on a table. They gave him verset (medicine to calm him and help him forget the procedure) before they started. They ended up having to give him a lot because he was moving and screaming as the doctor was doing the procedure. He could have done a lot more damage if the needle would go to far in. It got pretty crazy for a few minutes with the machines going off due to the amount of medicine they gave him and Brandon getting upset, but they were able to get it done.
So far it seems like Brandon's headache is better. He is still sleepy from the medicine. His biggest complaint is how bad his back hurts. They said it would hurt for a day or two.
When you think you have seen and done everything. There is always something else that happens. I hope this is it for awhile. Brandon does too. I can not handle anymore trauma. I feel like I age 10yrs everytime we have to go thru something like this. Because one of us has to work in the house it is usually just Brandon and me at these procedures.
Thanks for checking in and keeping Brandon in your prayers.
Love to all,
Anita
SPECIAL FUNDRAISER FOR THE BRANDON ELAM FUND
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Tuesday, February 21, 2006 0:30 AM CST
Brandon has not had a good weekend. He is still having a really bad headache. He is vomiting a lot also. He has got sick 4x's today. We were hoping this would be gone by now.
We saw Dr. McMahon today and he still feels it is a spinal tap headache. He now says it could last up to a week. If he is not better by Thurs to call them. His weight was not good. We lost a pound. He now is 67pds. I think it is because he got the bad cold first and didn't feel like eating. Now he is throwing up everything he does eat. We are looking for a break. It seems like if anything can happen. It is gonna happen to Brandon. It has been very tough on all of us. You just feel like it is never gone be over.
We have put his homebound on hold until he gets feeling better. It would be very hard to do homework with a bad headache.
I did also get the results from the spinal tap and they were clear. We now just need to work on the eating and gaining weight issues and things would be a lot better.
Have a great week and thanks for checking in. Please remember to leave a message for Brandon. It seems to help cheer him up.
Love to All,
Anita
Friday, February 17, 2006 10:28 AM CST
Brandon had his MRI's and spinal tap yesterday. He did good thru everything. He had a nasty cold on top of everything so I think that is why he was so tired. He just got up at 11:00am. I also got a call a little bit ago and his Mri was clean. That is the news we wanted to hear. We will not know about the spinal tap for about a week. I will let you as soon as we do.
We have an appt. with Dr. McMahon on Monday. Hopefully he will be happy with his progress. The feeding tube is working. It is just a very slow process. I only have him up to 18oz a day. That is about 900 cal. They want him to get 2000 cal. a day. He is still not hardly eating anything by mouth to make up the cal. I will be happy as long as he is gaining and not loosing.
He started last week with his new homebound teacher. He is just doing english for now. It has been tuff for him. I hope as time goes on school will get easier. I'm very glad we decided to not put him back in school. It seems like anytime he has stress on him he starts to vomit more. We already noticed it when the teacher came out.
Thanks for all the prayers and concerns. We made it thru another set of scans. He will not have his next ones until May. Until then we will just work on his eating and gaining weight.
I called Dr. McMahon's office a little while ago, because last night Brandon got a really bad headache. We gave him tylenol and had him go to bed. He slept fine. After being up about a hour today his headache came back. This time he said it was worse then a 10 (they rate the pain from a 1 to 10). They said he had a spinal tap headache. He has to lay flat for the next 24 to 48 hrs and it should go away. If not to call them. It is pretty normal, but never happened to Brandon before.
Love to all,
Anita
Tuesday, February 7, 2006 11:51 PM CST
Brandon had his weekly visit on Monday with Dr. McMahon. Things are looking a little better. Brandon had gained a pd and now is at 68pds. He still has a long way to go, but Dr. McMahon was happy.
It has been a very slow process with the feeding tube. The goal is for him to be having 2000 cal a day. He is now getting 700 cal from the tube and about 200 by mouth a day. I guess if you did not eat for as long as he did. You would have to go that slow too. My main goal is to keep him from throwing up and so far since I have been doing it my way he is doing better. Dr. McMahon said just keep doing it my way, because it is working.
We have a follow up on Thurs with Dr. Sandberg. It is to just check the site where the tube was put in.
I have gotten with the school and Brandon's new homebound teacher is going to come out Wed for the first time. They are going to try and have him take english and Alg 1. We will see if he can handle both or not. I still wish he could be back in school, but for now this will be better for him.
It is already time again for our scans (MRI) and spinal tap. They seem to come so fast now that we our off of treatment. I try not to worry about them, but I have decided I will worry with everyone for a long time. Please just say a extra pray for clean scans. They will be next Thurs 2-16.
I also need to ask if you can say a special pray for Katie and her family. They have become special friends to us. Katie is having to have one of her kidneys removed on Monday. This is a very big operation and hard recovery. She has had a long tuff road like Brandon and needs to have her little body work extra hard to help her recover.
Love to all,
Anita
PS. If you go to the links at the bottom. The first website Childrens Miracle Network. Click on it and go to Miracle Child. The Child is Brandon.
Tuesday, January 31, 2006 11:59 AM CST
We are finally home. We got home late Monday night. Brandon had to stay longer because he is having a hard time keeping down the feedings. They have tried several formulas and ways to give them. It finally came down to putting him on a pump and running 1oz in over a hr. This is not what we wanted, but that is working the best. He is still getting sick, but we hope it will start to get better.
When they scoped him and everything looked good. Everything has cleared and lookes normal again. That makes us happy. They are now telling us he is still throwing up and having a hard time eating a lot of food, because he has done this for so long that his brain still thinks he is sick. He has to retrain his brain that he is not sick anymore and not to feel sick everytime he eats. It is going to be a long and hard process. We didn't want anything to be wrong with him, but it seems like it would have been easier to have something wrong that they could fix and not what we have to deal with now.
Brandon is still in a lot of pain from the tube and wants it out. He does not like it at all. I had a feeling it would be like this. We are so glad to have him back home. The hospital always gets him down. He starts to give up and not wanting to fight anymore. I hope being home changes this, because it breaks are hearts to see him like this. It also makes us feel bad when we have to beg him to keep fighting. If I had been sick for as long as him, I might not want to fight anymore either.
Brandon has told us he does not want to go back to school since he got the tube in. We are going grant his wishes. I have to get with the school and let them know we just want to do home bound at home. It has to be hard trying to fit in at school after everything he has been thru. Now he has something else to add to it. I think it ends up being to stressful for him. This can also add to his stomach problems. We had already decided to probably keep him back in the 9th grade again. I just can't see him being ready to move on to the 10th grade. He did not go to school in 8th grade and has hardly been there for 9th. He is ok with it. I think it takes a lot of stress off of him. He has a lot of friends in the 8th grade that he has played sports with over the years. The most important thing to us now is just making him better so he can try to start to have a life again.
As I said before and I will continue to say it. "CANCER SUCKS" It changes your life forever. I just wish no child ever had to go thru it. You can not be a child when you are going thru it. It breaks my heart to know everything that they have to give up to try and live.
I once again wanted to thank our family and friends for caring so much and being there for us as we still fight this LONG battle. I also want to thank Dr. McMahon and Dr. Sandberg for everything they do to try to make Brandon better and for putting up with me. I can be a little crazy at times, but he is my child and I would do anything to make him better. Also thank you to all the nurses and techs on 7th tower and Dr. McMahon's office for caring so much. You always make our stay better then it could be. You make us feel just like family.
Love to all,
Anita
Wednesday, January 25, 2006 8:40 PM CST
I did not ever think I would have to put this kind of a update this far out from our last chemo treatment. We have gone backwards and it has been very difficult to handle.
On Monday when we saw Dr. McMahon Brandon had lost more weight. He is 67pds. He was very week and not feeling good. Dr. McMahon wanted to put Brandon in the hospital and give him fluids. We did not do very good with the news. I feel like we have started this whole process over again.
We were in the hospital until about 9:30pm Tues night. Brandon talked Dr. Sanberg into letting us go home, because we are going back in on Thurs.
Why we were in the hospital Dr. McMahon had Dr. Sandberg take over and he had us do a digestive empting test to see if his stomach was working. It turned out fine. Now they want to do a upper scope to see if there is anything else going on that would make Brandon still be having problems eating. They also have talked us into putting a feeding tube in. We are going Thurs at 2:00pm to have this surgery done. and will be in the hospital until Sat. if all goes good.
I'm having a very difficult time with this, but I do not have a choice anymore. I was just hoping things would have gotten better by now and Brandon could do it on his own. That is not the case anymore and his health is suffering from it.
Please keep us in your prayers. This is a very difficult time for our family and we can use all the prayers. Thanks again to our family and friends for being there for us through these tuff times.
I will update as soon as I can. It will be crazy for the next couple of days.
Love to all,
Anita
Tuesday, January 17, 2006 6:44 PM CST
I wish I could start out by saying 2006 is getting better then 2005, but I can't. This is why I have not updated in awhile. I tried to a couple of times, but I feel like I have to say the same thing over and over.
We have had some doctor visit's since the last update, but nothing that has made any changes yet. When we went to his gastro. Dr. I thought it was a waist of time. He didn't really listen to what was going on. He just said it sounds like he has some reflux going on. I said he already takes medicine for reflux. His comment was let's try another medicine and see if it fixes it. We are trying it and so far there is no change.
Brandon is now down to 69pds and very very thin. He is starting to have some problems that Dr. McMahon say's are coming from the bad neutrition. His blood pressure has been low for two weeks and he is having some burning and numbing sensation's in his leg. There is a nerve there that he is probably hitting since he has gotten so thin. We are still fighting the headaches also. We feel some of them are from the neutriton also.
After yesterday's appt. Dr. McMahon is going to get with his gastro dr. and try to come up with a new game plan. We go to Dr. McMahon on Monday and if they have not come up with anything I'm going to loose it. I already think I have. We cannot continue to go on like this. I just feel like it is never gonna end and Brandon is never going to have a normal life that he should be having. It is just not fair.
I have also met with Brandon's principle to try to figure out the best game plan for the second half of the school year. We never ever thought this far out that he would still not be able to go fulltime. We are going to try to add a third class and see if he can handle it. If not we will use the homebound to get the third class in. At this point if he does finish all three classes at the end of 9th grade he will only have 4credits. That will leave him short 4 credits to make up over the summer the next 4yrs. We just are not sure about that. It seems like he will never have a break from school. We have had to delay his homebound school again, because his teacher had a baby 5weeks early. They are trying to line another one up. I hope it is soon so he can finish the first half of the year.
I'm sorry to sound so negative, but you can only take so much. I'm so ready for good news. We have not had any in a long time. I have to come to the conclusion that cancer suck's. It effects a family all accross the board and it is something you will live with for ever.
Please pray for a friend of ours and his family. They have been hit with some very sad news. His name is Ricky and he is Brandon's age. They have been battling this disease for a long time now and there is nothing else the doctors can do. They need all the prayers they can get. Please also pray for another little boy that is only 1yrs old and has just came out of remission. His name is Dalton. He is needing a bone marrow transplant. They are waiting to find a bone marrow doner, because nobody in his family was a match.
There has been a lot of kids recently that have come out of remission and are having to fight this battle again. We just need to pray for all of them and their families. We need a cure yesterday.
Love to all,
Anita
Monday, January 2, 2006 8:32 PM CST
Happy New Year!
Sorry it has been so long since I updated. It has been very busy with Christmas and New Year's. We have enjoyed them very much this year. Last year was not very fun for any of us. Brandon does not even remember them. He was so week and tired from the radiation. He slept thru everything. He has done a lot better this year.
We had his test's done on Wed and saw Dr. McMahon on Fri. He has lost more weight. He is now down to 72pds. Dr. McMahon is very concerned as much as we are. It has been 5months since Chemo ended and he is still having a hard time with food and drinking. He has to eat very little or he will get sick. Dr. McMahon is sending us to see his gastro Dr. this week and see what he thinks. I hope we can get to the bottom of it. His hearing test showed that he is still the same from last time. Which is good. Hopefully there will be no more changes. His test on his heart showed minimum damage. Dr. McMahon said it's not anything bad now we will just have to watch and continue with test's in the future. His lung test is not back yet, but Dr. McMahon feel's there is probably damage. We just don't know how much. We hope to find out this week. We also took a 24hr kidney urine output in on Fri. Dr. McMahon was not very pleased with the amount. We hope that has not gotten worse since the last time. I will post as soon as we know.
This is such a horrible disease. It can cause so much pain, fear and heartache in a family. It changes everything. As we now have finished treatment and show no sign's of tumor's it still is a battle to fight everyday. For people who have never experienced it. I think it is hard for them to understand everthing you have to go thru and will have to continue to go thru for year's to come. We just thank everyone who has been such good friend's to us thru this battle and continue to be there for us. It mean's so much. I also want to thank Dr. McMahon, all the nurses and everyone else that has helped Brandon and our family. It mean's so much to us.
I wish everyone a great year in 2006. We know it is going to better then 2004 and 2005.
Love to all,
Anita
Wednesday, December 21, 2005 9:54 AM CST
We are finally over the shingles. Brandon just has scab's now. We hope we never have to deal with them again. Between the pain, itching and having to stay in isolation. They are not fun.
We had a doctor's appt. Monday with Dr. McMahon. The main issues we addressed is Brandon's eating problem's, loosing weight and the headaches. There are no real answer's to them. He does want Brandon to start taking reglan again to see if it will help his stomach. This is the medicine they use to get your stomach working if it shut's down. He has had some changes (that are worse then before) with his feet/ankles and hands. Dr. McMahon feels it could also have gotten worse again in his stomach. This comes from the Chemo. It can damage the nerves and give you these problem's. As far as the headaches nobody can give a reason for them. I hate to here this from the doctor's. It just makes me sad for Brandon. He has lived with headaches for so long. I would have hoped everything he went thru they would be gone. He has lost 5pds in a month. I hope that the medicine will make it easier for him to eat and gain some weight. He cannot afford to loose anymore pds. If he does I'm not sure what Dr. McMahon will want to do.
Brandon is still going to school for two classes in the morning and has the homebound teacher come twice a week in the afternoon. It has been very tuff on him. He is doing very good grade wise, but it takes him a long time to get his work done. I hope that will get better over time. The headaches get so bad at times he cannot finish his work. I talked to Dr. McMahon about this and he said we will probably have to have some neurological test's done to see what the radiation has done to his brain. This can help to answer why it takes him so long to do the work. These are the things you hope will not happen when you do everything you can to get rid of the cancer.
We have also stopped the Physical Therepy for now. It was to much on him and we felt that school was more important at this point. As he get's more energy we will add it back.
Brandon has to have some test's done next week on his heart and lungs to see if there is any damage from the chemo. We also have to have another hearing test to see if things are still the same or any changes. He also has to do another 24hr kidney test to see if he still has kidney damage from the chemo. Please keep him in your prayer's that all is good. We will be doing this all on 12-28. It will be a long day.
I hope everyone has a great Christmas. We are very excited and very thankful to be celebrating christmas this year. It has been a long hard year 1/2, but so thankful for the outcome so far. With all the little problem's we deal with now. We are just greatful to have Brandon with us and in remission. When you go thru something like this it changes you a lot. I think part of it is good changes though. You do not take the little things for granted anymore. When you can have your whole family together in the same house it is a blessing and I cherisish every moment.
Love to all,
Anita
Tuesday, December 6, 2005 8:37 PM CST
When it rain's it pour's for Brandon. On top of all the problem's with the headaches and the shunt he now has shingles. We thought he was getting them on Fri, but not sure. He has had them before and we thought what are the odds to get them again. Dr. McMahon confirmed them yesterday. After just being back in school partime for one week he is now back at home until they are gone.
When I told Dr. McMahon he is still having headaches, nausea, vomiting and balance problems since they tapped the shunt he was concerned. When he did an exam on him he noticed the balance problem himself. He sent us down for a catscan to see what was going on. From what the surgeon saw it looks like the ventricles have gotten smaller since his last MRI. Which does not explain why he is still having the problem's. They feel by tapping the shunt it fixed the problem and are going to watch him to see if things get better.
Dr. McMahon was pleased with the rest of Brandon's progress, except his weight. He has lost 21/2 pds since his last visit. He is trying to eat, but with everything going on it has made it hard for him to eat a lot of food. Hopefully that will get better soon. If he looses more weight I'm not sure what they will do. He is still having a lot of problems with his ankles and hands hurting and cramping from the Chemo. He told us with some people it get's worse before it get's better. Hopefully it will go away soon.
We have a appt Thurs with Dr. Henegar. Hopefully we will know more then. Him getting shingles on top of all this add's to the problems, because there can be side effects from that.
Love to all,
Anita
Saturday, December 3, 2005 3:36 PM CST
When Brandon had his scans a couple of weeks ago. He was having a lot of headaches. His surgeon wanted to wait about two weeks and see him again. They said they would tap his shunt if he was still having the headaches. On Tues 11-29 we saw them and they did tap his shunt (put a needle thru the skin in the shunt to see the pressure in his head and take out fluid if needed) When they got in there they were not happy with the pressure in his head. It was very high and they were having a hard time to get the fluid to come out. After moving the needle around and flushing the shunt they were able to get the fluid to start coming out and get the pressure down. They could only get 25cc's of the fluid out, because it started to bother Brandon's head. He would have liked to get more out. They sent the fluid off and ran test's on it to see if there is any infection's. We are still waiting for the results. He also said that there might have been a small blockage in there. He hopes he flushed the blockage thru and it will work now.
I wish I could say Brandon is doing better, but he is not, he is getting worse. His headache went away on Wed, but came back on thur and he actually got sick Thurs night. He has kept a headache since and today he is not feeling good at all. His headache is getting really bad and he has been feeling sick all day. He got sick already once today. He has also noticed his balance is worse them normal. We hope this does not mean anything , but it is not looking good. We are just watching him and if he get's any worse we will call the doctor. We should have probably already called them, but with it being the weekend I hate to. They would probably admit him in the hospital and wait until Monday to do anything. We have spent to much time there.
We have a doctor's appt on Monday with Dr. McMahon. We will see what he say's. He is also going back to Dr. Henegar's on Thurs for a CT scan to see what is going on.They will tell us the next step we need to take. I will be calling them on Monday if he does not get any better.
Please pray that this fixes on it's own, so Brandon can continue to move forward with his recovery. He just started back in school and I would hate for him to go back in the hospital and miss school again.
Love to all,
Anita
Thursday, November 24, 2005 1:12 PM CST
Well Monday was the big day. Brandon went back to school for the first time in over a year. He is just going for the first two classes. He only had to go for two day's since it is Thanksgiving week. He did good. He was very tired by Tues evening, because he also had his physical therapist this week. I was much better then I thought I would be about him back in school. He has a lot of restriction's, so it makes me feel better. I will have to stay on the people at school to follow everything we had requested.
We also saw Dr. McMahon on Monday. Things are still going good. He was pleased with his progress. Brandon did not gain any weight since the last time, but he stayed the same. Dr. McMahon was ok with that. He said if he starts loosing weight that will be a problem. They did not draw blood. He will do that next time and see how all he count's and everything else is doing. We will have to do some more test's on Dec. 28th. We have to have a EKG on his heart, Pulmanary function test on his lungs, hearing test and a 24hr kidney function test. These are to see if there is any damage from the Chemo and Radiation. We already have done the hearing test's before and there has been some damage. They want to see if everthing has stayed the same or changed. We also have done the 24hr kidney test and there was damage. They also want to see if it has gotten any better or worse. You think things are over, but I'm learning that it is never over. Things just seem to get a little easier to handle.
I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. We are very thankful to have Brandon with us this year and getting well. Last year we had Thanksgiving, but it was very hard to be thankful for anything. Brandon had already had Brain surgery and started radiation. He was very sick and slept most of the day. At this time I would like to thank Dr. McMahon, Dr. Henegar, all the nurses in clinic, all the nurses on the 7th floor, All the nurses and doctors in the radiation dept., all childlife, friends and family and anyone else who has helped our family and Brandon to get to being thankful again. We our very greatful and have a lot to be thankful for this year.
Love to all,
Anita
Thursday, November 17, 2005 2:05 PM CST
We have had a busy week. We went to school on Tues and got everything set up for Brandon to go back to school. He is going to start on Monday 11-21-05. He will go for the first two classes. We are still keeping him on the homebound program and he will have some home schooling also. Please keep Brandon in your prayer's that this works out and maybe by Jan 2006 he can go for full days. Also please pray for mom that I can make it thru this.
We had scans and a spinal tap done today. Brandon is home resting and doing good. We had to go to surgeon's office to have his shunt programmed and he was able to see his head scan. It has no signs of any new tumor. It did show his ventricles are still inlarged and they are going to watch them to see if they might have to go in and take some extra fluid off the brain. This may be why he is still getting headaches. We are just glad it is not coming from a tumor. Hopefully we will know the spine resuls tomorrow. I will update as soon as we know.
From today thru Sunday if you listen to 102.9 you will here Brandon and mom on the air. I have not heard it yet, but the ones who have told me to have tissues ready. There are also a lot of others that we have met over our journey and have become like family to us. On Sat if you listen from 12:30 to 2:30 our family will be doing a live inteview.
Love to all,
Anita
Just got a call from Dr. McMahon and all Brandon's scan's were clear. This is great new's.
Tuesday, November 8, 2005 9:10 PM CST
Things are going good at our house. We are trying to adjust being home and not living in the hospital. It is very nice not to be going there all the time and having to be inpatient.
Before Brandon go sick we were very busy running all the time like everyone does. That all stopped when he got sick. We could not go anywhere without someone being with him or just not be able to go at all in most cases. Now that he is feeling better and not hooked up to TPN we are starting to get out more and even go out to eat. That is very big. It is such a good feeling for all of us. It makes you feel a little normal (whatever that is).
Brandon is doing very good. He is eating and not getting sick. We went to Dr. McMahon Mon. 11-8. He was also very pleased with his progress. He gained 3pds. That is very big. That made Dr. McMahon very happy. They did blood work and it is all looking pretty good. It has some improving to go, but nothing that they would not expect at this point. He still is having problems with his balance and walking and nerve damage in his feet and hands from chemo, but it is much better and he is getting stronger all the time. We will continue still with physical therapy to improve all of this hopefully in time. Brandon has been having headaches everyday for almost two weeks now and that is a big scare for us. Dr. McMahon does not seem worried about them, but we were told for a year 1/2 not to worry about his headaches and we know what that turned out to be. So I have a hard time not to worry. I think this is normal, especially since it has been 3months without any chemo to be killing this beast. Now there is nothing to kill it if anything is trying to come back. We had a MRI and Spinal Tap sceduled next Thurs. 11-17-05 already, so Dr. McMahon said we will wait until then unless they get worse. I'm just ready to get it done and over with.
Brandon made a big step at home last week. We move him back to his room after a year of having to be in our room with us. This was for a lot of reason's, but the # one was he could not walk up and down stairs after surgery, radiation and chemo. He has been working very hard with PT to be able to reach this goal and he did. It was very exciting for all of us.
Dr. McMahon also gave us some good, but shocking news. He has released Brandon to go back to school for half days. We have a meeting next Tues at school to get everything lined up. They will have to meet all my needs or I'm just going to have to keep him at home with me. We will still keep hin set up in the home bound program since this is going to be on a partime basis. I hope it all goes good. I'm nervous, but excited for another step to his recovery.
Please keep our friend Kira (www.caringbridge.org/visit/kiraberkhout) and her family in your prayer's as they are going thru some tuff times. Also please keep our friend Katie (www3.caringbridge.org/nc/katiedeville/) and her family in your prayers that she can hang in for 3 more radiation treatments in Boston and come home to Charlotte on Fri.
Hope everyone has a great week and I will try to update next week with school info and with MRI and spinal tap as soon as we know anything.
Love to all,
Anita
Wednesday, October 26, 2005 9:19 PM CDT
We did make it to Austin TX and we had a blast. It was something our family needed for a long time. We were down there for Brandon's 1yr anniversary. It was 10-22 when we were told last year. It is hard to believe a year has gone by. It really seems like we have been doing this longer. It is hard to think about what life was before this. That is what is so bad about cancer. It changes your life forever. It can be good and bad. We are just going to try and focus now on the good.
Brandon got to meet Lance Armstrong and had a little bit of one on one time with him. That was cool. He also got to go up on stage with Spencer Lueders who is over the 24hrs of Booty race here in Charlotte and with Lance to receive an award. It was for Spencer because had raised the most money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation(LAF), but he called Brandon up there and presented it to him. We were very proud parents. Brandon also was a star all weekend. He got to meet a lot of important people. Lances best friend from high school, Lances coach, and a lot of other very nice people from (LAF) along with bike rider's and their families. We are already thinking about what we have to do to get there next year, except Brandon say's he is riding in the big race Ride for the Roses when we go.
Brandon did good all weekend when we were gone. He is eating and drinking. It is still not a lot, but it is keeping him out of the hospital and no talk of anymore lines. He is also taking his medicines by mouth and keeping them down. We still have two more to work in. We hope by the end of the week. There are a lot and to put them on a empty stomach is not good.
We went to Dr. MCMahon on Monday 10-24 for a checkup and he was very pleased with Brandon's progress. He gained a pound in 1 week with no TPN. This is a big step for him. He was going to do blood, but he said since he looked so good he would wait until our next visit. That is also a big change for us we do not have to see him until 2 weeks. This is a first in a 1yr. Things are looking much better and we hope they continue to just get better.
He is still having Physical Therapy come out 2 times a week. We have a long way to go there, but he keeps getting better. He also started with his Tutor on Tues. We will see how that goes. I think it should be fine. Dr. McMahon said if he keeps improving like he did this last week he may go back to school before Christmas.
Brooke is doing good. She went with us to Austin and had fun. She and I both got on a macanicle bull at the ranch we went to in Austin. It was fun. She did great, but I was not to good. Robin William's was there the night at the ranch and he did a act after the awards and she hated it. She was not really listening to him, which was good. He does not keep it to clean. Brandon loved him. He was put in the front by the stage. So he was right by him. He did a good act.
Hope you have a good week and a Happy Halloween. We are planning on making it much better then last year when we were recovering from brain surgery. Brandon does not even remember Halloween.
I have updated the pictures from Texas.
Love to all,
Anita
Sunday, October 16, 2005 1:13 PM CDT
Hello everyone we came home on Fri. 10-14-05. They took his line out on Wed. and put a regular IV in. He was getting all his medicines that way. Brandon did very good in surgery. It is a quick procedure. We have had to change from getting all his medicines by his line to taking them by mouth. So far he has done good with keeping them down. We are still working on his drinking and eating. He is doing ok with that. He has been able to get a 20oz gatorade down each day and very little food. We need it to increase more or he is going to have to have help again. He is trying, but it is very hard.
On Thurs we got the doctor to do another test on his stomach to see what it is doing and we got good news. He is emptying 57% in 90min. and if you empty 50% in 90min that is normal. So that is good news. It is now up to Brandon and his body to allow the food and drink to stay down. Hope he can do it if not they will end up putting a stomach feeding tube in and we don't want that.
We are very nervous because we are leaving on Thurs. to fly to Austin Texas. Brandon and our family was invited to go and spend the weekend with Lance Armstrong and others for a cancer event. It is very exciting and we need him to stay strong and not end up back in the hospital before then or get put in the hospital why we are down there. Please be thinking about him and our family and hope everything works out good.
Love to all,
Anita
Tuesday, October 11, 2005 5:29 PM CDT
Just wanted to give a quick update. We are back in the hospital. We got a phone call about 8:00am today (tues). That Brandon's blood cultures they did yesterday came back positive thru last night with the line infection again. They are going to take him down Wed at 11:30am and take his line out. This is the only way to keep it away. We will have to stay for a few days after that with a regular IV to give him fluid, med's and antibiotics. He also has to try to eat enough food to live without TPN, because Dr. McMahon does not want to put another line back in. Please pray that Brandon can make it thru this. It has been a very emotional day talking about it. This will be very hard to see him go thru. I'm not sure I can see him go thru anymore.
Love to all,
Anita
Thursday, October 6, 2005 7:00 PM CDT
It has been awhile since my last update. Hope everone is doing good. We are all making it. Life is still crazy all the time with doctor appt's., nurse visits, physical therapy visits and medicine deliveries along with lifes everyday duties. We are all ready to get this past us and live a normal life, but we will have to make it until then.
Brandon has not really had any big changes since the last update. He is still being feed by TPN and taking all his medicines by IV except for reglan (to make stomach work again). He went to the doctor Mon. and things looked pretty good with his counts except his kidney level is still high. Dr. McMahon said he needed to start trying to eat popsicles and drink fluids. He is trying, but it is a fight. The PT Dr. says he is getting stronger everyday. We are still working on his balance. Hopefully that will come in time.
We finished the antibiotic on Sun. and just hope the infection stays away. There is a good chance for it to come back again. The nurse cameout today to draw labs and do blood cultures. They will grow the cultures over the next five days and if it comes back positive we will have to go back to the hospital and have the line pulled and leave it out a week and then put it back in. We will also have to go back on the Vancomyicin and with his kidney levels still high that won't be good. His counts dropped a lot since Monday and I asked why. I was told they could do this for the next year. I'm not sure why this has changed this is not what we have been told in the past. I will talk to Dr. McMahon on Monday and hope I can get some answers. We are 11 weeks out from Chemo and I thought once your counts came up they would just keep going up. Not dropping. We will have to see.
Brooke is keeping busy with her first six weeks of middle school (6th grade). We get report cards next week. She is also busy with softball. I think she is glad to be back playing. It is nice to go and watch her. She is playing very well. She has been pitching and playing first base. Hope everyone has a good rest of the week and thanks again for checking on Brandon. Remember to send him a message he loves to read them.
Love to all,
Anita
Sunday, September 25, 2005 10:33 PM CDT
We finally got to come home late this afternoon a long week with one problem after another. Brandon's fever broke and the second blood culture was still negative after 72hrs. That means we did not have to pull the line yet. We just hope the infection stays away. The first cultures showed that he had two different types of staff germs in both of his lumins. This is the same thing he had about a month ago and it came back. They have him on a strong antibiotic (Vancomycin),so hopefully it will work. We ran into a problem today though. Monday when they called me at home with Brandon's labs they said some of his kidney levels were high. This is why they thought he was dehydrated. As the week has gone on his levels have gotten higher. Being on vancomycin can also be harmful to your kidney's. They did a test this morning before and after giving him his vanc. and they were both very high. So he still let us go home, but he can't get the vanc. anymore today. I have to have him back at the hospital in clinic at 9:15am on Mon. and they are going to do the test again before they give him the vanc. and see how high his levels are and then see if they can still give it anymore or not. I hope all will be good. It is like any antibiotic. If you do not finish all of it the infection could come back. We are supposed to take it until Sat.
Brandon started Fri night with a bad headache that was like the ones he had before the tumor was removed. On Sat morning they sent him down for a CT scan and x-ray's to see if the shunt was working or if it had a problem with the tubing. It all looked good, except for some of his ventricales looked bigger then his last MRI. It might be nothing, but they are going to watch it, because he is still getting headaches. I don't think we can take anymore problems.
Love to all,
Anita
Wednesday, September 21, 2005 2:57 PM CDT
On Fri. 9-16 we did finally get the results of the test on Brandon's stomach. I had to do a little screaming and got Dr. McMahon to call and talk with Dr. Sandberg. The news was not what we wanted to here. His stomach is not working at all and the intestines are working very slow. Dr. McMahon said this is from some of the chemo's Brandon took and in most people it would have cleared up in about a month after the chemo ended. With Brandon nothing has gone the way it did with other people. We are starting a new drug that should help the stomach to start working again. We just don't know how long it will take. It could be month's from what Dr. McMahon has told us. In the mean time we will have to keep Brandon on TPN around the clock to feed him.
He did not feel good all weekend long and I thought by Monday he would need a blood transfusion. He was borderline, but did not get one. His other labs showed he was dehydrated so we started fluids Monday afternoon for a little bit to see if that would help. Monday evening he started to run a fever. He woke up about 3:00am with a fever of 101.0. That meant we had to take him in to the hospital. I packed bags for us and off we went. We are still in here, because he is still running a fever that got much higher and his blood pressure dropped for a little bit. We had cultures done and they show he has a line infection. We don't know the germ yet, but if it comes back staff like the last one we will probably have to have his line pulled and wait in here for a week and then have it put back in. We have to wait 72hrs out from the first cultures before they will make a decision. Also yesterday they did his labs again and his blood count dropped so we had to get a 2pint transfusion. I hope this is the last one, because after 9weeks without chemo it is not normal to need a transfusion.
Please keeps Brandon and our family in your thought and prayers as we try to get through all of this.
Love to all,
Anita
Monday, September 12, 2005 8:47 PM CDT
It has been a little bit since the last update. I wish I could say that there has been changes with Brandon, but not yet. We are still trying to fiqure out if his stomach is working or not. I just love the way the doctors put a rush on test's. We are still waiting to here from Dr. Sandberg (gastro Dr.) about the results on the test we did last Thur. In the mean time Brandon is back on TPN and not able to eat. At this point for Brandon and us we don't think the vomiting and not being able to eat will ever end.
Brandon did get to start Physical Therapy today. It makes it feel a little bit like our next step in this journey. For now she is going to come out to the house until he get's stronger. Then we will probably go down to rehab and use the machines they have there. She felt very positive about getting him back on his feet. That was good to here.
Hope everybody has a good week and thank's again for checking on Brandon and how he is doing. Also thanks for sending him a message. We all like to read them. It really makes his day.
Love to all,
Anita
Sunday, September 4, 2005 8:16 PM CDT
I hope everybody is doing well. I know this time of year is very busy with the kid's just going back to school. Also I wanted to thank everyone for caring so much about Brandon and our family. It is very nice to see how many people have taken the time to go out on the website and send a message. It really makes Brandon feel good.
So far we have been able to keep Brandon's line in and not have the infection show back up. We have more cultures that were done on Fri 9-1 that we are waiting on. Hopefully these will come back good.
This past week we had to see Dr McMahon twice and also had to go to Dr. Sandberg (his chrons Dr.)to see if we can figure out why Brandon is still having a hard time eating. It has been a very busy and stressful week. On Tues I finally got to stop the IV Antibiotics and the IV fluid. Dr. Sanberg and Dr. McMahon are thinking Brandon's Stomach is not working due to two of the Chemo's he had and not eating for so long. Next week we are going for test's to see what is going on. We went to Dr. McMahon on Fri to see how he was doing with his weight. It was not good. He was 76lbs after his last Chemo treatment due to being on TPN (IV nutritional food) for 24hrs a day. He was only 70lbs on Fri and was dehydrated. So we had to stay and get fluids and have his labs done (they were not that great) His magnesium (effects your kidneys) and his sugar level were low. He was trying to take medicine by mouth for the magnesium, but can't keep it down. So now we are back on TPN 24hrs a day. They can take care of his magnesium and sugar thru the TPN and keep his weight up.
We are going to have to see a ENT next week. He had a ruptured eardrum about 2months ago and it is still not healing. Hopefully that will turn out to be nothing. We are going to also start Physical Therapy the following week to see if that will start to help him with his walking. He is having a very hard time with his legs and feet due to the Chemo.
Love to all,
Anita
Wednesday, August 24, 2005 10:59 AM CDT
Brandon was admitted in the hospital on Fri 8-19-05 due to a fever. When we got there they took blood cultures to see if he had an infection. It came back positive for a line infection. Fri. night he got very sick. He had a fever of 104.6, he was vomitting blood and his blood pressure was very low (at one point it was 40/18). We should have been put in Picu, but because of our nurse Tara (who we love). She stayed with him and got everything better. It was very scary. While in there we had to have more transfusion's. He had a platelet transfusion on fri night and had a big blood tranfusion (almost two pints)on Sunday. I hope these are the last. They have him on IV fluids and IV antibiotics to clear up the infection. We had a second culture done and it was still positive. They did a third one on Tues and we are waiting to see if it comes back positve. If so we have to have the line removed.
On Monday 8-22 Brandon was already sceduled for his MRI's, spinal tap and hearing test. They did them why we were in there and everything looks good. All scans are still clear and the hearing has not gotten any worse. This was some good news.
We got to come home on Tues 8-23. We were both glad. I'm having to play nurse around the clock giving him all his IV medicines, IV antibiotic's and IV Fluids. It is very tiring, but better then being in the hospital.
I took Brooke and two of her friends to Avril Lavigne Tues night after coming home. She was excited and had a real god time. She is getting ready today to go to Middle School tomorrow. If I make it thru all of this it will be amazing. People always ask us how we do it. I don't know, but some how you do.
Love to All,
Anita
Sunday, August 14, 2005 6:53 PM CDT
Hope everybody is doing well. We finally got to go home Thurs 8-11-05. Brandon seem's to be feeling a lot better. It has been very busy around our house and that is why I'm just updating the website.
It was a long and tiring stay for both Brandon and I. We both were ready to go home and sleep in our own beds. He stopped the antibiotic's the day we left and his viral infection has seem to be all gone. We are so glad he is done with his chemo, because Dr. McMahon told us he would not be able to recover from another treatment. Each chemo treatment got harder on Brandon and took him longer to recover his count's, but this one was bad. He had to have 3 blood transfusions and 4 platelet transfusions in a week. We are still fighting to get his counts back up. The home nurse came out Fri and checked his counts and his white counts and blood counts are looking better, but the platelets are still dropping. We go to the doctor Monday 8-15 and have the counts checked again. Hopefully they started to recover over the past two days. If not we will have to get more tranfusions, but hopefully come home after that.
Brooke is glad to have us back home. She has had me running her to the stores to make up for lost time. She got all new bedding stuff for her room and is giving me a new project to work on. I don't mind because she has been so good through all this. I like to make her happy when I can. She went to her first middle school dance Fri night. She was very excited. I don't know if Scott and I are gonna make it through this year with her. She is also getting ready to start back in softball. We are excited to have her playing again. I think she is too.
Love to all,
Anita
Friday, August 5, 2005 2:30 PM CDT
Just wanted to give everbody a quick update on Brandon. He went back to clinic on Mon.8-1-05 for his last chemo treatment. He was not feeling good before we went and after the chemo treatment he felt worst. We ended up bring him back in on Tues 8-2-05 and he was admitted in for dehydration from vomitting so much. He was also throwing up a lot of blood and they needed to moniter him. He had a couple of bad days, but after some blood and platelet transfusions and also starting him on antibiotics for a viral infection in his mouth and probably down his digestive area he is starting to feel better. We are hoping to maybe get out of here this weekend, but that usually never happens. We are waiting on his counts to come up now. He has zero white counts and his blood and platelets are slowly bombing again.
Please just keep him and our family in your prayers. We hope this will all be over soon.
Love to All,
Anita
Sunday, July 31, 2005 10:51 AM CDT
Brandon went in the hospital Monday 7-25-05 for his 7th and last chemo treatment. YEA!!!
When we saw Dr. McMahon in clinic he was not sure if he should go ahead with the chemo. Brandon's ear was not all the way healed and he was throwing up blood again. His white count and blood count's were not that high either, but his total ANC (all counts combined together) was good. We decided to go ahead with it anyhow, because he had been delayed a week already. We were not going to get started with chemo until Tues. anyhow, because Dr. McMahon gave Brandon a pass to leave the hospital on Monday night for a few hrs. to go to a benifit for him. It was called 24hrs of Booty. Chuck Cullen and some other people had a team that was going to raise money and be in a bike ride for 24hrs. The money was donated in Brandon's honor, but would go for cancer research for brain tumors and part of it to the Lance Armstrong foundation. They were doing a dinner at Wolfman Pizza with live music, prizes and a silent auction. It was a big sucess. They raised almost $5000.00 dollars. Brandon also got some cool stuff. They gave him a bike jersey and a stand up of Lance. He also got a signed picture of Lance that was in the silent auction. Mike Murphy won that and gave it Brandon. It made his night. Thank again to everyone for everything.
Brandon did ok so far with this treatment. In the hospital his blood and white counts dropped very quickley. By Wed he needed a blood transfusion. We had to finish the chemo and on Fri before we went home he got his blood. We go to clinic tomorrow (monday) and I'm scared to see his counts, because he looks and feels like they are not going to be very good. Please just be thinking about Brandon and us this week that he can get thru this last one. Dr. McMahon has tried to let us know that his body can't take anymore and can't fight back to bring his counts up. We hope he can stay out of the hospital, but from the past that is very hard.
Scott is leaving to go out of town to Florida and I will be doing this on my own. So hopefully he can stay home or I will have a lot of added stress to get help with Brooke and Coco.
Brooke has been great thru this whole thing and she goes anywhere we ask her to. She is getting excited to go back to school. She is going to middle school and can't wait to see her friend's and the brand new school. She also is getting ready to start back in softball. We took a break over the summer. We all needed it.
Thanks for always thinking about Brandon and our family. It is great to know that we have family and friends who care so much.
Love to all,
Anita
Sunday, July 31, 2005 0:59 AM CDT
On 7-18-05 Brandon was due to go in for his 7th chemo treatment. On the Friday before he had to have a colonoscopy done to see what the Chrones was doing. It came back good. The Chrones is in remission for now. We also saw Dr. McMahon and let him know that Brandon was having headaches again and also complaining about his ear hurting. He looked in his ear and said it looked like he had a infection in the canal. He gave me drops and said we could do the chemo on Monday. When Dr. McMahon looked at Brandon's ear on Monday he said it was worst. It had ruptured in on the eardrun and in the canal. So he wanted to start him on IV antibiotics. We would not be able to do chemo because of this. He wanted him to get admitted anyhow so we could have a MRI done that day to see why he was having headaches. The MRI I showed that everything was ok and that maybe the headaches were from the ear. He sent us home on 7-19-05. We will go back on 7-25-05 to have his 7th and last chemo treatment. YEA!!!
Love to all,
Anita
Saturday, July 30, 2005 10:45 PM CDT
After many months of feeling sick and many trips to the doctor. Aug. 30,2004 Brandon was admitted into the hospital for the first trip of many to come. We were told he had Chrones Disease and met Dr. Sandberg for the first time. He went over what he was going to do (endoscopsy and colonoscpy) to see how bad it was. He told us he had a minor case of Chrones in his small intestines. He would have to get it under control with medicine that he would take for the rest of his life. It was not the news a parent wants to here, but we were glad that they now knew what was wrong. After a two week stay in the hospital he got to go home on 9-13-04. Weeks went by and Brandon was not getting any better. He was put back in the hospital on 10-8-04 for dehydration from vomiting and had to stay until 10-10-04. A couple of weeks went by with a lot more trips to the doctor and trying new medicines. Nothing was making him better. We went to Dr. Sandberg's office on 10-21-04 and he put him back in the hospital to finally do a MRI on his head (we had been asking for this to be done about 6months now and his pediatrician wouldn't).
On 10-22-04 the real journey began. Dr. Sandberg gave us the news of the MRI . Brandon had Medulloblastoma (brain tumor) that had also metastasized to the spinal cord (spread). It was not what we wanted to here. On 10-25-04 Brandon had surgery to remove the tumor from his brain. It went well. They were able to remove all of the tumor. Brandon had to stay in ICU until 10-29-04 when they finally got him to breath on his own. He was moved to progressive care where he stayed until 11-04-04. That is when they could remove the drain from his head. He was moved over to the Chemo hall and for the next 6days his head was swelling from the fluid not draining. This happened from his surgery and they decided he needed to have a Shunt put in to help drain the fluid. On 11-10-04 he went for more surgery. He had his shunt put in his head, had his port put in (for chemo and medicine) and had a bone marrow test and sinal tap done. They both turned out negative. Very good news that we needed. Brandon finally went home on 11-12-04. It was very nice to have everybody home together. On 11-15-04 friends and coworkers had a golf outing at the Divide to raise money for us. We were able to take Brandon to the event for a couple of hours.
On 11-16-04 we had to go back to the hospital to get fitted for his mask that he would use in radiation. When we were done we went to see Dr. Henegar (his surgeon) to get his stiches removed. More bad news Dr. Henegar sent us back to the hospital, the x-ray had shown that Brandon had a collasped lung and would need surgery to correct the probelm. That was the worst news for Brandon and us. He had just come home from the hospital after a 3week stay. He cried all the way back. When we got there they took him back for surgery to put a chest tube in to get his lung back working. We got to go home on 11-18-04.
On 11-19-04 he got his 1st chemo treatment that was done in the clinic at the hospital. He would have chemo done once a week while getting radiation. On 11-22-04 Brandon started his 1st of 30 treatments. On 12-1-04 Brandon was put back in the hospital with complications with his stomach. We think it was coming from the Chrones due to the radiation. His radiation and chemo would be delayed for awhile. On 12-6-04 Brandon got to go home. We started back on radiation. Brandon was very sick and tired he had a hard time eating. On 1-7-05 Brandon had his last radiation treatment.
The next 5 weeks Brandon would not have any chemo or radiation. This was to get him ready for the hard chemo cycles to start. On 1-27-05 Brandon was put in the hospital with a fever. They ran test's and everything was negative. He went home on 1-30-05. On 2-3-05 Brandon was put back in the hospital this time with Shingles. We think that is where the fever came from. This was a hard trip. It was very painful and itchy. We also had to go in a quarantined room. Brandon went home on 2-7-05. On 2-14-05 Brandon went to the hospital for his 1st inpatient chemo. He went home on 2-17-05. On 2-24-05 Brandon spiked a fever and back to the hospital we went. They ran test's again and everything turned out negative and we went home on 2-26-05. For the next few weeks Brandon was having headaches again. On 3-11-05 Dr. Henegar did a MRI and decided we needed to put an external drain in. The pressure was building up in his head and the shunt couldn't handle it. Chemo was delayed that week and on 3-16-05 Brandon had surgery again to put the drain in. We had to stay over in progressive care. We were in there for his birthday on 3-18-05. They had a party for him. Finally on 3-20-05 they took the drain out and we got to go over to the chemo wing. He did very well for the rest of the day and they let us go home on 3-2-05. On 3-28-05 Brandon went in the hospital for his 2nd chemo treatment. He was very sick and got dehydrated. They kept him an extra day to give fluids. We went home on 4-1-05. He was very sick over the weekend and was admitted back in on 4-3-05 for dehydration again. We stayed in the hospital all week and got started on TPN (IV food) because he could not eat and keep anything on his stomach. We also had to get platelets and blood transfusions. On 4-9-05 we went home on TPN. It was nice to be home and sleep in our own bed's, but we didn't stay long. The next day 4-10-05 Brandon had to go back to the hospital with a high fever. When we got there they had to give him platelets again. They also did a blood culture and it came back positive for a blood infection. They started antibiotics and still kept the TPN going. We went home on 4-13-05 with antibiotics and TPN. Brandon finally had some time at home and it was nice. At this point he was not able to eat anymore. On 4-20-05 they did a scope of his stomach and found out he had bleeding ulcers. This explains why he could not eat, between them and the chemo. On 4-23-05 he started running a fever, but not high enough to be put in the hospital. He continued to run a fever for the rest of the weekend. On 4-25-05 we went to the hospital for his 3rd chemo treatment. When we did his lab work his blood was low. He was admitted in for a blood transfusion and then to start chemo. During the blood transfusion his fever spiked up and they did blood cultures. They cameback positive for a line infection. We had to start antibiotics. Finally on 4-27-05 we started chemo. We went home on 4-30-05. On 5-2-05 we went to Dr. McMahon's office for a visit. Brandon was dehydrated. We stayed and got fluids and a dose of decadron for the vomiting. For the rest of the week Brandon continued to get sick. We went back to Dr. McMahon on 5-4-05 and got fluids for dehydration, but still had to be admitted from continuing to vomit. While we were in the hospital he had to get a blood transfusion. He got to go home on 5-7-05 on TPN from not being able to eat and keep anything down. Brandon continued to get sick at home. On 5-9-05 we went back to Dr. McMahon's and was put back in the hospital on TPN around the clock. He had to have platelets and blood why we were there. Brandon was finally able to go home on 5-16-05 still on TPN. It was nice to be back home. We finally got to stay home for a few days. On 5-23-05 Brandon went back in the hospital for his 4th chemo treatment. He handled it the same as usual. Sick and having diarrhea. He got to go home on 5-27-05 on TPN. Still not eating anything. For this chemo treatment we kept him out of the hospital. We had to get fluids at the clinic and a blood transfusion, but didn't have to stay. It was a nice change. On 6-14-05 we went in the hospital to take out his port and have a hickman put in. We had to do this because he was not eating at all and we had to keep his port accessed all the time to feed him. It had been accessed for 18 weeks by now and was not working well. We ended up getting admitted in the hospital , because he needed pain medicine and couln't keep it down by mouth. They were giving it by IV. We got to go home the next day on 6-15-05. On 6-20-05 we went back to the hospital for Brandon's 6th chemo treatment. It was the same as usual throwing up and having diarrhea. We went home on 6-23-05. We had a appt. with Dr. McMahon on 6-27-05. He had to stay to get blood and then go home. That night at home he continued throwing up. This time he started throwing up blood. The next day we had to go back to Dr. McMahon's office and he was admitted in the hospital. He had to get platelets and blood twice that week. Finally on 7-5-05 Dr. McMahon let him go home. His counts had been totally wiped out and were starting to come up.
Thanks for reading his story and continue to look for weekly updates and pictures. Also continue to keep praying for Brandon and our family. It has been a long road and still a long one to go. As of our last scans done about two months ago there are no signs of any tumors. Great news.
Love to all,
Anita
Wednesday, February 2, 2005 3:12 PM CST
Brandon spent last weekend (1/28 - 1/30) in the hospital after spiking a fever. He came home on Sunday and is doing great.
The Elams received some OUTSTANDING news this week....Brandon had another MRI done to check for any remaining signs of the cancer, the results came back negative! No signs in his head or on his spine.
Brandon we couldn't be happier and can't wait for all this to be over for you, keep up the fight buddy WE LOVE YOU!
Friday, January 21, 2005 9:20 PM CST
Brandon has had 2 very good weeks and is doing quite well. He is eating well, building up his strength and preparing for chemo treatments. Keep up the fight Brandon!
Friday, January 21, 2005 9:20 PM CST
Brandon has had 2 very good weeks and is doing very well. He is eating well, building up his strength and preparing for chemo treatments. Keep up the fight Brandon!
Tuesday, January 11, 2005 7:19 PM CST
Last nights dinner for Brandon was a huge success. Brandon was feeling well enough to make it through the entire evening. Edwin McCain performed for an hour....he was fantastic. Brandons dad gave a truly memorable speech which left not a dry eye in the house. Brandon, if love was a cure you'd be through this already, you hang in there and keep fighting, we love you.
Tuesday, December 21, 2004 5:44 PM CST
Brandon has had a very good week he's feeling well and the doctors are please with his progress. Hang in there Brandon.
Tuesday, December 14, 2004 9:27 PM CST
Brandon continues to do well with his chemo and radiation treatments. He was feeling well enough to make the trip to MacAdenville tonight. Keep fighting Brandon.
Wednesday, December 8, 2004 7:55 PM CST
Brandon came home this week and is doing well. He will continue with radiation and chemo treatments. Please keep up the good thoughts and prayers.
Monday, December 6, 2004 12:41 AM CST
Brandon has had a minor setback this past week, experiencing stomach problems. He's spent the week in the hospital running a fever. The doctors are still running tests to determine the cause of the fever. Please continue to keep the Elams in your prayers.
Tuesday, November 30, 2004 9:07 PM CST
Brandon is undergoing daily radiation treatments and is doing quite well.
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