On the Mend

Hi all!
I see my faithful husband took over blogging duties while I was "away." I'm on the mend! I've held down two small meals and think I've seen the worst of it. Some good news to report: There was no vomiting at all, by anyone, at anytime, today in the Williams family...Hallelujah! Brady had a good day today. I can't put into words the many ways in which he amazes me each day. As my mom put it, his whole life has been intruded upon. With the daily Broviac flushes, GCSF shot, and his every other day bathing ritual, he endures quite a bit. In between these upsetting times for him, his sweetness and wonderful personality melt my heart all day long! He has a lot of anxiety when we flush the Broviac. It is pretty obvious that he has an uncomfortable sensation as I'm injecting the saline and Hep/Vanco into the lines. It is a difficult thing for a mom to do. I also did the same thing for my mom when she had lymphoma. At the time I was pregnant with the triplets, and never in my life did I imagine I would be doing the same thing for one of them someday. Brady's appetite continues to be off. He is so sweet about it though. He just sits in his highchair and kind of plays with his food. We try anything/everything to just get some food in him. Tonight he really enjoyed a roll and his milk...fine with me!

On a more uplifting note: Have you checked out our blog tracker to the right? It is a map that tracks all of the "hits" we get on the blog. People from all over the world are reading about Brady!! I just keep asking myself, "How do these people know about us?" It is so amazing! If you click on the map it will show you a list of recent locations of the people viewing the site. Today I read that someone in Rome Italy read about Brady! I guess I need to step up my writing...talk about pressure!

I was really leery at first about starting this blog. Putting my thoughts out on the web for anyone to read was a little unsettling. But I can't tell you how wonderfully therapeutic it is to be able to share our struggles and blessings from day to day with all of you. We have been able to add so many prayer warriors to our team by using the internet! The comments of support that we read each day give us so much encouragement to keep going. I've been thinking a lot lately about awesome it will be to let Brady read this blog someday. I can't wait for that day...

Well, we made it through another day. The big news today is that Matt caught the stomach bug bringing the total number of Williams' affected to 4. Thank God for my mom who spent all day here with me. I think she must have done 10+ loads of laundry. Eli seems to be back to normal, as does Cara. Brady threw up once this morning and hasn't wanted to eat or drink much all day. He looks terrible and just isn't himself. I'm anxious for his bloodwork tomorrow as I'm pretty sure his counts are starting to drop. Matt and I had to do a dressing change for his Broviac today for the first time on our own. It is a tedious process that takes 2 of us, one to hold him down and the other to take off the old dressing, clean the area, and apply the new one. Add that to Brady's daily flush of his Broviac and his daily GCSF shot and he has quite the busy and stressful day!
I'm praying that I am spared this awful flu because there is just so much to do every day. Please be praying for Brady as we head towards what could be a bad week for him. Pray for endurance for Matt and I, and the family members helping us.

Home Sweet Home...Somebody call a Plumber??!?!?

Well in true Williams fashion, my perfect little picture of dinner with the whole family didn't happen. We were FINALLY discharged at 3pm, and were so anxious to get home. We left with pages of instructions and 6 bags of stuff that had accumulated in Brady's room all week. He took a short nap on the way home and once we arrived he jumped right back into the swing of things. Our parents were here to help, thank goodness. I immediately got overwhelmed by all the "stuff" and headed down to throw in some laundry. To my dismay I found two drains in our basement overflowing with what I will call "not clean water." Nothing like timing huh? So...after an hour or so of Matt and his dad giving it a shot, we all decided we needed professional help (in more ways than one!!) Thank God we were able to get a plumber here at 8pm on a Saturday night (thank you Bill and Lori!!) A few rounds with a power snake and we are back in action. Maybe sewage backed up into the basement is a metaphor for life right now? Well, whatever it was, I'm glad it's over and that tomorrow four slightly sticky kids will get a bath.

Our home nurse will be coming tomorrow at 11am to show me how to change the Broviac dressing, flush the lines (no pun intended), and how to give Brady the GCSF shot. I'm horrified to even think about having to give him a shot. He detests all of these procedures and I just hate to think that part of our day, everday, will be spent doing these things. I don't want him to associate me with this awful stuff. Just another bump in the road...

All 4 Williams kids are soundly asleep. Brady took a while to settle down. I went in a few times and snuggled with him just to let him know I was there. I think he got quite used to falling asleep in our arms at the hospital. A few weeks ago, I wouldn't dare think of rocking one of the kids to sleep. Wow, how priorities have shifted.

I wanted to share a scripture that I read today. I'm meditating on it tonight as we get to enjoy some time together in the next few weeks:
"Come unto me,all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28 KJV
Amen...