Brayden Rae

After surgery Brayden still had 11 cycles of chemo to endure, as of today (29/10/2015), he's got 6 cycles to go with finishing mid January. At the beginning of his journey we were told end of treatment should be by Christmas but since Brayden's surgery, he's had his fair share of set backs.

First one was two weeks after surgery, where he hurt his arm and was in extreme pain, so that took another week to get pain controlled.

On July 19th we were in Christchurch for rountine bloods before chemo the next day, we noticed his right leg was red and hot, he had an infection. That delay was 2 weeks on i.v. anti-biotics before chemo could even start. While in hospital at that stage, Brayden was complaining of headaches and sore eyes, so an eye test was done by one of the choc doctors. She recommended go see an optometrist. Since Brayden already had glasses for reading, I rang spec savers in Timaru for an appointment. The outcome was he needs to wear glasses all the time, chemo related.

Another dramatic setback was on 8th/9th August, Brayden was in extreme pain, we took him to Timaru hospital, after a very painful day and a CT scan we found out he had kidney stones, again chemo related. Doctor Rob from choc wanted him in Christchurch straight away. There wasn't a ambulance available, so Brayden and dad were going by helicopter but unfortately Christchurch's weather packed in, so the Flying Doctors plane came to the recuse. Brayden's first ever plane ride. Kidney stones were removed on the 17/08/2015, and a double-J stent was inserted for 6 weeks to help the kidney, the stones were very spikey devils. The surgeon said he made very unique stones.

Chemo resumed on the 1st of September.

On the 2nd of September Brayden's arm cast finally came off, YIPPEE!! He had cast on his arm since the 3rd of February 2015.

Another delay which has been happening on a regular basis, is his blood count taking it's time to recover. In September they changed his weekend antibiotics to a i.v. antibiotic last day of chemo, as he was on regular co-trimoxozole from the kidney stones, they thought that was contributing to the delay in the blood count recovering.

In the September school holidays we were called up to Christchurch early to have the double stent removed.

On the 3rd of October we took Brayden to Timaru hospital with a high temperature, and he was complaining of sore bottom. Doctor found a small tear and gave us a script for lignocaine gel to numb that area, especially after doing number 2's.

Around 4pm that afternoon we took him back as his temperature sored, he had an infection. Stayed 4 nights in Timaru hospital. Chemo delayed once again and had to wait for platelets to rise. So finally on the 15th chemo started, lucky it was only a 24 hours stay.

We had to go back to Christchurch for day 8 chemo-vincristine and have his antibiotics on the 22nd, after doctor Lisa checked Brayden over, as Brayden told her about his stay in Timaru hospital, she thought she should have a look make sure it was ok, she also swabbed his inner left cheek. I said to her we'll in Timaru hospital this weekend as it's a long weekend. Mother know best, as we were. Sunday the 25th dad took Brayden to Timaru hospital as he had high temperature and a very sore bottom again.

This proves chemo make him constipated and vincristine is the worse one for it. Bloods were taken platelets were 28 and hemgoblins were 65, later that day he had 2 red blood cells transfusions and a platelet transfusion. After the Timaru doctors spoke to choc doctor he was put on antibiotics.

On Tuesday (27/10/2015) morning his CPR (sign of infection in blood test) was still high, so we were off to Christchurch later that day. Since Tuesday he's been on 2 sorts of antibiotics and his CPR has dropped, his bottom is still sore but with regular panadol and tramadol the pain is much less, unless he goes to the toilet. This could be a regular thing while still on chemo, just doesn't get time to heal properly.

Today is Thursday the 29th and he's had GFR for kidney function and chemo number 6 is starting tomorrow, a 5 day hospital stay. He's to have a CT scan and MRI before we head next week.

platelets were28 and hemgoblins were 65