A lot has happened since our last post and mostly all very good. The only real bummer, but expected at some point during this intense phase, was Brax getting a slight fever on Friday night landing her a hospital stay. She feels fine and is doing very well, but her counts are extremely low causing a neutropenic fever. We won’t get the OK to leave until counts recover and based on where we are in treatment it could be a few weeks potentially. More on that to come….
We will catch up since last post.
On Thursday, August 29th, Brax was asked by Chad Greenway’s team if she would do a small video and be featured during Chad & Jenni’s big annual fundraiser, Celebrity Waiter Night. We did the filming at the U in the Zucker Broadcast Studio and it was a very neat experience. Chad has a locker at U that supplies all kinds of electronics for kids (iPads, Xbox 360s, Playstations, DVD players, etc.) He’s doing a lot of great work in the community and from the sounds of things is looking to make a big donation to the U this year….we are hopeful!
After the filming the girls wanted to go check out the Love Your Mellon party. LYM was on campus that day with free hats and ice cream – WIN-WIN!!
Friday, August 30th, we were at UNRL to have lunch with the team. As mentioned before, we are partnering with them for all of Brax’s clothing for her soon to be launched fund to help raise money to support projects at the U.
We had a quiet Labor Day weekend and stayed close to home. It was nice having the whole family together and feeling really good overall.
On Tuesday September 3rd, we headed back for another round of chemo. At this appointment her counts had started to drop quite significantly and we knew that either transfusions or a hospital stay could be very likely in the coming days/week.
The next few days were fine. Brax was feeling good and energy was good overall, but her temp started to slowly climb on Thursday night and continued to climb over the next day. By 6PM on Friday, it finally reached the point that we are required to come in (100.4). We headed in and were admitted to the Emergency Department around 8PM. Her temp was now at 101.0. Again, this is very common during this phase of treatment, but the possibility of infection is always the biggest concern and the reason for such a swift response. In Brax’s case, and every fever thus far, they have been due to low counts and NOT infection, which is huge and much easier to control.
So as of tonight, we are camped out indefinitely at the hospital until counts can recover. With two rounds of chemo left during this phase of Delayed Intensification, we are preparing for an extended stay. Thankfully Brax feels good and is in very good spirits.
The end is getting very close and we are all looking forward to getting back to “normal” or our “new normal”.
Thank you again to everyone for all the continued prayers and support. We have said countless times throughout this process we are so blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful people – family, friends, teammates, teachers and medical team. Every one of you in some way or another has helped make an extremely difficult situation very manageable for all of Team Brax! Please continue to keep Brax in your prayers. It’s been a long a long 7 months, but we are getting close.
Also, as we have mentioned in some previous posts, Brax will be launching her TB1 Fund this month. The fund will help to support programs at the University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital that Brax is passionate about. She has spent a lot of time here and wants to help give back. As the launch gets closer we will be reaching out to everyone for support. And what better time to launch than during Childhood Cancer Awareness month!
