Challenging Times for All

A lot has happened since we last posted, with the biggest event being the Coronavirus and the challenges associated with it. First, and most importantly, we want to extend a huge THANK YOU to all of our incredible doctors, nurses, and staff across the country for everything you do. Second, we want to extend our heartfelt sympathy to all the families affected by this pandemic, both from a health and financial perspective.

In terms of where we are with things, we will catch you up from where we left off.

If you don’t follow Brax on social media, based on our last posting everything was looking good, we were in the ER for a fever, but counts were good and we went home. The next day however, Sunday, February 23rd the fever came back and we were admitted. That week was shaping up to be BIG & FUN, so it was a bummer. She had her 2nd Dunkin’ Donut Ever Give Up day planned for Tuesday. We still held the event, but instead of hosting, Brax was in-patient. On Wednesday, she was invited to the Gopher Men’s basketball game to help introduce the U’s new therapy dog, Rocket, which she was super excited for…another bummer. And the the icing on the cake, quite literally…..she was supposed to spend Thursday afternoon with last season’s Kid’s Baking Champion Winner, Paige getting some lessons. One thing we have learned through this whole cancer journey is that it’s very hard to make plans more than one day in advance.

Brax was in the hospital for over a week and of all of our stays, besides initial diagnosis over a year ago, Brax just didn’t have any energy and was very fatigued, which is unlike her. Being at an “easier” point in therapy, or so we thought, things were not adding up. We met with her docs and nurse practitioner and all of her counts looked good, low but good, so their thoughts were it was partly due to the dose of her maintenance chemo in addition to delayed effects of radiation. We were discharged on March 3rd and things slowly started to improve. We got some more answers at our next follow-up, which started to explain why Brax was feeling so crappy. They ran a test while she was inpatient to see how she was metabolizing the current dose of chemo and it turns out the initial dosing was simply too much. After talking with Lexi, they start everyone around the same level and as you progress through maintenance some kids end up at 150% of initial dosing, while others end up at 25%. It has no impact on effectiveness of treatment, but they want to keep ‘your’ specific numbers at certain levels. Moving forward, Brax will have her dosing reduced and we will move up from there, with the hope of avoiding any more setbacks during maintenance. Again, nothing is guaranteed, but we all agreed this was the best plan of action moving forward.

Killing time on Floor 5.

Not too long after being home, Brax bounced back and was back to her “old” normal. She had her spunk and attitude back! Nothing better than seeing your kid feeling good. The things we so often take for granted are so appreciated these days.

Staying F.I.T.

This past Tuesday, Brax was back for treatment. It had been 3 months since her last LP….nice break. Everything went well with her LP and after recovery she headed up to the Journey Clinic for more IV chemo and pentamidine. She had been taking bactrim pills, which she preferred, but because they tend to lower your counts they asked her to switch to pentamidine (shown below). She’s not a fan, but better than the alternative.

Brax-O-Saurus rocking the mask for her pentamidine treatment.

And a small bright spot amidst all the ugly in the world right now, Dave Puente, a local photographer who we have gotten to know throughout this process and who is also donating his skills at our upcoming event, wanted to come out to family’s homes and photograph them during this pandemic. It was a quick 5 minute shoot that captured a brief moment during a very challenging time. This small (or what was intended to be small) project has now blown up and Dave has opened this up on his social media for other families to get involved. Check it out if located in the metro – instagram @davepuente Thanks Dave!

And just this past Friday, we (TB1Fund), received a call from the U of M Foundation, asking if Brax would be willing to help support Child Family Life and critical funding needed during this time at the hospital. She said “YES!”

Because of the current restrictions in place to safeguard patient’s health during this current COVID-19 pandemic, areas such as Kyle Rudolph’s Endzone, the Zucker Family Suite & Broadcast Studio, and many other areas generally used for recreation have all been closed. In addition, many items generally made avail for patient/family use are now in short supply as they are not being re-used. This appeal for funding is very intentional and very directed. Funding will make an immediate impact! See the statement below from Child Family Life.

Child Life Specialists who are working to meet the mental, emotional, and developmental needs of our patients and families, say funding for additional toys, games, books, and comfort items is critical at this time. For example, two-player board games and educational books are important as our families are struggling with isolation while practicing social-distancing in the hospital setting.

We understand these are challenging times for EVERY family in one way or another, but if you are able to help support the immediate needs, please kindly consider it. We are looking for 1,000 people to donate $5/ea. Share this with family and friends and lets make a difference for the kids stuck at the hospital.

You can make a 100% Tax Deductible donation at www.TB1Fund.org Thanks to everyone who has donated already and anyone that is considering it. Help brighten a day!

Finally, in regards to our big event planned for this spring, the TB1F Champions Cup, we are officially postponing this event until later in the year. Our main focus is our guests health and we want to make sure we are keeping everyone safe and following CDC guidelines. We are working on coordinating dates with everyone involved and are currently looking at July/August. Tickets are on sale and we have had a great response to the event. There are currently only (2) general tickets left and 5 horses left. It’s shaping up to be an exciting evening and a very “feel good” event. We have had a lot of people step up to make this event very special. Thanks to all of them! You know who you are!

For more info or to purchase tickets, please check out the link below.

TB1F Champions Cup Info/Tickets

Thanks again to everyone for supporting Brax in this cancer journey. And we continue to ask for prayers, not only for Brax, but also for her good friends she has met along the way who are all at varying points of treatment – Bella, Casey, Megan and Jake!

Stay Safe, Stay Healthy!

Frozen, Gophers, Wild…oh my!

It’s been a busy few weeks since our last post. As I type this we are currently in the Emergency Department @ Masonic as Brax has been a little off following treatment last week. She feels OK but has been tired and running a little higher temp than normal (99’s), but today it jumped to 100.6 and they said we should come in for an evaluation. Everything is checking out good. They did a urine sample and that was good, flu swab and that was good and bloodwork which is all coming back good too. So we are assuming she’s fighting a little bug or some of the residual effects of the meds she’s currently on. Either way, they are sending her home and no overnight stay with her ANC being ok.

In ED @ Masonic getting the full work-up.
Holy wires Braxman!

Now for the latest happenings…..

Tuesday, the 6th, Brax’s good buddy Megan lined up a private viewing of Frozen 2 with the Gopher Football Team and PJ & Heather. We all joined and had a blast. Thanks for the invite Megan!

Brax, Bry & Tanner
Brax & Megan in typical crazy face fashion!

Then on the following Monday, Brax joined the Women’s Gymnastics Team at practice and hung out. Thanks for the invite Coach Hansen! Always a good time hanging out with the girls!

Full Team + Brax!

Then this past week Brax attended her first Wild game with very special friend Michael. They had great seats on the glass and then Michael hooked her up with post game locker room passes. She met Dumba, scored Dubnyk’s stick, a game puck, and the Wild won big in a shutout…great night all around! Thanks MJ!

Brax & MJ
Dumba signing a hat for Brax
Dumba & Brax
The GOODS!!

This week is another busy week with some exciting events/activities coming. Check back at the end of week for all the updates!

Also, TB1F Champions Cup is off to a great start. There are only a few tickets and 10 horses left. It’s shaping up to be an exciting evening and a very “feel good” event. We have had a lot of people step up to make this event very special. Thanks to all of them!

For more info or to purchase tickets, please check out the link below.

TB1F Champions Cup Info/Tickets

First Major Event Planned

It’s been a bit since we have posted on Brax’s actual status, and going forward at this point, assume No News, is Good News! We are so thankful Brax is doing and feeling as well as she is. We officially hit our 1-year anniversary of diagnosis on January 29th. We were in the hospital for Super Bowl Sunday last year and Brax had just started chemo and felt crappy – it was one of her worst days.

Below is a flashback to the video Grace & Temple sent Brax 1 year ago. She has continued to kick cancer’s butt and has 16 months left. She officially rejoined her team at TCT today which was huge! She will be doing 1 day a week on team with the plan to slowly transition back to full time. Slowly putting things back into place and it’s awesome! She planning to go back to school after spring break.

Last Saturday, Brax was invited to be a Jr. Captain for the U of M Women’s Gymnastics home opener. It was a great experience and a great meet!

Brax, Lexy, Ella & Rissy (Coach Hansen in background)
The girls and Coach Rich.
Post meet huddle – Big ‘W’ over Illinois in home opener.

And for the big news, we are holding our first major fundraising event in April. The event is scheduled and has been in the works for awhile now.

TB1F Champions Cup will be held Friday, April 24 at the North House in the North Loop in Minneapolis. All proceeds will help Brax in supporting her mission at the University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital of helping to provide immediate support and encouragement to patients and families.

Tickets will go on sale this Wednesday, February 5th at 11AM.

Please visit www.TB1Fund.org to purchase tickets, a horse, or sponsorship to the event. It’s shaping up to be a fun event and is already getting a lot of positive feedback. UNRL has committed to sponsoring the Winner’s Circle and Jester Concepts is doing the catering. Jester Concepts is known for their restaurants which include Parlour Bar, Borough, PS Steak, Monello & Constantine.

New Year, Bowl Game & Hall of Fame

It’s been a busy couple weeks for Brax and everything has been going very well. We can’t tell you how nice it is to finally have some normalcy back after nearly 1 year. The family stayed close to home this year and had a GREAT CHRISTMAS! We are realizing how BIG the little things are after this past year. #GRATEFUL

Brax, Bry & Vin

As of writing this, Brax is nearly done with her radiation treatments. She has 10 total and completed her 8th one today. She will finish on Wednesday the 8th, which will be exactly 1 year to the day that her symptoms first started. Below are a couple pics of the room and the special mask Brax wears during treatment. Things are going very well and we are hopeful she will breeze through the last 2 treatments.

Brax and her radiation mask.
Getting all “lined” up.

Brax has been getting back to gym for regular workouts and getting out and about a little since she is feeling really good. She had a chance to catch up with her good friend Megan for a pottery day after Christmas. It was so nice seeing Megan and her doing well!

Megan & Brax

Due to timing of radiation and how Christmas and New Year’s fell, Brax initially thought she wouldn’t be able to make the Gophers Football Bowl game in Florida…..she was bumming big time. The plan all along was to go once the game & date was announced, but because of the delays in counts it pushed everything back. However, Dr. Sadak worked some scheduling magic which allowed Brax and the family to fly down for a couple days. Brax has not been outside a 25 mile radius in nearly a year, after traveling frequently nearly her entire life. So this was BIG to get back on plane. As you can see below, she wasn’t taking any chances getting sick….hahahahaha!!

We got to Florida without any issues and saw a phenomenal Outback Bowl! The weather was great, the seats were great and the WIN over Auburn was the cherry on top of historic season for the Gophers!

The Fam!
Outback Bowl 2020

Brax experienced some moments she will never forget! After the game, good friend Casey O’Brien ran over to see Brax. Check out the video on the Fun Stuff page – it’s AWESOME!

Brax & Casey after the WIN!

We hung out for a bit after the game to see the guys come out of the locker room and this ended up being another moment Brax will never forget.

Brax, Bry & Casey

Coach Fleck came out sporting his TB1F hoodie and had a fun exchange with Brax. Again, you have check out this video on the Fun Stuff page – I promise it won’t disappoint. Coach Fleck, Heather, Casey and entire Gopher Football family have been so supportive of Brax this year and we are so thankful for the friendships built.

Brax & Coach Fleck

After a whirlwind couple days, the girls found a little time to play in the pool before we had to fly home. It was hard leaving, but we are so thankful it worked to go and things went as well as they did in every respect – health, travel, weather, game…..

SISTERS!

We got back to MN late on Thursday, Jan 2 and Brax was back at it again on Friday. She was inducted in the Minnesota Gymnastics Foundation Hall of Fame as this year’s Abby Szott Courage Award Winner along with two other very special girls we have gotten to know, who have also beaten cancer. Strong girls!

U of M Women’s Gymnastics Team, Rissy, Ella & Brax (all Abby Szott Courage Award Winners)
Coach Kim & Brax
Rissy, Brax & Ella – Congrats Girls! Well Deserved!

Saturday all the girls were back at the U to shoot a social media ad for the January 25th Cancer Awareness Meet.

Brax, Ella & Rissy sporting their U of M Gymnastics SWAG

Then to end the week, Brax was asked to give an interview with Hannah Flood and Fox 9 News regarding her relationship with Coach Fleck and the football team this season. Below is a small part of the interview that aired on Fox 9 Sunday night.

Brax has been busy to say the least, but she’s taking advantage of feeling good and loving the fact that she is able to do all of this.

Thanks again to everyone who is following Brax’s Journey via this page or social media and for everyone that has helped support TB1Fund and her mission to help other kids and families at the U of M Masonic Children’s Hospital. It’s awesome to see the support and the good that is coming of this.

Thanks to everyone for the continue prayers and encouragement. The mental part of this battle can be just as challenging as the physical and our TEAM of family and friends is UNMATCHED! THANK YOU!

Finally, we’d like to ask you to continue to keep Brax’s buddies Bella, Casey & Megan in your prayers as they continue kick cancer’s butt as well!

And as a quick send off, check out UNRL’s Ending of a Decade video below. Thanks to MJ and his Team for all the support this past year. We are looking forward to 2020!

Official Start of Maintenance

Brax’s counts were great this past Tuesday and she officially started Maintenance! This is the final phase of treatment and will last until the end of May 2021. Yes, it’s long, but things should be much smoother sailing and we should be able to get back to “normal” life – school, sports, travel, etc. The first two weeks of Maintenance, Brax will have cranial radiation due the ammount of Luekemia found in her CSF (spinal fluid) at diagnosis. This is what put her into the Very High Risk category as well. We have been told radiation should go very well, with no major side effects. The most common side effect is that some kids feel tired, but usually that is a delayed response and they don’t feel it until radiation is done. At this point, after everything we have been through, if feeling a little tired is the worst of it, we will gladly take it.

Daily Pill Routine….I Got This!

In other news, Brax got a personal tour of the Viking’s Practice facility this past Monday. They rolled out the red carpet for her and showed her a lot of areas normally restricted (ie. Locker Room, War Room, etc) Thanks to Michael @ UNRL for coordinating this with Glenn and the Vikings.

Bry & Brax at the Viking’s TCO Performance Center.
The girls in front of their fave Kyle Rudolph’s Locker!

Also, some more exciting news! Brax was cleared to travel to the Outback Bowl in Tampa on New Year’s Day! She initially didn’t think she’d be able too, due to timing of radiation but Dr. Sadak had her schedule worked out so we can head down for a couple of days. She’s thrilled, we’re thrilled! Thanks Dr. Sadak!

And for the cherry on top of week, this past Friday Brax was invited to give a speech to the Gopher Football team about her story. Coach Fleck asked her some time ago if she’d be willing to come in during bowl week prep and do that and she, without hesitation, agreed. She wrote the speech herself and she did a great job! If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out. It’s on our Fun Stuff page or you can click HERE to get there.

Coach Fleck & Brax.
Full House!

Brax is feeling really good overall and we are hoping it will just continue to improve. It’s been a really good few weeks and it’s so nice to see after such a long year.

And quickly, thanks to everyone who has donated or given gift cards during our 12 Days of Swag campaign. And if you haven’t, you have until midnite on Christmas Eve! Any donation (any amount) will be used toward food gift cards for U of M Families and you will be entered into a drawing for 1 of 12 TB1Fund Clothing items. Winners announced Christmas Day!

Thanks as always, to EVERYONE, who has and who continues to keep our family in their thoughts and prayers. It’s been a tough year, but we are coming out of this stronger than ever.

Brax and the entire Battaglia Family are wishing you and your families the Merriest Christmas and Happiest New Year! We are excited for 2020!

****BUDDY UPDATE: Brax’s good buddy Megan was discharged this past week and will be home for Christmas – so AWESOME! Casey’s spot of cancer was remove and no further chemo needed – just more frequent scans – so AWESOME! And, Bella will soon be home to start treatment much closer to home at Masonic and things are going in the right direction for her too – so AWESOME!

UPDATE & 12 Days of Swag

We wanted to post a quick update to keep everyone in the loop. Brax is doing great and feeling great, but counts have not been high enough to start Maintenance. She didn’t make counts on 12/3 and then just barely missed again on 12/10. We were surprised on the 3rd and shocked on the 10th. She’s feeling the best she has felt since this summer and has been out and about and getting in gym time. We go back this Tuesday and based on where things have been trending she should be well above the threshold. The bummer of being pushed back two weeks now, is that radiation will be over the holiday break…..and EVERY DAY for 2 weeks…bummer. It’s out of our control, but stinks nonetheless. She was excited to go the Bowl Game in Tampa and have radiation done before Christmas. But, as we have learned throughout this process, everything is out of our control and we are so thankful/grateful for where we are, regardless of the things we have to miss at this point in time. We will update next week after Tuesday’s appointment.

Please continue to pray for Brax, Bella, Megan & Casey. They can all use the continued prayers.

And a quick side note, check out the Fun Stuff page to see Casey accept the 2019 Disney Spirit Award. Congrats Casey and well deserved.

Brax & TB1Fund are running 12 days of Swag starting Friday the 13th thru Tuesday the 24th.


All donations (any size) made to TB1Fund during this period will be entered in into a drawing for 1 of 12 prizes. Money raised during these 12 days will go toward the food gift card drive for patients and families of the U of M Masonic Children’s Hospital. We personally know how nice it was to be order something outside of the hospital, but it can add up and we want to do something small, yet directly impactful for inpatient families looking to mix it up. You can also submit physical or electronic gift cards and those will count as a donation too. Email [email protected] for more info. Any cards are accepted, but BiteSquad, DoorDash and/or GrubHub cards work the best as they offer the biggest selection + delivery…..very handy to not have to leave the hospital and have food delivered.

www.TB1Fund.org to donate

And thank you to everyone who has contributed thus far. We surpassed $1,500 in GC’s already and would like to hit $2500 by December 24th.
Thanks to Integrity Global Solutions for the $50 Door Dash cards and thanks to Bite Squad for the $25 gift cards.

Thank You Message from Brax

Video Thank You from Brax!

TB1F is off to a great start and we have a lot planned for 2020!‬ ‪

Thank you to everyone who has donated and volunteered!

Thank you to all of our sponsors and partners – you are making a difference! ‪

We are hoping to make a big end of the year push and we are currently looking for help with food gift cards (BiteSquad, Grubhub, DoorDash, etc.) for families on floor 5. You can help by making a donation to the fund or by sending gift cards. The hospital food gets old and it’s an added expense for all family members and gift cards are a HUGE help!  If you can help, please donate at www.TB1Fund.org or reach out to us via email or phone at our FAQ page https://braxtonbattaglia.com/faq/ if you’d like to send a physical card.

In regards to our schedule, we start our first treatment of Maintenance tomorrow. This last phase is 18 months long (yes, it’s LONG) and it’s broken up into 90-day segments. Radiation will start next week and last for 2 weeks.

We will update soon with how Brax is feeling.

Thanks again to everyone for the continued prayers and support. Every day is one day closer to being done!

BIG WEEK…….

It’s been a big week since the last post and we are happy to report that Brax is on the upswing and doing very well. Below is a recap of the last week and half.

Last Friday, the U of M had one their big yearly fundraisers. This particular one in the fall is called Fashion Fest and both the girls were asked to model for UNRL. UNRL is a local clothing company that is doing all of the gear for TB1Fund and a great group of people. Brax and Bry were able to wear their clothing and had a blast doing it. It was late by the time they hit the runway, but Brax powered thru. We also did this event with the Battaglia brothers and significants. It was a great night start to finish and a lot of money was raised for the U of M…in the neighborhood of $480K!!

You can check out the runway video on the Fun Stuff page. Other photos from the night below.

Bry & Brax before hitting the runway!
The Fam!
The Zuckers and the girls.
The Bros, the In-Laws and 1 Outlaw!

Saturday was race day! We got up early (and it hurt), and headed over to Champlin for the 1st Annual Flippin’ 5K hosted by Brax’s gym, Twin City Twisters, aka TCT. We had a great turnout, especially since it was done on pretty short notice and happened during deer season. So to see the crowd we got was impressive. We can’t thank Kim and Lisa for the time they put in to get this organized and in before the snow fell. It was AWESOME! And besides a great weather day, a great race course, great people and support we were able to raise nearly $8K for TB1Fund. All of which Brax will be able to use to help families in need at the U of M!

Race Day Crew!
U of M Gophers Women’s Gymnastics – Thank You for helping out!
Brax & Ani
Brax & fellow Cancer Survivors – thanks for the photo girls! Looking forward to January!
Katie, Brax and Erin.

We had a couple days off after Fashion Fest and the Flippin’ 5K to recover and then we were headed back to the U for appointments and treatment. Tuesday was officially Brax’s last treatment of Interim Maintenance II (see the roadmap below). This was another HUGE milestone and we are all happy to be done with it. The next phase (and FINAL phase!!) is Maintenance. Maintenance will begin on December 3rd and last for 18 months, broken up into 90-day cycles (schedule below the roadmap). Brax will do radiation for the 1st 2 weeks and then we are only back at the Journey Clinic once a month! She will take daily meds and chemo pills at home throughout this process, but will not be required to come in other than the one time per month (assuming all goes well).

We are so looking forward to Brax feeling well. It’s been over a year of feeling crappy between JIA and cancer and we are ready to get some normalcy back.

One Phase Left!
Next 3 Months (90 Day Cycles) – Full regimen still, but all done at home mostly.

And finally to cap off Brax’s week o’ fun, TB1 Fund held our first hospitality day at the U of M. This was important to Brax and it turned out great. The event, dubbed “Donut Ever Give Up” was held in the lobby and thanks to Steve and Dunkin’ it turned out awesome. Brax is not a big sweet/candy girl, but she loves donuts and has always loved Dunkin’. So to get them to team up with TB1 Fund was pretty special. We are hoping to do this quarterly for families and patients at the hospital along with many other things. Again, thank you to everyone who has supported TB1Fund. It’s off to great start and we are excited to see all the good things that are coming of it. If you haven’t checked out that site, please do at www.TB1Fund.org

TB1Fund’s 1st Hospitality Day. Flyer’s posted at U of M Masonic.
The servers! Thanks G’ma & G’pa B for the extra hands!
Thanks Steve & Dunkin’ for helping support TB1Fund & U of M Masonic!

As always, thank you to everyone for the continued prayers and support! It’s been a long 10 months, but everything is moving in the right direction. Please continue to keep Brax in your prayers as we still have over a year and a half of treatment remaining, but it should be much smoother sailing. In addition, please continue to keep some of our good friends we have known for years and others we have met thru this journey in your prayers as well, specifically – Bella, Megan, Jake & Casey.

Halloween, Mouth Sores & A Hospital Stay

Let’s start with FUN stuff first!! The girls always do a themed Halloween and this year was no exception. They went as Pumba & Timon. Vinny is never left out either (not by his choice) and went as Simba – he was thrilled!

Brax also got some baking in. She’s still on a baking kick and did themed cupcakes for the neighbor’s party. They turned out awesome!

But…….since Halloween until this past Sunday, it’s been a bit of an adventure, so we apologize for the delay in posting, but you will see why below…..

After Brax’s last treatment on Oct 29th, she didn’t feel like she normally does after a treatment, but we had nothing to go off of other than it’s been a long 9 months and it may just be wearing on her. By Friday, Nov 1st, however, she started to develop mouth sores. We have heard about others getting these (and quite bad), but Brax had not experienced these to any significant degree thus far. She has had a couple very small ones throughout treatment, but nothing worth noting. That was not the case after this last treatment. She got them and they were extreme. She started to get them on her lower lip, under the tongue, inside the cheeks and in her throat. This was the worst week of treatment she has had since shortly after being diagnosed in regards to the pain and discomfort. Due the severity of the sores and her counts going from a normal range to a rock bottom ANC of ZERO in matter of days, they admitted us back to the hospital last Tuesday the 5th. They immediately put her on antibiotics and started testing for bacterial infections. With counts dropping as fast as they did, they assume it was caused by the body’s response to the sores, but also were thinking there was some other contributing factor. Thankfully all bacterial infection results came back negative, but they wanted to check for fungal infections. Just hearing the words “fungal infection” was both hard and scary for us as we know a family in a similar situation who had a very hard go with a fungal infection – to the point they thought they may lose their child – so it was nothing we took lightly. Thankfully, for that family, their child made a full recovery after 2+ months in the hospital and thankfully for us those test results all came back negative as well and counts slowly started to rebound near the end of last week. We received the option to be discharged on Saturday or Sunday, but due to the intense pain of the sores, Brax opted for one more night in the hospital to receive the extra care. By Sunday she was feeling better and we got home early that morning. Not a fun week, but we WON!

And as some background, we did ask why this happened as Brax has responded very well to the Methotrexate for the last 9 months, so we thought we were in the clear. They told us during Interim Maintenance II they gradually increase each dose of Methotrexate as the patient progresses through this phase, if they are A) tolerating it well and B) other chemistry numbers are reporting good. Ideally the more they can give the better the outcome and the bigger the “punch” so it’s all part of the protocol. And Brax fell into this category, however, they hit her “breaking” point this last round and it will be scaled back moving forward.

We went back today for anticipated treatment since we missed last Thursday’s treatment. We were unsure if Brax would make counts today to proceed, but she did…..just barely. We needed an ANC of 500 (she was at 500) and platelets of 50 (she was 52) – typical Brax fashion! So, after consulting with Dr. Sadak, he recommended we move forward with the IT chemo treatment (in her spine) and also continue with Vincristine IV chemo, but hold the Methotrexate treatment this week to allow the mouth sores to fully heal and keep Brax on track going forward. He said it’s much better to skip one now than get so knocked down we have to skip many in the future. We all agreed and everything went great today and Brax is feeling really good again after a “miserable” week last week, in her words.

The one bright spot of this past weekend was the Gopher’s Football WIN! Congrats guys on a monster win for the U and Minnesota!

Brax is busy in these upcoming weeks so we hope she continues to keep feeling good now that we have the mouth sores under control. This Friday is the U’s big Fashion Fest Fundraiser and both Brax and Bry were asked to model UNRL clothing. Brax will be a game time decision, but Bry is IN! Then on Saturday we have our 1st Flippin’ 5K hosted by TCT for TB1 Fund, with all proceeds going the fund. The weather looks good and we are hoping for a great turnout. It’s not too late to register if you haven’t. You can register by calling the gym 763-421-3046 or by filling out the registration form at the link below: www.tb1fund.org/downloads and emailing/faxing/hand delivering on Saturday.

Also, all of the TB1 Fund Donor gear is in! It turned out great and we are excited to get it out to all the donors. We are continuing to reach out to get sizing info, so if you have not heard from us, you will shortly. Thanks again to everyone for the continued prayers and support! It means the world!