DAY 82

Brendan has continued to improve. His stomach scope showed gastritis. Gastritis is an inflammation of the stomach lining. He is being given medication to reduce his stomach acid. Brendan is still struggling with nausea but this is beginning to improve since the doctors decided to stop Brendan’s overnight milk feeds. The plan is to get Brendan to eat more during the day so that he is not reliant on the naso-gastric milk feeds that seem to make him feel nauseated. Brendan still has low grade temperatures. The doctors have decided to not focus too much on the low grade fevers unless he is feeling unwell. The drug he is on to stop him from rejecting his marrow can cause fevers. He will begin to be weaned off the drug at around day 100.

Everyone is thinking that Brendan going back to Adelaide next Saturday is possible. We have to wait until Sydney has spoken to Adelaide as Brendan will need to be admitted to Adelaide hospital. He wants to visit home for a few hours before he is readmitted to Adelaide. Hopefully we can. This will give us the opportunity to unpack and re-pack again. We should know on Monday if Brendan can go home on Saturday.

Brendan is happy, chatty and even having the odd hissy fit. So far, we have seen no sign that his treatment has caused any damage to his brain. He has been having more visits from the ward to our Ronnie Mac unit during the day. He returns to the hospital at night to have extra IV fluids to protect his kidneys and his IV drugs.

Brendan has come a long way in the last two weeks. He would love to go home soon.

For now we will keep our fingers crossed and will let everyone know what our plans are.

Love Anna