Brotherly Love

Look at those boys!  Those faces just melt my heart.  These pictures were taken almost exactly 3 years apart.  So, so sweet!

Wes and Nate are getting to be the absolute best of friends.  Up until just recently, they would play nice from time to time but more often than not, a fight over a toy was more important than brotherly love.  The almost 3 year age difference meant that Nate was continually disappointing Wes and would never play "right".  Just recently, Nate is finally old enough that they are able to communicate well enough to have some real, meaningful play time.  They will play for hours, nicely, in one of their rooms or outside, disappearing into their own imaginary world, together.  Last night, they were asking to sleep together in Wes's bed.  I promised we will try a "sleepover" this weekend.  Wes is finally able to see what is so great about having a brother.  I don't know if this would have happened naturally anyways, or if Nate being away from home so much has made them appreciate each other more.  I do know, though, that it breaks my heart to keep separating them.  We will be in Houston for 2 1/2 weeks...then, over the next 6 months, Nate will have 7 more weeks of scheduled hospital stays (hoping for no extra stays for sickness or infection).  That is still a whole lot more time for my sweet boys to be apart.

Nate had a clinic visit today and is still doing spectacular.  They stopped his IV fluids and will recheck his electrolytes and kidney function on Thursday to make sure the fluid he is drinking by mouth is enough.  It sure will be nice to not have to continue hooking him up every night for 6 months like we were told might be the case.  His platelets are almost normal, but his hemoglobin fell a bit.  He is now taking folic acid in hopes that it will help his hemoglobin recover and we can maybe skip a transfusion later this week.

After Thursday's visit, Nate will be released from the bone marrow transplant team, back to his regular oncologist.  Another major step forward.  Nate will have an appointment with his oncologist next week and we will discuss our plans for radiation and I hope to get a better feel for when antibody therapy will begin.  We know it has to begin, after radiation, and by day +100, but Nate's radiation should be complete by day +67, so I'm not sure when antibody will start, or if he gets scans or anything in the mean time.

Right now, we are enjoying being home and looking forward to celebrating big brother Wesley's 6th birthday this weekend.