May 11 Update

Last night was a LONG night. When Brandon started feeling worse, we were torn between waiting it out or going to the emergency room and taking the risk of being told he wasn’t strong enough for the surgery because he couldn’t make it through the night. We bit the bullet and contacted his surgeon, who was great. He called the hospital and had Brandon directly admitted, so we were able to bypass the emergency room and the wait time that would have entailed. It was probably 15 minutes from the time we arrived at the hospital to the time Brandon was in a room on the oncology floor. That being said, it was already after 10:00 when we got settled in, and we didn’t get much sleep with the nurses and doctors coming in every hour or so through the night. All indications were that surgery was on as planned, so it was a huge disappointment when the surgeon delivered the news that he didn’t feel comfortable going forward with the kidney numbers he saw in Brandon’s overnight labs.

Today has been emotional, to say the least. At the end of the day, we know his surgeon did what was best for Brandon. He did look and sound better late this afternoon. The nausea had subsided, and the cramps throughout his body were gone. He was still having some cramping in his stomach, but still an improvement over last night. Sometime it seems like Brandon just can’t catch a break. At some point, this has to turn around and go his way.

We are still waiting to hear what time his surgery will begin on Monday. His surgeon told us to expect it to go late, so we don’t think he will go in early that morning. And while it would have been nice to be the only patient on the surgery schedule for the day, what really matters is that he has the surgery. We are praying that his kidney issues are resolved and that he can safely undergo the surgery on Monday.