Santa Stopped at Cody's Room

Dear Family and Friends:

Well, we ended up spending Christmas at CHOC. This Friday will be 2 weeks in the hospital. Nana gave us a live little decorated Christmas tree to decorate the room. Santa actually visited his room right at midnight and dropped off gifts for Cody (one very large bag, compliments of CHOC hospital and one of the dads that has a child here also).

Christmas Day was a very hard day. Cody was feeling horrible and was in a lot of pain. He didn't even feel like opening gifts or celebrating in any fashion. We have done just about every test that can be done on ones stomach. He has yet another test tomorrow. They will put him out and do a scope..which is a small camera that actually goes into the stomach so they can get a real good look at things in there to rule out ulcers, bacteria, lacerations etc. Chances are that he is just having extreme reactions to the radiation.

The good thing is that the extreme radiation is over and they are now just radiating the tumor area on his brain which should help his stomach recover. He is in less pain now and is taking less pain medication and is actually eating a little....however, they do not want to release him until he is not in need of pain medication and can eat better. We are hopeful that it will be Friday.

He has some really good days and some really bad days. The good days are now more frequent than the bad ones. He felt so good the other night, he did 35 laps around the 3rd floor (equivalent to 3 miles)!!!! He did this while I went to visit my folks...(thank you Lola and Sarah for playing with Cody for the first couple of hours while I did this.) This was the first time he has been left alone at the hospital (Dave was recovering from his ordeal and I needed a break)....maybe I should leave more often since the results were so good!

Dave had a recurrence of kidney stones yesterday and was back in ER for that. The ER guys think he may also have gall stones. He has made an appointment with a couple of the appropriate doctors. He is medicated for pain and resting comfortably at home right now.

Only the Good Lord knows the end results of all of this. He has continued to bless us all with peace and hope and has held our hands the whole journey. We hold close your continued prayers. Will update again soon.

Blessings to you and your families, with gratitude,

Dallas, Dave and Cody