It is difficult to explain exactly what is going on with Forester... Generally, he doesn't feel nauseated. Though frequently (at least once a day) he'll stop in the middle of eating something, spit out the food, gulp down some water & say "I can't eat anymore of that or I'll get sick". But, then he may wander over to the pantry, pick out something else & start to munch - sometimes not. The vomiting usually comes as a surprise. It's not like the instances above but just "all of a sudden" and a lot of times it's before he's even eaten anything. I still describe Forester as being like a 1st trimester pregnant person with morning sickness. If you've had it you know what I mean. He's hungry. He decides he wants lasagna. I make the lasagna. He looks at it or maybe even takes one bite and says, "I don't think I can eat this. It doesn't look good/taste good to me. Can I have something else?" I say, "Ok, what else would you like?" I proceed to name & search for everything we have. Sometimes we find something else and he eats it! Sometimes we never find anything that sounds good and he complains that he's hungry but there is nothing "good" to eat. Sometimes I make something else and then the exact same thing that happened with the lasagna happens with the next item and we do it all again. I get exasperated and frustrated & I'm not very good at hiding it. I know Forester feels bad & doesn't want to tell me that he "can't" eat what's in front of him. :-(
An example of a day of eating a week or so ago was this: a cup of dry Fruit Loops for breakfast, a mixed fruit cup for lunch, 2 bites of chicken & 2 bites of mashed potatoes for dinner, a couple handfuls of Doritos. That's it. On occasion he'll have a day where he eats like a normal 8 year old boy. It's not predictable & not consistent so we can't really figure out why a normal day is normal. He has quite an aversion to sweets so things like milkshakes or smoothies for breakfast, things we could sneak extra calories or protein into, just don't appeal to him. So...it's a challenge.
Now, on to some good news. One of the leaders of a non-profit organization that helps cancer kids, called Courageous Kidz, emailed other moms to see if they had any insight to Forester's issues. One mom whose son also had Medulloblastoma recommended getting his cortisol level checked. Hmmm.. A couple days later I had a really good 20 minute conversation with one of the nurse practitioners at the hospital. She really listened to me as I explained what was going on and she also suggested having Forester's cortisol level checked. So, tomorrow morning we'll be doing that! Regardless of the outcome, I am thankful that we are being heard and that something is being done to try and figure out what's going on. So, thank you for praying and keep it up!
Forester will also have another brain MRI on Monday morning. Same routine as always - under general anesthesia, usually takes all morning & requires a lot of boring wait time for Forester. Please be praying for a beautiful and clear scan report!!!
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