Sorry that it has been awhile since I’ve posted.  Bodi has gone through his 3rd round of chemo and was such a big boy.  We were in the hospital for three days while he was in treatment.  The nurses and doctors couldn’t believe how much bigger Bodi was.  He has really packed on the pounds!!!!  YAY Bodi!!!

The day after we were released we had to come back so he could get his shot.  The shot boosts his white blood cell count after chemo.  After the shot we went to Grandma and Grandpa’s house for a sleepover.  Bryan had taken Merrell to Troy Ohio for a soccer tournament which her team did very good in.    Bodi was such a good boy at Grandma’s house.  He really started laughing and was in good spirits the entire time.  This made me a happy Momma!  He was able to hang out with Parker and Emmie which was a lot of fun.  He loved to watch them play with their toys.  He couldn’t take his eyes off of them.

Monday we had to go to clinic to test his levels.  Everything came back great, so we don’t have to go back until NEXT Thursday!  That is so awesome.  The dietitian also cut Bodi’s feeds down to 14 hours.  So he gets 10 hours off of his feeding tube everyday!!!!  I am working him down to 12 hours off and 12 hours on by next week.  This makes daily life so much easier!

Yesterday we were blessed by the Dragonfly foundation.  We were able to go to the Red’s Stadium and hang out with other families whose children also have cancer.  Although Bodi was too little to enjoy the festivities, it was nice to watch the other children play baseball on the field.  They gave Bodi his own Reds jersey that has #bodiSTRONG on the back!  SO COOL!  Special thanks to Ria and all of the volunteers at Dragonfly!  Such an amazing foundation.

Bodi is off until clinic next week.  After that he will have chemo again.  Once he completes the fourth round we will do another set of scans to see how the tumor is responding.  The last scans showed that it shrunk a tiny bit.  Not enough to stop treatment, but a little.  The liver has gone down a ton.  His belly is visibly smaller which is such a relief.  The liver isn’t compressing his tummy as much so he has been able to take an ounce more of food by mouth.  I can tell he is much more comfortable than he used to be.  Before his diagnosis he would scream bloody murder when I’d put him in his carseat.  Now he seems to enjoy the carseat and even drift off to sleep occasionally.

Please continue to keep Bodi in your prayers.  They are definitely working! Love you all!

Hey All,

Well the last two days have been exciting!  I hope everyone out there had a wonderful Mother’s Day!  We went over to my Mamaw’s house in the morning for breakfast and I finally got to hang out with all of my cousins.  Well, minus two that are in California, I sure do miss them.  Then we came home and my Uncle Brent was there!  Mommy and I went to take a nap and then my uncle Matt, Papaw and Mamaw came over because my Nana Sue made a delicious dinner.  I love getting to hang out with my Grandparents and family.

After dinner Mommy was getting me settled in when I decided to be a little mischievous.  I decided that I did NOT want my tube in my nose!  So, I pulled it out!  Mommy looked really concerned and I could hear her talking to the doctor.  What I didn’t realize is that when you pull out your tube they make you put in another one. NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

This is the third time I’ve had to lay on a cold table while someone repeatedly sticks a tube in my nose, pulls it out, sticks it back in for about 15 minutes all while saying, “It’s okay, it’s okay, what a big boy!”  I don’t know why this tube is in my nose, but I do not like it!

After that Mommy and Daddy took me home and I was all tuckered out from all of my screaming.  I slept really good that night and was up and ready for clinic the next day.  I’ll let Mommy tell you how that went because I don’t remember much.  But if you’ve learned anything from this journal, DO NOT PULL OUT YOUR TUBE!!!!!!

* As Bodi mentioned, we had a great Mother’s Day!  He was able to hang out with most of his cousins, uncle, siblings, and of course grandparents.  What was a relaxing day quickly turned into an eventful evening when lil mister decided to pull out his tube.  Of course we had to go to the ER to get it replaced by a radiologist.  I absolutely hate doing this because he get so upset and screams and screams all while I have to hold his head, hands, and tube while Bryan holds his other hand and a foot and a nurse holds the other foot.  It is terrible. I think we figured out a good way to tape that sucker down so his little fingers can’t get a grip of it, but we’ll see!

Monday Bodi had clinic and an MRI scan.  Clinic was pretty uneventful, we just talked mostly with his doctor about the treatment plan.  I won’t get too much into that until we see the results of the MRI.  He was a big boy during the MRI and rested the rest of the evening.  We will go back to Children’s on Wednesday for his 3rd round of chemo.  He does get a new medicine this round, so please pray that he does well with it and it doesn’t make him sick.

Love to all!

Super Bodi!!!!

Watching Stevo kick butt in lacrosse

I love my brother soooo much!!!

Look Mom, no tube!!!!

Hi Warriors!  It’s me Bodi.  Boy have I been having a great time being home.  Besides the minor hiccup that put me back in the hospital for 2 days, I have been loving being home.  I am starting to giggle at Mommy and Daddy.  They are trying to catch it on video, but I am too quick for them!!!  I have been hanging outside, going on walks and really holding my head up.  Mommy and Daddy can not believe how strong my neck is getting.  I am starting to really like tummy time.  Mommy put me in a strange looking thing last night and turns out I really love it!!! Who knew!

Although I’ve been having lots of fun at home I know I have a busy week next week.  Please continue to pray for me!!!!  Thanks for fighting and being in my corner!

Love,
Super Bodi!

Bodi had to spend Sunday, Monday and some of Tuesday in the hospital due to a fever.  They take fevers very seriously because it is the first sign of an infection.  Luckily all of Bodi’s tests came back negative for infections and we were able to leave the hospital. All of the nurses there could not believe how much our lil man has grown.  Since being admitted to the hospital he has gained a whopping 3 pounds!!!!  That’s huge for Bodi!  He is now weighing in at over 17 pounds!!!!!  With the weight comes extra strength.  He has gone from losing most of the strength in his neck to being able to hold it up all by himself.  He is really changing and growing.  The weird thing I put him in last night was a bouncy. Bryan has been dying to put him in it and I haven’t let him because I didn’t think he was ready.  Well last night he proved me wrong.  He loved it!!

Bodi has an MRI on Monday to see how the chemo is affecting his tumors.  Please pray that all goes well with the sedation and that the scans show a decrease in size.  He will then be admitted on Wednesday to undergo his third round of chemo.  Pray that he does not get sick from his chemo and that he will be comfortable and happy!

Also, I just have to say again how much we love seeing the #bodiSTRONG pictures.  I constantly scroll through them when I need a pick me up.

I also want to wish all of the Mother’s a Happy Mother’s Day!!!!    I have an incredible Mother who has taught me how to be a strong woman and a nurturing Mother.  I love you a bushel and a peck!

To my sister, thank you for being you.  I could not go through this journey we are on without you.  You are not only my sister but also my best friend. I love you.  I am also lucky to have an amazing Mother in law who helps me out a ton.  I am so lucky to have you all in my life!!!!!  Love you Mom, Ses, and Sue!

I have a ton of other strong loving women in my life!  To all of my Aunts, Cousins, Friends, and  Sister in Laws I love you all!!!!!!!!!

by Sarah Fennell

I can’t believe there are over 300 people out there wearing their #bodiSTRONG!  I get the chills every time I see  pic come through with someone wearing their shirt.  It definitely brings a smile to all our faces 🙂  I have attached some pictures of Bodi’s Prayer Warriors…please please please send us a pic if you haven’t already.  We LOVE seeing you all.  It is amazing how much support the Welage & Schloss families are receiving.  You all ROCK!

Can you believe we still have people wanting to get their hands on a #bodiSTRONG shirt!?!  Spread the news…..I have re-launched the campaign for a third time and the shirts are available to purchase again at www.booster.com/bodistrong.  It will be open for two more weeks.

Keep the positive energy & prayers coming!  Bodi has been battling through Chemo & all his tests like a true warrior.  He is in great spirits and is making progress.  Pray for good test & scan results in the upcoming weeks!

I want to also thank everyone who has donated to the www.gofundme.com/bodisfight account or prepared a meal for Jennifer & Bryan through www.mealtrain.com.  Being so far away from my best friend & sister out here in California, I constantly worry about them and want to be there to help.  It makes me feel so good that their support system is so large and that they are taken care of in all kinds of ways.  I can’t say it enough that we are overwhelmed by all of the support, prayers, thoughts and love.  From the bottom of my heart…thanks so much 🙂

Lots of LOVE,
Aunt Rah Rah
Sarah

Hey everyone.  Bodi woke up with a fever this morning so it was back to the ER we went.  After lots of tests we were admitted to children’s due to his counts being low.  He’s being monitored closely and we will hopefully be out of here soon.
Keep on praying!

Hello strangers, it’s me Bodi.  Boy have I had an eventful weekend.  You all know I came home on Friday.  It was quite a busy day.  I wasn’t even home for an hour before the home care nurse came over.  Man, I thought I got rid of those masked ladies!!!!  Then my big brother’s basketball team came over and some of my neighbors and shaved all of their heads!  Jokes on them because my hair hasn’t gone anywhere yet!!!! I think it is so cool that they shaved their heads.  I can’t wait until I can play basketball with them.  Shout out to Bryson, Ian, Jack, Luke M., Luke S, Jayden, Sully, Joey, RJ, Dirk, Carson and my Dad!  You guys ROCK!
The boys left for their basketball game and they all wore #bodiSTRONG shirts as their jerseys!!!!  Daddy says I brought them good luck because they beat a really good team!
Then my Daddy showed me a picture of a really beautiful girl.  It was my sister who was all dressed up.  She and her boyfriend went to something called prom.  Apparantly you get all dressed up and go dancing. I can’t wait to go to prom!
While my siblings were having lots of fun, I was crying and crying.  I think I wasn’t feeling very good because of my chemo.  I really worried my mommy who was having a hard time with my food pump.  She said it kept backing up.
After all of the commotion, I finally settled down for bed.  I slept pretty good.  It’s nice to be in my own bed.

Saturday I woke up and Mommy said that my feeding tube was blocked.  She couldn’t flush it at all.  Daddy called the Home Nurse and they came out to see what was wrong.  She was able to flush it no problem and went on her way.  Well soon after she left the bag kept backing up.  Mommy was not very happy.  She was messing with my pump all day trying to get it to work properly.  I didn’t mind, I just watched the rain come down outside.  Well later that night my feeding tube backed up again!  This isn’t good because it means that the food isn’t getting into my intestines.  Daddy called the home nurse again and she told us to go right to the emergency room!!!  So we hopped in the car and headed back to the hospital.  After a few hours the doctors decided that I had to get a new NJ tube.  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, I don’t want to get another one.  I was a big boy though and let them stick a bigger tube down my nose.  Mommy was really sad, but she held my hand the whole time and rubbed my head.   After they successfully placed the new tube Mommy scooped me up and we were headed home.  I slept like a Daddy the rest of the night!

Sunday was pretty good day.  I was able to go outside for a ittle bit.  The sun felt so good on my skin.  My mamaw, papaw, daddy, and nana sat outside on the back patio.  Then my Daddy’s back went out.  It must be really painful because he was making really loud noises and had to lay on the ground for a long time.   Later in the day my big brother and sisters came home.  I miss them a lot when they aren’t here.  They make a lot of silly faces at me!

Then I started to have a lot of pain before bed.  Mommy tried everything to soothe me, but nothing worked.  She gave me some medicine and made me feel a lot better.  I’m glad I was feeling better because I had to go back to the hospital the next day for clinic.
It was pretty uneventful at the clinic.  The nurses checked my vitals, took some blood and sent me on my way.  They said all of my numbers are really good still.  They say I’m a very  brave little boy!  Okay, I have to go, it’s past my bedtime.  Nite Nite, don’t let the bed bugs bite!!!

I’m headed home!!!!!

Do you notice anything different? Yup, that’s right, I decided to pull my NJ tube out. I was sick of it!!! Now my cute little cheeks are bandage free so Mommy and Daddy can give me more kisses!

Notes from Mommy:

I woke up at 4 am to feed Bodi because he was fussing. I was excited because he had been sleeping since 10, which 6 hours is huge for us!!! When I looked down at my sweet angel I noticed his tube was looped over his cheek. When I looked again i I noticed it wasn’t looped, it was pulled out!! The nurse, who was luckily in the room doing vitals, quickly stopped his feeds and had to remove the rest of the tube. After a minute of crying Bodi settled down and was able to eat.

We hopefully can get him down to radiology to get a new tube placed first thing in the morning.

Hey Friends!  As most of you know I received my 2nd round of chemo yesterday.  I was the biggest and most brave boy. Chemo has nothing on me…I slept through the whole thing!  I was in a great mood all day!  I had lots of visitors come snuggle me.  My Papaw came in the morning along with my Nana and Poppy.  Then my Mamaw came and Mommy and I took a nap the entire time she was here!!!  Sorry Mamaw, that was rude of us!  Haha. My Uncle Dave and Aunt Barb were finally well enough to come see me.  I sure missed them.  They gave me some really cool Reds shirts, paci’s and a bib.  I am all set for the season.  After everyone left it was time for me to go to bed.  Well kind of.  I felt kind of crummy and decided that I needed extra snuggles from Mommy.  So, I decided to keep her up until 6 in the morning!  She just can’t resist my lil face.

I woke up in a really good mood this morning.  With chemo behind me, I have some exciting news to look forward to!  I GET TO GO HOME TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!  I can’t wait!   The doctors said I am doing really well.  I was so excited that I let my physical therapist come in and I showed her how hard I’d been working on turning my head.  I even showed her how I can hold my head up like a really big boy.  Papaw assisted her and held my colorful rings…I think he has a new career as a PTA (Physical Therapist Assistant)!
Mommy and Daddy had to take a couple of classes today.  They had to learn how to flush my PICC line and how to operate my feeding pump.  I hope they were paying attention!  Good thing Home Care Nurses are just a phone call away!!

Well it’s getting late and I have a big day tomorrow.  Pray that my labs are good tonight and that we have a safe and smooth discharge from the hospital.
Love you guys.
– Super Bodi

Mommy and me beating Daddy in cards

chemo is boring

Hey Everyone!  Bodi here.  What a great weekend we had.  I only had to do one blood infusion and was off the rest of the weekend.  No pokes, no scans, no physical therapy, NOTHING!!  I just got to snuggle and play with some of my favorite people!!!  It was awesome!!!  Daddy also figured out how to get my food pump closer to my parents bed so I got to have morning snuggles with my Mommy.

I know a lot of people don’t like to talk about their weight, but not me!!!  I am gaining weight people!  Everyone is really excited about this because it means I feel pretty good!  I just can’t seem to get enough milkies!  Mommy says she loves my chubby cheeks and my second chin;  I didn’t know we had two chins, but apparently that’s a good thing!

I also had a really exciting new development this weekend….I FOUND MY HANDS!  Boy are they yummy.  I try really hard to get my full hand inside of my mouth before I start gagging myself!  I am constantly sucking on my fingers, my pointer and thumb are my favorite.  Mommy thinks I am so funny, but honestly, if she could taste them she’d understand.

I overheard the nurse tell Mommy that I have the most supportive family on the whole floor.  I feel so special.  I know there are a lot of people praying for me out there and that makes me so happy.  I love all of you!!

Daddy and Mommy show me all of the pictures that are coming in with people sporting their #bodiSTRONG shirts!!!  I LOVE to see them!  Thank you all for staying strong with me.  I’m doing really well and from what the doctors are saying will get out of the hospital really soon.

Today Mommy and Daddy were a little anxious because the doctors were going to bring them the test results.  But after a quick meeting with my doctors they  had a smile on their faces….I’ll let Mommy tell you what they said, it’s all confusing to me.  I am going to go now because Daddy and I are watching the Reds play the Brewers.  GO REDS!!!!!!

Notes from Mommy and Daddy…

We had such a great weekend with our lil man.  He was in great spirits and was constantly cracking us up.  He is the sweetest little thing you could ever meet.  He loves to suck on his hands and play with his rings.  He loves to FaceTime with people and has a real knack for flirting with the nurses.  He is honing his moves!  : )

Well we received the test results today and everything came back good.  Well good in the sense that they confirmed that it is Neuroblastoma stage 4s.  There are no signs of cancer in his bones, THANK GOD!!!!  Your prayers are definitely working.  The thoracic tumor has not gone down in size, YET, but it is obvious that the liver is shrinking!  The bone marrow came back with very little disease, which they were expecting.  So all in all, it was great news!  Now we have a course of treatment that we know is best for Bodi.  He starts his next round of chemo tomorrow and if all goes well, we should be discharged on Friday.  As wonderful as that is, I am a little nervous to leave the nurses here, which are my safety blanket.  We are so grateful for our wonderful nurses and doctors here at CCHMC.  I know I will be able to do the things necessary for Bodi’s care at home, but it is nerve wrecking to think about right now!!!

Please keep praying for Bodi’s strength to fight this battle that he has before him…

Two of my favorite men!

In my Sunday best chillin with Mr. Monkey

Trying on hats before I lose all my hair….how do I look?

Is there something in my nose?

Me and my Papaw