Good evening! Quick update today- not much new to share.

I arrived on Saturday and watched as Mason spent all of his daylight (and nighttime if we're being honest) hours connected to his buddies and playing the new season of Fortnite that dropped on Friday. He had a case of the "meats" and had three different kinds of barbecue for lunch (pulled pork, brisket and smoked turkey), then followed that up with a steak dinner.

When they drew labs Sunday morning, Mason's hemoglobin level was 6.9. Anytime it drops below 7, they will provide a blood transfusion, so this number meant that I was woken up at 5:30 a.m. to sign all the consent forms so they could hang a bag of blood and get started with the transfusion. Shortly after they started it, Mason had a bit of a reaction with terrible body aches all over and severe nausea. The nurse immediately stopped the transfusion and Mason received ALL the drugs- Benadryl, Tylenol and morphine. Once he was appropriately medicated, they restarted the transfusion and it was completed without any further issues.

However, the medications completely wiped him out- he slept for most of the day Sunday, waking up around 3:30 p.m. This meant we had a later bedtime last night as well, since he just really wasn't at all tired at a normal time. It also meant he really didn't have much of an appetite, although he managed a little something for lunch and dinner, and his weight today remained stable.

The doctors told me this sleep disruption is completely normal when in the hospital, but we are also going to go back to all those tricks we used the last round of treatment- making sure to let in plenty of sunshine during normal daytime hours, avoiding caffeine after a certain time of day and turning off screens well in advance of lights out.

Mason's numbers this morning continue to show that his blood counts are bottoming out, which is normal for the cycle of treatment. The hemoglobin was up slightly, thanks to the transfusion yesterday, but his platelets are low again. Throughout the last several rounds of treatment, it was determined that in order for a platelet transfusion to be the most effective for Mason, he needs to have specially matched platelets. The last donor found lived in Florida, so it took approximately 18 hours for the platelets to be shipped to us. They put in the request for a match this morning, and the doctors are hopeful we can have the transfusion done sometime tomorrow.

(I'm going to take this opportunity to step onto a soap box) Please consider donating blood and/or platelets. While yours will not go directly to Mason, there are so many patients who need it. There is a serious shortage of both. Grandma Mary is still in town, still managing the house and the siblings, and she spent all day last Monday in a chair at the Red Cross in Fayetteville to give platelets. If you go to the Red Cross' website, they have a search function to find the nearest donation center to you. (stepping down again- thank you!)

Because he had a rough day yesterday and his sleep schedule was slightly off, the teacher agreed to allow Mason to work on schoolwork independently today, which means he will have classroom time every day for the rest of the week, as long as he is feeling up to it. Tomorrow he meets with Mr. Bob for the first time- Mr. Bob is a retired high school calculus teacher who LOVES to work on advanced math with patients. We definitely need to connect with Mr. Bob, as I was ZERO help to Mason on his independent work today. I can assist with all things English and maybe a few concepts in social studies, but this math is not my strong suit. Mason did put in a solid hour of work, and we spent even more time going through his teachers' online agendas to make a plan of what to work on this week.

For now, Mason is feeling pretty good - recovered from yesterday - and managed to spend time today on both homework and his video games. He has quite a bit more energy than he did yesterday, which is nice to see. He spent some time talking with Grandma Mary and then more time talking to his dad. While he talked, I was busy working and did not notice that he was resetting everything on my phone. Suddenly it is in night mode and everything is GIANT. I have no idea how to change it back, but I actually think I can see things better, so I might just accept that I needed the change.

Specific prayer requests would be for smooth platelet transfusion in the very near future, continued smooth sailing through this week of low blood counts, and energy to tackle the school work that is helping provide a little normalcy in Mason's days. Thank you for your continued support!