Hey y'all- it's been a busy but overall okay day around here.

Mason allowed me to hug him and hold his hand and be generally annoying when I got to the hospital yesterday for a short while- then it was back to "Mom, I'm fine" with the eye roll and deep sigh. He did break my heart by asking me not to leave him again- so although I will give his dad some overnight duties in the next few weeks, there will be no more long breaks for me (hopefully anyways. Because life can never just be settled with one major issue at a time, I am scheduled to have all 4 of my wisdom teeth removed a week from Thursday- as much as I want to cancel and continue to ignore that issue for another 44 years, I am afraid I've put it off as long as I possibly could. So I may need to take a few nights/days to recover next week- but otherwise I will be here.)

Shortly after his dad left for the day, we had some big emotions come up over how very tired Mason is of feeling sick and tired. I'm sure we all understand those moments where you just need your mom to let it all out to. So we spent time with those emotions and then moved on to talking about what we are most looking forward to when we get to go home. Mason would like to be on a cruise to the Caribbean in the next few weeks- I had to break his heart again and tell him that wouldn't be possible- but that as soon as it is a possibility, we will make it a reality. His night nurse (who he LOVES) offered to bring him to Dubai- they are dreaming pretty big.

This sweet boy is holding on to a few wisps of hair on his head- he very much has his step-father's hair line- but he is adamant about not shaving it, so we will just love what he has. I would like to know what it is about seeing the scalp beneath the hair that puts that mama bear instinct into overdrive, but I look at him now and see the infant that he was. He allowed me to sit on the bed with him and watch the movie Home yesterday afternoon. While we sat together, he ate a bowl of mac and cheese (apparently Velveeta is better than Kraft at this point), some turkey protein bites and then a full beef burrito from Moe's. He was able to keep all of it down and I was so excited for him.

He dozed off at about 8 p.m. last night, and I kept waiting for him to wake back up. I finally put myself to bed around midnight. He slept until about 1 a.m., when he needed to use the bathroom. He was up every hour the rest of the night to use the restroom, and at about 3:30 a.m. he had a little picnic of applesauce and crackers, because in my sleep deprivation, I didn't remember that I could have gone to the lounge to heat up ravioli or soup. I have now learned my lesson- when the patient is asleep, I should also put myself to sleep.

Mason continues to fight the nausea today, but has been able to keep down everything he has eaten, so we will take that win. The nutritionist that stopped by was impressed with how much he has been able to eat and gave us a special menu option for the cafeteria with higher calorie and protein options to order from. Mason is over the cafeteria food though- so we will see what he chooses for dinner tonight.

As for the busy day- we have done quite a lot. Mason went down for a CT scan of his head this morning, as they are still working to rule out every possible cause for his continued fevers, including a fungal infection of the sinuses. He got a visit from two separate therapy dogs- Blanche and Fox. The psychologist also stopped by to chat for a bit. We spent time with the occupational therapist as well, playing a dice game while sitting on the edge of the bed. When the physical therapist stopped by, Mason hid under his blanket, so she left the wheelchair in the room so that I can bring him on a walk around the floor when he is more rested and ready to move around this evening.

I also spent time with an educator, going over what home care needs to look like when Mason gets released. At this point I am going to ask for very specific prayers that Mason's body can fight off this fever, no matter the cause, and that his blood counts start coming back up toward normal. When the doctors stopped by today, they mentioned that if he cannot clear either of those goals, there is a possibility that he will remain in-patient until they start the next round of chemo therapy, at which point we would be looking at another solid 30 days of in-patient care. We are currently on day 21 of a 30 day cycle. This is the point where the body usually starts rebuilding. We are hoping to start to see his body moving in that direction- even if we could get a few days at home, it would be huge for his mental state.

The doctors also notified the transplant team today that we are ready to move forward, and they will start drawing labs from Mason to determine where matches need to be made. We will start having discussions with them this week, so we should have further information regarding the next phase of treatment within a few days.

Thank you all for your continued encouragement. He received quite a few Smilegrams today and they totally made his day!