Hello all-

Mason had a bit of a rough night last night with some bleeding issues and ANOTHER required PICC line dressing change. He ended up sleeping in late, but when I arrived at the hospital around 10:30 a.m., he was sitting in his chair and waiting for the hot chocolate I brought him from Starbucks. He ate an orange, Frosted Flakes and drank a whole milk for breakfast. He was in a good mood and chatted with John and I through the meal.

When he got tired of the chair, he moved back into his bed but was still up for a search through available video games to see if he was in the mood to play anything. He texted his friends and scheduled a time to play Fortnite together. Unfortunately, then he crashed, and since John and I were out of the room in a meeting with the transplant team, he slept right through his scheduled meet up time. He is hoping he can try again tomorrow.

He did move over to the chair again for dinner and was up for a good bit, but then agreed to go to sleep early (around 8:30) as he is scheduled for a very early procedure tomorrow and will need to be up and ready to move to the procedure room by 6:30 a.m.

Mason will have a bone marrow aspiration, a lumbar puncture, and a removal of his PICC line and change to a central venous line (basically moving his access from his arm to his chest). All three will be done while he is sedated.

They will administer chemo into the spinal fluid during the lumbar puncture, just to be sure the leukemia has not infiltrated the area. Results of the bone marrow aspiration will allow the medical team to build our next round of chemo based on what's going on within the marrow. That round of chemo is expected to begin sometime next week.

John and I had a productive meeting with the transplant doctor today. She shared a lot of information with us, and we will need some time to wrap our minds around what that phase of treatment will look like. We will be working through the details with Mason over the next few days as he is able to digest information.

That's all I have for today- please send up extra prayers tonight that the procedures tomorrow morning are successful with no complications, and that Mason continues to have some relief from the nausea. Thanks!