I'm so thankful to be posting another mostly positive update today.

Yesterday's activities were a lot for Mason, and when he fell asleep at 3:30 p.m. due to those medications they gave him to place the feeding tube, he then stayed asleep (mostly) until 9:30 a.m. today. He definitely needed the rest. And as he told me when we talked about it this morning, "Mom, it was rough sleep. They were poking at me all night." He's not wrong.

As his first round of formula that was going through the feeding tube was finishing up, the nurses noticed that it actually wasn't going through any further. They had quite a few little tricks that they tried to see if they could unblock the tube (nurses AMAZE me daily here!)- I'm still trying to work out how I feel personally about the fact that they can use Coca Cola to eat away at the blockage- might not want to reach for that can of Coke so quickly next time (and also never thought I would be okay with medical personnel shooting a whole vial of straight Coca Cola into my child through a tube).

Unfortunately, none of the tricks or medicines worked to unblock the feeding tube. However, Mason woke up hungry at 9:30 and managed to take in sausage, fruit and two large servings of milk. His nausea was not an issue, and he was able to eat when he was hungry.

But even with that, they still want to keep a feeding tube in place, as he is still not able to swallow all of the pills that he needs to take, so they need a way to administer them without going through his central lines. As much as Mason didn't want to deal with it, we set our goal for today as just tolerating the placement of the new feeding tube.

The doctor came by and said that Mason's numbers continue to look good. His liver enzymes went back down to normal levels today, so they think the labs yesterday just picked up a moment of acute stress on the liver. Overall, all other indicators look good. Mason's main oncologist will stop by tomorrow morning to go over the next course of treatment, and if they deem that his liver is ready to handle it, we may start the second round of chemotherapy as early as tomorrow.

Although Mason's platelet numbers remained at an acceptable level (or at least higher than we have seen them), they did decide to give him a platelet transfusion today before they placed the feeding tube. He had a few issues with a bloody nose yesterday right before they placed the line, and their thought was that the line might have picked up a blood clot from that nose bleed when they originally placed it, which then led to the blockage.

After he received the platelets, he asked me once again for spaghetti. "But good spaghetti Mom, not the stuff you got last night." Which was from the cafeteria here. He managed to eat a large bowl of spaghetti and meat sauce from Maggiano's Little Italy down the street for lunch.

While he ate, he did have his first friend visitor, which was exciting. One of his good friends from the basketball and lacrosse team came up with his mom and brought Mason a large basket filled with spicy chips, his favorite candies and Prime. Although Mason was a little nervous before he actually got here, he was definitely happy to see him. The visit wiped him out, and he was asleep almost before his friend got out the door. We are hoping to schedule more of these visits- we will absolutely let you know what times might work based on the next chemo round that gets decided on tomorrow.

Following the visit, they gave Mason more of the sleepy meds and placed the new feeding tube. He managed it so well this time, with hardly more than a "I thought you said this medicine was going to make me sleep through this part!" As soon as it was in place, his eyes shut and he has been out since.

Yesterday marked 5 weeks since we received Mason's diagnosis. It's overwhelming to think how much has changed in those 5 weeks. As we face details regarding round 2 of chemo tomorrow, we will be continuing to take on this fight one day at a time, one battle at a time. We've had several very good days in a row, and we are incredibly grateful for that. The one thing that really hasn't changed over the past 5 weeks is how fully supported we feel- thank you all for that!