Hello all- we have some great news to share today- it is homecoming week at the kids' school and WE ARE GOING HOME TOMORROW!!!

While there has been some back and forth, due to this infection and the course of antibiotics that Mason needs to stay on, his blood counts this morning were finally in an appropriate range where the doctors feel comfortable switching him to an oral antibiotic that he can continue to take at home. We spent the day today arranging for all the other medications, including the chemo pills, to be delivered to the house so that we will be all set when we get there.

Mason finished up a math test with the hospital teachers today and they hope to help him finish up an English test tomorrow, at which point we will be at a great place for him to transition to the county-based teachers at home.

Mason was able to walk all the way down to his CT scan yesterday, which was a major improvement in his endurance and stamina, and has worked well with PT for the last few days, putting in the effort so the doctors feel comfortable sending him home.

We will be returning to the hospital this Friday for an outpatient bone marrow aspiration and lumbar puncture to determine if the leukemia is still clear following this round of treatment. Huge prayer request here- we need continued clear results so we can continue to consider him to be in remission as we hopefully move forward to transplant.

We have several appointments next week with radiation and the transplant team- outside of those dates, the rest of the treatment plan is a little bit up in the air for the next few days. Although the transplant prep was scheduled to begin on September 20, we cannot start the process until Mason is completely done with his antibiotics for this latest infection, which will not be until September 22. At that time, we are running into the issue of the transfer to the new hospital, which means there is a week-long window where they are not providing all the services needed in the transplant process.

We would appreciate prayers for the medical team as they meet this Thursday, 9/12, to determine a clear path forward, making sure that Mason (and his organs) are fully ready to move into the transplant process, but also without a long enough gap where we need to be worried about recurrence of the leukemia and all the complications that would come with that.

As always, we are taking things one day at a time, and for this day, we are incredibly grateful and excited about being able to spend time at home, with Mason in his new bedroom, and getting some rest in before we move into the next stage of treatment.

Thank you for your continued prayers, support and encouragement!