Hello y'all-

Yesterday, around dinner time, Mason started having chest pains. While he described them as "chest" pain, the sharp pains were coming more from his stomach area. The pain was making it difficult for him to breathe. And he was completely unable to eat.

After speaking with the doctor on call, they added a prescription for morphine as needed for his pain overnight. She listened to his heart and confirmed that his heart sounded fine, but they did connect him to track his blood pressure and oxygen levels through the night in order to monitor him more closely (we thought we were done with this connection/restriction in his movement after we got out of the ICU).

We were up a few times throughout the night, fighting all the usual symptoms. He was able to sleep right through his morning chemo treatment and had a good amount of rest.

This morning we were able to get cleaned up, changed and spent some serious time in the chair rather than the bed while watching Rise of the Planet of the Apes (side note- the movies that I am being exposed to here are insane- I think someone knows that Mom will not say no in this moment... although I did draw the line at South Park episodes).

We spoke to his doctors during rounds today about the chest pain. They believe that it has more to do with acid reflux type pain, so they were able to prescribe some medicine to help alleviate those symptoms. He will continue with morphine as needed. AND- most exciting to this mama who was trying her best to coax him into taking his required pill- they agreed that he could continue to receive all meds through his IV until we get this pain under control.

They also said that as they discussed his case this morning, the team agreed that everyone needs to understand that this kid is fighting an uphill battle- having to fight the large amount of leukemia that was in his system on top of the typical side effects from the treatments that will ultimately make him better. We are still confident that we are with the right team to make this happen- even if we still have some hard days ahead of us. They are definitely doing everything in their power to keep him comfortable as he fights and we can't ask for more than that at this point.

Due to the extra morphine that Mason is on, he slept for most of the day- unfortunately sleeping right through his visit with a therapy dog (OMG- I was in love!!). I did wake him up to spend time with the occupational therapists. We were able to get him sitting, standing, playing a card game, breathing through his sharp pains the whole time, and eventually practicing arm exercises that he can do in bed to keep his core and upper arm strength as much as possible. He will hopefully be ready to jump into basketball when we get done with treatment!

His WBC count ticked up very slightly yesterday, but was back down again today, so we continue to move in the right direction. While we don't have the full pathology report back from the lumbar puncture yesterday, they said that at first pass, the fluid looked clear, so even if there is leukemia present, it is a very small amount. More to come on that when they get the official results- but we took that as a huge win and very positive news.

I'm headed home for the night as soon as John gets here for the night shift tonight- I'll be back early tomorrow for a 4-day stretch to allow John to bring Alex out of town for their lacrosse tournament in Charlotte, North Carolina this weekend.

As soon as Mason has a little more energy back, we would love to schedule some FaceTime chats- I know he is missing spending time with all his friends and he can use all the encouragement he can get! Thanks friends!