On Wednesday, March 18, Asa was admitted to the hospital to begin immunotherapy. The medicine is administered via his port and he was placed on 48 hour observation. He took to it very well the first day. On Thursday he woke up with a very high fever and they watched him closely for a seizure/stroke that morning. We are so thankful that no other side effects developed! He recovered from the fever and was back to his normal self pretty quickly.

BLINA (short for Blinatumomab) is the name of the immunotherapy medicine Asa is getting that works to train his body to fight the cancer cells, instead of relying on the chemo to do the work. This is a very important step in his treatment and just 2 years ago, patients would have had to receive this treatment in the hospital. On Friday, the nurses moved the med from the IV pole to a backpack that Asa can wear to receive the treatment so he can be home for the 28 day phase. This is the first time he is home with his port accessed (needle in his port) and it has been quite the adjustment for our family. 

In Asa's BLINA backpack is his IV bag of immunotherapy, the pump that dispenses the med, a battery pack, lots of tubes and wires, and precautionary supplies. Because he is connected to it 24/7, he must take it everywhere he goes. Asa has taken to it really well and is very mindful to keep it near. Sometimes he wears it, other times he sets it down next to him while he plays. The battery lasts 8-12 hours so we have to be mindful to keep chargers and extra batteries with us when we go out.

Already we've experienced some trouble since being home (he came home Friday!). On Saturday the tubing detached and we had to follow protocols for stopping the pump and cleaning the tubes while waiting for a call back from a doctor. We were walked through reconnecting his tubes and he went about his day.

Yesterday (Tuesday) evening, his pump kept alerting us to an error. We again followed protocol troubleshooting it ourselves and after several calls with nurses/doctors and more error codes, we determined it was best to take him in. Austin took Asa last night and nurses discovered there was a problem with the needle in his port. They re-accessed him and worked out the problem. Austin and Asa got home around 5am this morning.

While we are so grateful he hets to be home on this treatment, it comes with a lot of unknowns and lots of new things to manage. We are making it...we're just really tired and life around us is so fast paced this time of year. Thank you all for the many ways you are loving our family during this time. We see you and are so grateful! 

Through it all, God is and has been so good to us and we keep our eyes fixed on Him!