We have reached the end of Asa's 28 days on BLINA and wow, what a ride. Most weeks we had 2-3 unexpected trips to the hospital for various reasons. That became very tiring and at times was overwhelming to drop everything and rush Asa to the hospital.

The most common problem we encountered was the tubing becoming disconnected and blood would back-flow out of his port. This resulted in the nurses needing to replace his port needle and him receiving a new IV bag of meds in his backpack. We quickly learned that this method of immunotherapy administered at home via the backpack is still very new and protocols are actively changing. We have learned so much and even taught the nurses a thing or two. :)

Overall Asa felt great on BLINA and was very energetic. We were often telling him to "slow down", "stop wrestling", and "don't fall in the church pond." We are grateful for the Chip & Melanie Farmer who gifted Asa a bunch of batteries that we could keep on hand for the BLINA pump so that Asa didn't have to carry around the heavy battery pack the hospital gave us! Asa adapted really well to being connected 24/7 and was quick to run and let us know when the pump beeped so we could assess the problem.

Asa has been backpack free for almost one week now and goes in tomorrow for a lumbar puncture with a chemo injection followed by a 4 hour IGG protein infusion. For the next 8 weeks Asa is in the phase called Delayed Intensification. Each week he will receive chemo infusions (could take anywhere from 1-6 hours) and his blood counts are expected to drop, which could lead to needing blood/platelet infusions, fever/infections, and hospital stays. His hair has started to grow back but we've been told to expect it to fall out again. After this phase, he will repeat BLINA again for 28 days.

Thank you all for continuing to pray and for the many ways you show our family love. We can truly say we are "OK" during this storm because of God and because of you all.

Prayer/Praise:
- Pray that Asa will respond well to the next round of chemo without fevers and unexpected hospital stays.
- We're excited for the possibility of Juliana's parents and older brother & his family to be able to come for a visit the end of May. They have not been able to make it up yet due to some unexpected financial strains. If you would like to help make that trip possible, any amount donated over the next 2 weeks will go to support their travels.
- Pray for Austin, Gideon, & Josie to finish the school semester strong!


"God has saved us, and we know that we can continue to trust Him."
- 2 Cor. 1:10