Be Positive

As I heard the smoke detector beep upstairs, signaling a low battery, I couldn’t help but feel a little sad. Mason would always help my dad change the batteries in our smoke detectors whenever their batteries were low. Even sitting here writing, I can hear the far too frequent beep of the thing, and I keep wishing that Mason was home to change it.

I spent basically all of today with him, scratching his back and his chest. After stopping chemo, a couple of his lymph nodes became a little swollen. The doctors thought this might be due to an infection, so they wanted to see if an antibiotic would help that swelling. Turns out this antibiotic caused a bit of a reaction giving Mason yet another itchy rash all over, which led to my daylong scratching. The doctors, however, think that it's an after effect of the chemo. My mom and I think this rash is a totally new and different one due to an allergic reaction, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Today we also tried dyeing his Mohawk orange. We shaved his head, as you know, but my dad gave him a short little Mohawk. As it turns out, his scalp absorbed more orange than his really short hair did, but I still think it looks good.

In other news, some people have been raising money in support of Mason and leukemia. They have come to me, Mason’s liaison, and asked where that money should go. On discovering Mason’s blood type was B+, I told him that the perfect place to donate the money to would be The B+ Foundation. This foundation is in honor of the 14-year old boy, Andrew McDonough, with B+ blood as well, who bravely battled leukemia and sepsis until July of 2007 when he passed away. This foundation spreads the message to “be positive,” while also raising money for childhood cancer research and money for families that need financial assistance during their battles with childhood cancer. The McDonough family story has truly been an inspiration to me, and the foundation is truly remarkable.

Later today, I got a text from a grade school friend of mine, AJ. He told me that for the first time ever, the Salesianum School (plus their sister schools) are having a THON. For those of you who don’t know, THON is an all night dance party that raises money for childhood cancer, and it was started by students at Penn State. Since then, many schools have mimicked the motion and done “mini THONS.” On March 16, 2013, Salesianum will be one of those schools. When AJ texted me and told me this, he mentioned that all of the money raised would be donated to The B+ Foundation. Can you guess who went to Salesianum? Andrew McDonough.

The coincidences are insane! For the first year ever, Salesianum decided to have a THON and to donate the money to the foundation for childhood cancer. This same year, my brother was diagnosed with one of those childhood cancers. This same year, my brother decided that after having the same blood type as Andrew, he would donate to the foundation started in honor of him. Freaky.

So AJ told me that their goal is to raise $46,000 in honor of the 46 kids diagnosed with cancer each day. Since my baby brother was one of those 46 on February 1, 2013, AJ felt the need to tell me about it. He told me their goals and mentioned that he had been in contact with Joe McDonough, the father of Andrew and founder of B+, without knowing that I had also been in contact with him. They have a website being run by the B+ Foundation that has a thermometer on it tracking their progress in donations. As you are allowed to make teams to donate money in honor of, I will be making one for Mason at some point soon. I want Team Orange to be a part of the $46,000 that I know AJ and all of the THON participants this year will raise for the B+ Foundation. Their website is https://www.beposfdn.org/Sallies2013/EventLandingPage.aspx.

All of the donations in Mason’s name are yet another example of the support and love that has been shown for Mason and our family. I don’t have words for how appreciative my family and I feel. There are no words to describe how thankful we are to have all of you in our lives, and the positive energy boosts Mason’s spirits in the most amazing way. Thank you for everything that each one of you has done for Mason and our family. He’s always positive, and we owe a lot of that to all of you.