Your Own Soldier

Have you ever had to watch someone you know and love go through a difficult time and know that there is next to nothing that you can do about it? While everyone knows that it’s what we are all going through with Mason, I can’t begin to describe to you how we as a family felt over the past week or so.

Mason had been in the worst mood due to a severe amount of pain he was in. He had countless fevers and his entire body was aching. He had stopped chemo, stopped eating, and stopped being Mason. He couldn’t walk, and basically all he did was sleep. When I went to visit him, I wanted to do nothing more than cry. I watched him try to get out of bed, wincing with pain with every slight movement. I listened to him give my mom, and even me, attitude as we tried to cheer him up. He didn’t want to touch his phone or talk to his friends.

It wasn’t until days after this behavior began that we discovered Mason had a fungal infection in his blood. It had spread to his muscles and was causing all of the pain and the fevers. Though Mason was supposed to come home today, last week he told me that because of that fever and infection, he would need to stay at the hospital an extra week and a half. Awesome. I was so excited to have him home, but it was okay because at least he was getting better. By the time I saw him on Thursday night he was in a much better mood and so much happier! You could really tell the medicine they gave him had worked. He was Mason again and it was amazing to see.

On Friday Parker and my dad spent the night with Mason, and on Saturday morning I asked them for the night with Mason. They told me no, which was weird… I was out all afternoon with my friend Amanda, whose younger brother used to play baseball with Mason. My mom called me and told me that I should either stop by Parker’s game that day or come home and help her with house work. I offered to come home so she could go outside and add to her new orange garden, but she told me to go to the game. First my dad acting weird, now my mom… I told Amanda to just drop me off, and she could go home because I figured she wouldn’t want to stay for his game. When she saw my dad, or “The Legend” as she called him, she said hi, and he convinced her to stay for a little of Parker’s game. So the three of us walked down to the field at Great Valley to watch Parker play. As I leaned on the fence watching the game, I saw someone coming towards me out of the corner of my eye. I turned to look at the hooded kid with a baseball cap underneath. It was Mason!!!! Of course I made a scene, but come on. What else would you expect? The first thing I said to my dad after seeing Mason was that I felt like I was one of those people being surprised by a loved one coming home from war. My dad responded that I was one of them because Mason is fighting in his own kind of war.

It’s pretty amazing how he has defied the odds thus far. His rounds in the hospital consist of receiving his chemotherapy and the time it takes for his blood levels to go up so that he can come home. The first complete round was 35 days. He spent 35 days at CHOP. They said that this second round would be longer than the first. From his first day of that second round until Saturday, 35 days did not pass. 26 days passed.

Mason’s not only battling in his own war, but he’s winning it. He’s a tough kid who’s putting up a great fight. We have the strongest faith in him, as we know all of you do as well. I take the advice that Andrew Szczerba gave us at SALS Thon on a daily basis, and I think that everyone else can, too. It’s so easy to sweat the small stuff, while someone else is in the hospital trying to sweat off a fever. Don’t think of your problems as small and don’t compare them to someone else’s. Be determined instead to defeat them. Think of kids like Mason. Think about what these kids have to overcome on a daily basis. Let that be the inspiration for you because Team Orange is not made up of just Mason and his supporters. Team Orange is made up of faithful people who are hopeful, inspired, and resolute. Be your own soldier; fight your battles and win, just like Mason is.