From the Man Himself!!

Hi Everyone, it’s Mason. With this post I’ll try and be short sweet and to the point. I don’t know how many people have seen the movie Miracle about the 1980 USA men’s hockey team but you’ve mostly likely heard the famous quote spoken by Al Michaels, “Do you believe in Miracles!?” Well I do. I’d just like to let you know, that if you prayed, God really heard you. Before I admitted into Johns Hopkins I made a guess, a guess that seemed crazy to all the Doctors here. My guess was that I was going to be discharged on June 28th, which was day 17 after transplant (transplant is day 0). Well, I won’t be discharged tomorrow or the next day. Sunday is the big day! In the doctor’s eyes, this was a miracle. The portion of our bodies that help fight infection is called our ANC (absolute neutrophil count). Usually, after bone marrow transplants, patients’ ANC’s are at zero for around two weeks in a row. Three days ago my ANC dropped to zero. The next day it went up to twenty. We were excited, but twenty isn’t a big jump. Yesterday, on my mom’s birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!) my ANC dropped to zero once again. Today my mom woke me up in the middle of the night. I was upset because this was around 5AM. I’m glad she woke me up because my ANC went all the way up to 130. In the Doctors’ eyes, that’s pretty darn close to a miracle. All of the doctors had been laughing at my so-called “outrageous” guess. Turns out I was two days off. I would’ve been one day off but the hotel we are staying at didn’t have a room for us on Saturday. Some of you may know, I have to stay within 15 minutes of Johns Hopkins until the middle of July for some follow up care. Luckily, after that I will get to go home! I’ll be receiving follow up care at CHOP so we won’t have to live in Baltimore for 6 months. I hope you all are as happy as we are. We’re just one step closer to Emerald City. I thank you all SOOOOO much and I’d ask you to keep praying because now you really know God’s listening. God is paying attention to you and I hope all of you understand that.

In the wise words of St. Augustine, “If you wish to rise, begin by descending. You plan a tower that pierces the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humanity.”

I love you all, and have a fantastic night.

Getting Closer Every Day

Over the weekend, we surprised Mason down at Johns Hopkins. He wasn’t expecting to see my dad on Father’s Day, and we knew he was bummed about it, so when the opportunity came for us to surprise him, we took it! It was great to be there, and we were even with him for his last dose of chemo.

The doctors told us that days 7-21 after the transplant would be the worst. It is during this period where that final round of chemo will kick in the most, and it will really take a toll on his body. Mason’s on Day 8, and he’s still fighting, strong as ever. His hair has grown back pretty nicely! You also can barely tell he had surgery on his brain because the scar has healed up so well. He is, however, having a lot of the typical chemo side effects that he didn’t have in his previous rounds. While this was expected, it’s still pretty hard for all of us to handle. I know that what makes it easier for Mason is the kindness and compassion of his (cute) nurses. From what I’ve seen, they’ve been awesome. They’re there to make him laugh when he’s hurting or not feeling so well. They tease him for being the only Steelers fan in Baltimore, and one of them even leaves him little notes to cheer him up.

In other Abate news, Morgan is doing much better! She ran for a few minutes on the treadmill yesterday, and is even considering joining me for The B+ Foundation’s annual 5k tonight, which I’m so excited for (me? Excited for running?!). Her back still hurts, but she’s a fighter like Mason, and she’s pushing through it.

Mason truly is amazing for doing so well even though he’s so far from home. He’s still adjusting to the fact that we can’t visit as often when before he was only a short train ride away, but he understands. He asked me to put on here that he still wants prayers for the Leyva family, which is crazy to me because he’s still acting so selflessly. Another ridiculously selfless person is my mom, who stays down at Johns Hopkins with Mason. I don’t know if I could do what she’s been doing, and I know that my entire family admires and appreciates her strength.

While it does hurt for us to know he’s on a constant drip of pain medication to make him comfortable, it reassures all of us to know that his support system grows stronger every day, just like he does. We’re lucky and blessed to know that even though things are tough on the orange brick road right now, our Emerald City is just ahead of us, and we’re so so close.

The Transplant

As all of you know, Mason got his bone marrow transplant yesterday; more importantly, Morgan donated her bone marrow to him. It was a pretty boring day in Room 14 on the 11^th floor of this hospital, but down in the recovery room, it was much more eventful.

Morgan went in for her surgery at 5:30 yesterday morning. The procedure, however, didn’t start until around 7. She woke up in the recovery room a little after 11, about four hours after it began. All she wanted to do was sleep due to some of the medications she was given, and she did not want any visitors. Her nurse told us to call back in an hour or so to check back.

Meanwhile in Mason’s room we were having a birthday and re-birthday party! The bone marrow from Morgan came up a little bit before 12. It showed up in a one liter IV bag that weighed—wait for it—two pounds!! I’m sure that doesn’t seem like a lot, but for those of you who know how tiny Morgan is, you know that it is in fact a lot, especially when you consider the fact that 4% of your body mass is your bone marrow. The IV bag was hooked up, and the transplant began at 12:03 yesterday afternoon. It was a pretty anticlimactic experience, as we were expecting much more than just an IV of bone marrow to go into his blood, and I’m sure most of you were expecting the same. Contrary to what many people may think, we were blessed to have a boring day with Mason. Those days are much better for us than the hectic ones. Exactly three hours later, at 3:03 yesterday, Mason’s body was filled with his new bone marrow!

Before he finished up, at 1:30 or so, my parents and I went to visit my sister in the recovery room. We were told that only one of us could see her at a time, so we took turns. I went after my mom did, and I was pretty excited to see her. She looked like she just got her wisdom teeth out, not her bone marrow. She was pretty puffy and swollen from the fluid they were giving her through an IV, and she was groggy and tired from the pain medicine. The poor girl! Before we visited her for the second time, she even fainted when they asked her to go from a sitting position to a standing one. She was in a lot of pain—more than expected—so they checked her into the 5^th floor of the Weinberg building, all the way across the hospital from Mason. We were told that this situation is not uncommon for people like Morgan because she is a tiny female who needed to donate a lot of bone marrow to her younger but bigger brother. She spent the night in that room with my mom, but luckily, Mason was able to put a mask on, grab his IV pole and make the long walk to see his big sister. It was awesome to all be together. 

On a regular bone marrow transplant donor, they make two holes to extract the bone marrow, and before the surgery, they told us that due to Morgan’s size, they would be making four. Lo and behold, they made six. The discovery of the two extra spots they went into pretty much explained all of her pain. She did get discharged a couple hours ago, but because of the pain she’s in, the walk to Mason’s room that takes the rest of us about ten minutes took Morgan about 45. The fact that she is up and walking is great though, and all she needs now is a few days of recovery.

A program that Johns Hopkins runs for the kids here is called “Beads of Courage.” Each bead represents a challenge that has been overcome by the patient. Mason has a string with his many beads, and now Morgan does too. Due to the fact that her donation journey was much longer than many other patients, she was given a few extra beads, just for fun. It’s a pretty cool program that allows the young kids, or even big ones like Morgan and Mason, to get excited and look forward to jumping hurdles that appear to be in the middle of their path.

What Morgan did was more than amazing. I think that it was worth giving up a few days of running, even though we all know she’s crazy about it! My family continues to amaze and inspire me in the amount of strength and courage they have shown. I’m truly impressed by the things they have done and the feats they have accomplished. I know I’m as blessed to have all of them as Mason is blessed to have had a perfect match and willing donor in Morgan. Mason is supercharged with his new marrow, and he seems like a whole new kid. As Morgan begins to improve and feel better, Mason does too. All is good and getting much better for our family. We thank you so very much for your continued support, faith and prayers!

It's been awhile.... I'm Sorry!!!

Hey Everyone! It’s Mason.  Sorry it’s been so long since our last post, but we’ve been pretty busy the past couple of weeks. First of all, Congratulations to Mackenzie for graduating! I had a long 2 weeks home before entering Johns Hopkins for my bone marrow transplant. I was admitted on June 6^th, this past Thursday. Some of you may or may not know that my transplant was moved to June 11^th, my actual birthday. I’m being reborn and turning 15 on the same day! That’s special. If any of you were wondering what you could get me for my birthday, don’t. Morgan is giving me the best present anyone ever could receive- new life! Although Morgan is afraid of needles, she will still donate her bone marrow to me as she knows I would do the same.

It’s kinda funny actually how my transplant landed on my birthday as did another patient’s. Friday, June 7, a patient was receiving a bone marrow transplant, and it was also his birthday. All the Doctors and Nurses here say they’ve never seen one “Rebirthday” on a regular birthday, let alone two in one week! They thought that was amazing and how it has to mean something good.

As I sit here typing this, staring at a bag of chemotherapy, I can think only of Prayers. All the prayers you and your families have offered for my family and me is amazing. I couldn’t thank you guys enough… ever. EVER. Thank you so much for your support through whether through prayers, or just being here for us, it means so much. When I look at these bags of Chemotherapy, I see Faith, Courage and Strength. It’s almost over. We’re so close! Now time is the most important factor. We have to wait for my blood counts to recover, and we’re done. So on June 11^th I would ask all of you reading this to pray for my family and me because on June 11^th I will be reborn. If (and when) all things go well I can get back to sleeping in my own house normally again. No more IV Pumps Beeping, no bright lights, no more waking up every 6 hours. I’m not complaining, but I’d like to say that these things just put towards a bigger reward.

All of you know how we are big Pittsburgh fans. I would ask all of you to prayer for a friend, Mr. Nick Leyva. Mr. Leyva is the third base coach of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Mr. Leyva recently lost his father to Cancer. Please keep him and the whole Leyva family in your prayers. And I know if you’re a Phillies fan you still will pray for them because you all know of the importance of things in life. I don’t want to go into full detail with the story I just ask that every time you pray for my family and me, pray for the Leyva’s.

Another thing, when you prayer for my family and me, don’t just pray for us, pray for all the families that are going through what we are going through. Just because you don’t know the family your praying for doesn’t mean the prayers won’t work.  So every time you go to pray for one person, pray for many. God doesn’t stop answering them when you ask him for too many things.

THE LONGER THE BATTLE THE GREATER THE REWARD

And in the Wise Words of St. Augustine again, “Patience is the companion of Wisdom.” We’re going down the home stretch. Like the last game of a 7 game series; we got this one. It’s ours. Thank You so much and Much Love to All.