12:00PM Update: Hudson is undergoing his pheresis right now! He is resting with the help of some Benadryl (lying still is important for better collection) and his favorite movie, Frozen. So far the procedure is going well. Hopefully we are getting a good number of stem cells. They know exactly the amount we need to complete three transplants, so after they examine what is collected today, we’ll know if another day (or more) of pheresis is needed. They primed the machine with a blood transfusion to keep him comfortable, so he didn’t experience the feeling of losing blood.

Long weekend update! I was planning to write an update last night but little guy didn’t fall asleep until 11pm so midday update it is. We’re still camped out at SLCH, waiting on his ANC. It was up to 79 yesterday but fell back to 56 today. It needs to be at least 500 to talk about going home. Today he got his third high dose of the medication which is stimulating his bone marrow for WBC production.

Our mighty fighter boy! Hudson got some time free of his IV pole this evening and we took full advantage. It was good for my soul to see him running and jumping in the hall, throwing balls and chasing them down. I had an overwhelming feeling of immense gratitude that he is still able to do all these things - that he hasn’t had any loss of function or change in his abilities so far in this journey. What an incredible blessing. Thank you, Jesus.

Hudson (nap time) update: We’re still hanging out at Children’s, waiting for his white count to come up. This morning his ANC is still 0, so we haven’t seen much progress yet. Hopefully once it starts coming up it will rebound quickly! He is supposed to start a high dose of the medication to stimulate his bone marrow for pheresis tomorrow, so that should help.

Hudson had his first ambulance ride up here on Monday night and was apparently so excited that he only slept for around 15 min of the trip. This made for an interesting Monday night - because he arrived at Children’s around 11:30pm, so by time they got all his assessment and labs done for admission, he didn’t settle in to sleep until around 1:30am!

Hi all, us again. Hudson spiked a fever after waking up from his nap today. This isn’t terribly surprising since his immune system is nil after his chemo. We’re in the ER at St. Francis waiting for his transfer to SLCH. They’ve drawn his labs and blood cultures and started him on antibiotics.