Thursday, August 23rd

It was an early morning release today, and Otto came home! What a great feeling to be back all under one roof yet again.

Although we are all home, Otto is continuing to feel side effects of the chemo from this round. One thing that popped up again is light sensitivity with his eyes. He has to take steroid eye drops to prevent chemical conjunctivitis. Unfortunately it causes his eyes to feel extremely dry. So we are trying to counteract with saline. He also continues to feel itchy from one of the meds, so we are trying to battle that with Benadryl. This ends up making him tired, so he’s taking cat naps like crazy.

We just keep praying that now with Round 3 over, that the side effects diminish. It’s rough seeing one of your own not quite the way they usually are. But, we keep reminding ourselves that this is a small hill to get over. It’s small potatoes in the grand scheme of life.

As always, thanks for the prayers and positive thoughts. We continue to need them.

With much gratitude,

Mark, Leigh, Otto, Tess and Lulu

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Friday, June 22nd

Good morning! Otto wants you all to know that he's doing well. He had another great night, and we are over the moon happy that he has been fever free for 18 hours. Mark went to rounds this morning with the team, and Otto's counts continue to look really good. His white blood cells are continuing to dwindle (which is what we want) and his body is preparing itself for the ultimate fight. So, that's pretty amazing news for us, considering what was dropped on our laps Friday afternoon. I know that it is most likely that people are wondering if we are in good hands. I will tell you that we are. The doctors are on top of everything - from what is currently going on to what could happen - and have a plan to counter it all. We are incredibly lucky to be surrounded by individuals whose life's passion is researching and helping kids with AML to beat it and succeed. With that being said, we see these individuals from time to time throu...

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Thirty Days and Waiting

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