Saturday - Tuesday, October 27th - 30th

Good morning!

  What a crazy last few days we have had!  Otto watched his favorite baseball team win the World Series.  The family was questioning if they should lose Game 5, so we could come back to Fenway for Game 6 to win it.  Otto, on the other hand, just wanted to see them win.  One of Otto's biggest surprises came when he started getting messages from some of the staff of the Red Sox team.  Texts encouraging him to continue his fight were greatly appreciated by all, especially Otto.  He even was able to talk to a relief pitcher who played for the Sox a few years ago.  What an amazing experience for him!  A big thank you to the Dadonna and Fellin families for coordinating this.  What a gift!

  Speaking of gifts, we were very fortunate to have been able to hold a small gathering at the hospital the other day.  Otto really wanted to see the boys from his baseball travel team.  Many of these kids have been playing ball with Otto over the past 4 years.  Mark was able to reach out to all the families, resulting in the majority of folks showing up for the event.  It was so nice to see everyone all together again.  We even had some special visitors from Boston (a family who moved, who are greatly missed).  A huge thank you to all our U12 baseball family members for making this happen.

  Another big thank you to our PAC swim family for all the gift cards that were sent our way.  These will be ever so helpful as we continue our journey at Yale.  In addition, we also wanted to send much appreciation for the gift cards and well wishes that have arrived through the mail.  There are so many of you to thank!!

  Finally, a big shout out to many of the nurses and staff who came by with gifts for Otto last night.  He appreciates all your constant love and care!  (And so do we!!!)

                    

  Yesterday was a CT scan day.  Otto was able to get images again of his liver and intestine.  All of us were praying throughout the weekend that there would be good news.  The imaging showed that all three lesions on the liver are still the same size.  Nothing has become bigger.  This tells us that the combination of meds along with his immune system are working together to contain the masses.  We could also see that the inflammation surrounding the tiny perforation in the intestinal wall has greatly improved.  We need his body to continue to fight this fungus.  Prayers and positivity will be continued from our end, so we hope you join us in this effort.  Otto will get another scan in a few weeks to see if conditions improve.  In addition to this, we have been noticing some trends.  A few night's ago, there were signs of bleeding again.  This resulted in more red blood cell and platelet transfusions.  We looked at the data and realized that the signs of bleeding occur more when soft food is part of his diet.  Therefore, after discussion with the team, Otto will be on a liquid diet for the next few weeks to see if this will help heal what is going on in his intestines. 

  We have been so lucky this weekend to have family members come up for a visit.  Being together, praying together and keeping it positive has really shown Otto that with everyone's efforts, we can fight and defeat certain things.  Mark and I understand that there are two views of this infection - the scientific view and the spiritual view.  Science research would suggest that the odds might not be in our favor.  However, the spiritual view suggests differently.  There continues to be small signs all around us, reminding us to stay on the path of being positive.  We talked yesterday and the message that came from it was the following - wake up, every day, thanking God for another day, allowing Otto's body to fight more, hard and strong.  That's our glimmer of hope.  That through this dark haze of cancer and all that comes with it, there is a light shining bright, reminding us that Otto is going to make it out of this. 

  A huge thank you to all of you who contribute with prayers, well wishes, phone calls, texts, etc.  We thank God for our family and community support every moment!

With love,

Mark, Leigh, Otto, Tess and Lulu