Since we're a little preoccupied this year, I'm not mailing Christmas cards. So here's our Christmas Greeting from Memphis! Hope you are enjoying yourself.

Merry Christmas!!

We've had a weird week... Mac's been nauseous and not wanting to eat or drink much, which throws all his labs off! So now we have a 'take home IV kit'. He gets fluids 8 hours a day just to keep him hydrated and it has helped him quite a bit. He can carry them in a backpack, so we can continue our daily routine while he has his "drink"! His kidneys seemed happier at the end of the week once the fluids had been started. We're waiting to see if this passes. He also had a bone marrow aspiration on Wednesday to compare it to the one he had on July 16. Some things were better and some things were the same. It wasn't super encouraging... but Dr. Reiss is not ready to commit to a bone marrow transplant yet. On that front, a donor has been identified and contacted and is ready when we need him or her. So that's good. A bone marrow transplant would involve 4-8 weeks in the hospital, a minimum of 100 days in Memphis, and 1 year out of school. He would get chemo and ATG (will it be rabbit or horse?!) to prepare him for the transplant. That would last about 10 days. Then he would get the bone marrow through an IV, where it will work its way to his bones. After that there's a lot of waiting and watching. This is just an overview. I'll give you more details if we get there.

On a similar note, I just want to personally thank everyone who has signed up to be a Bone Marrow Donor. I keep thinking about the stranger out there that matches Mac and is ready to save his life! That could be you one day, and I hope you think about our "11 year old male" when you say Yes!

We are excited to have Peter and Annie and some of Mac's friends come see us during the holiday. We have more fun at the Target House when we have visitors! There is even talk of snow flurries - how exciting! I know the top 3 things on my Christmas list are white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets for Mac! (Oh, and cheek bones makes 4!) Hope you take time out of your busy schedules to be thankful for the healthy children in your life. (I stole that line from the St. Jude commercials.) Thanks for checking in and praying for us!

Mac finished his steroids on Monday. Everyone is watching him closely - especially his kidneys. It will still be a while before his puffiness goes down. Maybe we'll see cheekbones for Christmas. We were hoping to go home for Christmas, but he's still too transfusion dependent, so Peter and Annie will come here for their whole vacation. Mac's ANC has been trending slightly downward this week, so we are watching that as well. We are two months in to this treatment and they will evaluate the trend at 3 months. But today the BMT was thrown out again, just to be prepared. I am a little bummed, but everyone is still hoping we won't have to go there. But if things look bad in January, they will have all their ducks in a row and we can get started right away. (I mentioned he could stay on the steroid until he goes to college as far as I was concerned.... puffy cheeks and all!)

Time for the big prayers again! Thanks for checking in with us.

We had a great time this weekend with the members of Team MacAttack descending upon us! First the business - our team was 6th in fundraising with over $31,000 raised. That is so awesome and again, it's all thanks to you all: our blog readers and biggest supporters. (St. Jude quick fact: it takes $1.5 million a day to run the hospital.) Here's the official poster with our name on it...

....and our plaque. "Running for a reason" with art created by a patient. Need I say more?!!

Our signage - getting ready for the race. The route took them right by the Target House and Mac & I wanted to be prepared!

Team MacAttack cheering section (Mac, Jane, Gail, Laura, and me. And Eric who was taking the picture for me.)

Now for the runners. I couldn't catch them all because of their supersonic speed. But here are a few of the ones I was able to capture.

Mo stopped by to give Mac a hug and say something like "you'll be running this next year with me!"

Phil and Mark race by with a quick High Five!

Raye has too much energy for mile 10... How about the full marathon in 2010?!!

Tiffany and Susan give a quick wave & smile as they dash by!

Santa Sarah stopped for a chat

Ann & Stacey trained hard but due to injuries chose to walk and enjoy the day!

At the Heroes' Lounge after the race....

Mark was the only member who did the full marathon this year! He ran for the reason!! And he looks so great....way to go Mark!!!

Here's a really bad picture of most of the team members after the race. We'll get the official copy in the mail and scan it in. Team MacAttack got interviewed (with Raye as our spokesman) about fundraising and being a St. Jude Hero. Maybe they'll be seen on the Today Show or Oprah...

The Scotts lookin' good in their post race prom pic...

Same for the Lathams

Maurie & Willie had a great time!

Later that evening, we got together at Susan's aunt's house (Patricia Flynn - who is a doctor at St. Jude) for some relaxing and Memphis Barbeque. Here are some of those party pics.

Susan and her cousin Kenny

Raye and Rigby

Phil and Mo

Raye, Mark (and Phil - yes, you're in the picture)

Sarah and Mac relax after a long day.

Rigby and Susan doing a little cleaning up

Ann, Stacey, Gail and Maurie visiting

And last but certainly not least, these are our wonderful hosts, Tricia and Jerry Flynn. Thanks again for a fun & delicious evening!

Hope you enjoyed these pictures. I think all of the members of Team MacAttack plan on returning next year. Maybe some of you out there would consider joining the team and 'running for a reason' also!

Not much new to report this week. Mac had labs drawn Monday and then we won't have them drawn again until Friday. His ANC is in a good range, and we're still waiting for his RBC and platelets to kick in. In the meantime he just has PT and school. He will finish his steroid next week, and they will watch to make sure he stays stable - especially his kidneys. I think they will! I forgot to put a picture of Mac with his teachers on the last entry, so here's that picture. Miss Erin teaches Mac Algebra and Miss Sue teaches him everything else. The classrooms are new - they just moved into them in Oct. They're very nice and the teachers are awesome!



We are looking forward to have the runners of Team MacAttack join us for the weekend. I'll put pictures of that on the blog after the race!

Thanks for checking in and praying for us!