You're in luck! Tonight's blog was going to be a treatise on the use of mannitol to disrupt the blood brain barrier and increase the efficacy of chemotheraputic agents in the treatment of brain tumors, but...that sentence pretty much exhausted my knowledge and PubMed isn't coughing up anything useful tonight either. All I know is that it seems to work.

Chemo in the morning, nap, then pool or air hockey in the teen center in the afternoon/evening. Y'all come by - there's room for more! He's getting a bit of cabin fever and visitors really help him feel less cut off from school and such. A friend (sorry, I forgot his name) loaned him a portable DVD player to hook up to the TV in his room and he's borrowed some movies to watch too. So thus far chemo's mainly been boring, with a dash of nausea on the side, although I think this afternoon it was really just hunger. Once he ate, he was performing calisthenics on the bed! He had to call the nurse in to unkink his IV line...

Dr. Gold said he's doing better than 99.9% of his patients on these drugs, and they're pushing the anti-nausea meds to try to keep it that way. Chase had hoped to be released on Saturday after his last infusion, but they're encouraging him to stay one more night, keep the fluids flowing, and keep his perfect record of never losing a meal. Sorry, Chase!

Chase, his (everpresent) pole, and some friends in the teen center.

He figures the hair's coming out anyway, so he had Nikki buzz it off. Here he's checking out the movies and games he can buy on iTunes with the gift certificate a 4th grade class kindly sent him. No buying until you send that thank you note, Chase!

Shhh! While he sleeps through chemo, we're going to add to his measly two moles and Sharpie some constellations on his head. Think he'll notice?