On Friday, Justin started saying his leg was hurting. This was a new hurt and it was uncomfortable for him to move his leg in ways that previously were easy for him. He still went to school Friday, watched his team play in their first tournament game, and threw out the first pitch at a tournament in St. Charles supporting Cal's Angels, a pediatric cancer organization that does amazing things for children in our area.

By the time he got home on Friday night he was in a lot of pain and the incision site was very red. With no fever, we put neosporin on the incision site with some gauze and said we would evaluate on Saturday morning. On Saturday, it was even more red. We called his team and they said they wanted to see the pictures we took and decided they needed him to come in. Justin and I were in the ER for 8 hours before they decided to admit him to treat the infection with IV antibiotics. He missed his team's hotel party and the rest of the tournament and was really upset. We were finally placed in a room on his floor with his nurses around 10:30 Saturday night. He was happy that his teammates called him on Saturday night to check on him.

Sunday was relatively uneventful as he received more antibiotics and they kept watching the redness and swelling. It was starting to look better, but they wanted him to stay for at least one more night.

Sunday night was bad with IV issues and an awful overnight team coming in to try to redo the IV multiple times at 1 a.m. He didn't fall asleep again until 3 a.m. His surgeon came in at 5:30 a.m. and made the decision that the infection was too risky and they needed to open up the incision, clean things out, and place a wound vac over the site to help his body fight the infection in a better way. Between 5:30 a.m. and noon we never got more than 20 minutes without someone coming into his room. It was incredibly frustrating during an already stressful situation.

Around 1 p.m. they took him downstairs for surgery. It took about 2 hours and went as smoothly as possible. Coming out of anesthesia was rough, but once they got his pain meds going he was able to get comfortable. Jason is taking the next few days with Justin at the hospital as he will likely be there at least 5 more days.

This setback pushes chemo back at least 3-4 weeks. Had we waited the full 6 weeks to restart chemo that was stated in his original plan we probably wouldn't be in this situation. After 2 weeks of chemo, his body didn't have enough white blood cells to fight what would be a simple infection that the rest of us would be able to fight. Being immunocompromised really tanked him in this situation.

This weekend was a cruel reminder of how fragile he is right now (even when he doesn't act fragile) and reminds us of how quickly his fun is ripped away. What may seem like a small thing (a baseball tournament/hotel overnight) to most of us, is huge for Justin to get to participate in right now. So when he has adults telling him "it's not that big of a deal," it's like rubbing salt in his already very large wound. We appreciate all of the people around us who understand that even those little opportunities are really important to Justin and our family right now. Thank you to everyone who has reached out to check on Justin and make sure we have everything we need. We appreciate everyone who continues to help us through this awful nightmare with prayers, kind words, and sweet gestures.