After a bit of a rough night sleepwise for both Cutler and myself, he finally woke around 8:30 am with a huge smile and was ready to play.  Every day I see more and more of the old Cutler.  Everything is still looking good with Cutler, but his platelets were very low and so he received another round today and will likely get more blood tomorrow.  I tried to con the good doctor into guessing a potential date to head home, but he wouldn’t bite and said that he normally won’t tell you a date until you are walking to the car.  That is how fickle this process can be and so we will continue to take it one day at a time and be happy for the days that he is feeling good and try to minimize the days he is feeling bad.  The longer he goes with low platelets the more bruises I am starting to see and I need to do a better job of documenting them because it is quite frightening to see.  Right now, for instance, the entire top 1/3 of his right ear is black.  He also has multiple little “pin” bruises on his face and even has a blood blister on his tongue that developed today.  They don’t seem to bother him, but it is rather gruesome looking and I think I will need to have photos for when his girlfriends come over later in life.  It will be up to him to be either embarrassed or use it to his advantage.  🙂

Unfortunately Mason’s soccer game was rescheduled and we weren’t aware so we missed the game this morning.  So no photos of Mason avoiding falling on purpose.  Actually we have a deal now where if he doesn’t fall on purpose he gets to pick out a snack from the indoor facility.  Last week near the end of the game he was tripped and the first thing he said to me when he came over to the bench was that he didn’t fall, he was pushed.  He wanted to make sure to get that snack. 

The upside to missing the game is that I could go home and get a nap in before heading to the hockey game.  Mason did go to an NHL game last year, but it was in a suite with several of our neighbors and their kids so I feared that his expectations of watching the game would be too high and today would be a disappointment.  Fortunately he was very excited to go to the game regardless of where we were sitting and was very in to following the game and asking a ton of “why” questions as the game progressed.  The game was very close and I think the electricity of the crowd helped keep him keep interested.  We made it through the entire game without him asking to walk around.  He even got to see a pretty good fight early in the game and then proceeded to ask me when they were going to fight again.  I think this may have been his favorite part of the game.  The only downside is that during the game I showed him how to “hockey” fight (e.g. pull the other guy’s shirt over his head and then pound away) and so for quite a bit of the third period he kept trying to do this to me.  I promised him if he stopped, he could get me tomorrow at home.  I am hoping that he doesn’t try this on any of his friends as it will be difficult to explain.  Below is a picture of the enforcer ready to drop the gloves.

After the game we went and got some ice cream and then finished off the day with a trip to the hospital where Mason was able to look in through the window on the door to see Cutler.  He really does miss his brother and judging by the smile on Cutler’s face he misses his big brother as well.  However, after about two minutes, Mason quickly announced that he was done and it was time to go.