Thank you for ALL the support!!!

Just wanted to give everyone an update on the blood drive and on Finn. The blood drive was a huge success and we reached our goal of 50 pints! In total 52 pints were given at the Red Cross of GSO and 7 pints where given by friends and family elsewhere. We can't say thank you enough for everyone's support in helping us get to our goal and providing the much need blood donations to area hospitals.

We found out first hand yesterday just how precious donations are, when we went to UNC and Finn needed another transfusion. The hospital was having a shortage of blood because of the previous holiday, but they did eventually find a match for Finn. Holidays cause problems for blood banks because less people donate and more accidents occur. Less supply, more demand.

As I mentioned, Finn did end up getting a transfusion yesterday, but there were two big positives to takeaway from his levels (HGB 6.2, retics 7). First, this was the longest that Finn has been able to go between transfusions, 6 weeks!!! Second, his retics (or immature blood cells) had spiked, meaning that his body is trying to compensate for the low HGB. Hopefully, it will continue to do this and he will be able to find an equilibrium that can sustain him for longer periods of time between transfusions.

Craig and I just want to thank everyone again for the show of support and encouragement that we received last week. It truly was a huge part of what our family was thankful for on Thanksgiving!

Ps. now that the ARC has your number, they ain't never going to leave you alone! So we look forward to hearing from you on the many donations to come in the future!

Thanks!
Beau and Craig

No transfusion last Friday!

Finn's HGB level was a 7.5 and his retics were over 4, which meant we were able to postpone the transfusion to this Wednesday! Still cautiously optimistic, but this will be the logest he has beeen able to go between transfusions!

The blood drive starts today and thanks for the overwhelming show of support! If you have any questions or problems scheduling an appointment, please feel free to send me or Craig and email. Looking forward to reaching our goal of 50 pints!

Beau

11/15 Update

Not much to update. We are heading to UNC tomorrow and are expecting to have a transfusion. We will keep everyone posted about what happens there.

In the meantime, a special THANK YOU to all the friends and family that have supported the upcoming blood drive next week in Finn's honor, especially Greensboro Day School and First Presbyterian Church for their efforts to get the word out! Y'all are the best!

Blood Drive Information

Below is a bulletin for the honorary blood drive being held the week of Thanksgiving, hope you can help us reach our goal of 50 pints! I also just posted the most recent update as well.Thanks!

Update 11/7

Some more cautiously good news! Finn got to add another week without a transfusion...again! Today Craig and Pam took him to UNC for his three week appointment post transfusion and for the second time in a row, his HGB levels (8.4) were high enough that no transfusion was necessary! This is encouraging because when he started out it was every two weeks, then every three weeks, now we are moving to four. But as I mentioned this is all very cautiously optimistic...but we'll take it!

I am going to add another post in a minute with the bulletin for the honorary Blood Drive that will be held the week of Thanksgiving at the American Red Cross on Yanceyville Street. Our goal is to help raise 50 pints of blood for the ARC in honor of Finn. We have learned so quickly the importance of blood donations and the great need that is out there! We hope that if you live in Greensboro you can make an appointment and help us make our goal!

Note: (The Blood Drive is for the ARC in general and is in honor of Finn NOT to raise blood for him. No vampires are allowed to participate as well).

Thanks!
Beau and Craig

10/17 Update

We went to UNC on Wednesday and Finn's levels had dropped to a HGB level of 7.4 so Dr. Gold thought it would be best to go ahead with a transfusion. As you can see, it went well. Nothing else really to report other than Finn is 50% in both Height and Weight, so we know he is at least growing well. Craig is going out of town next week because her dad is getting an award for saving the world, so it should be interesting to have all three alone! I may need a transfusion afterwards as well! Wish me luck.

Beau and Craig

Good news for once!

We are fortunate that last week went very well! We arrived at UNC with the full expectation that Finn would require a transfusion. His body had been on a pretty regular pace of 3 weeks in which he was breaking apart his red blood cells to a point where his hemoglobin levels (6-7) would require a transfusion. We figured his levels would be somewhere in that range. Miraculously they were at 8.6! So no transfusion and we got to go home early. What does that mean?...we have no idea. We are scheduled to go back tomorrow and we will see where he is 4 weeks post transfusion. His color has been a little off the past few days, so if I had to guess, we would need to get a transfusion tomorrow. It is still encouraging to get some good news for once! We will know a whole lot more when we see tomorrows levels. Hopefully a miracle is taking place and his body is starting to correct itself. That's the small chance that we have been praying for all along. As my brother-in-law Dr. Michael always says, "sick children look sick, and Finn just does not look sick!". As you can see from the picture in the post, which was generously taken and given to us by Flashes of Hope at UNC. I promise I will post the results of tomorrow in a timely fashion, sorry for keeping people waiting on updates. Speaking of which here are two more: even though we didn't have the transfusion, we did go ahead with the tubes in his ears last Friday. The procedure went great and Dr. Byers told Craig that a bunch of fluid was released. Also the dates for the honorary Give Thanks for Finn Blood Drive are Nov. 19-20th (Mon & Tues of Thanksgiving). We will send out an email and will post on Facebook the directions on how Greensboro friends and family can participate. As always, thanks for everyone's continued prayers and support!

B&C