Day + 1,092

In just a few days (12/6) it will be THREE YEARS since James' stem cell transplant - Happy 3rd re-birthday James!!  Each year since we have hosted a blood drive (the last 2 virtually due to COVID). 
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So with that said... the 2021 Blood Drive for James has officially begun!  I sent out an email about this a week or two ago, but the drive runs 12/1 - 12/31 across all 17 Vitalant locations and you can sign up and get details here:

We are also supporting Cal's Angels as part of the drive... first off - I know many (MANY) of you donated to the Cal's Angels Glow Walk just a month or two ago.  To be clear, we certainly aren't expecting more donations from you and want to thank you for your generosity and being amazing / helping others.

Another really cool aspect of this drive is that we are able to put giant 36x24 poster boards in every single Vitalant lobby for the month of December promoting donations to Cal's.  These poster boards have James' photo and story on them so we're hoping that the thousands of folks coming into Vitalant will see this and be inclined to make a donation.  The poster boards look like this in case you are interested:

We're hopeful to surpass the roughly 250 donors we had last year... and we have 2x the time to do it this year (the drive in 2020 was just 2 weeks long and in 2021 it's a full month).  Please spread the word as we noticed the last 2 years that many individuals came because someone in their family or a friends told them about the drive.... it's an easy way to turn 1 blood donation into 2,3,4,5... all donors also get a Free Large 1-topping Pizza and Free Pint of Ice Cream (Thanks Papa Johns and Culver's)!  Also - for any outside of the Chicago area, Vitalant is everywhere so if you go out of state just text me the location and date and I can have them manually track it.

Reminder:  If you want / are OK with your photo on the blood drive page take a picture while giving blood and either email it to contact@curiousjames.org or text it to Dan @ 630-707-1015.

In terms of how James is doing - overall things have been going REALLY well!  There are really just two things on mild/minimal concern recently:

• James keeps getting these skin rashes on his legs but they don't seem to bother him too much.  We're thinking that it's likely his GVHD acting up and have our next visit at the hospital on 12/10 so we'll get the scoop then.  They aren't too concerning right now, its more the concern of anything escalating - but we'll worry about that if it happens and I feel its unlikely.

• After further review of his last CT scan on his lungs the doctors now want to go in and get another look.  Previously they told us things looked "great"... but on further review, the team wants to evaluate a hemangioma that was present on the scan.  Hemangiomas are generally benign vascular masses that go away on their own, so the team wants to take a closer look so they can keep an eye on it over time.  His team originally wanted James to be put under for an MRI in the coming weeks/month.  However, we've come up with a new plan to do an ultrasound (much easier and no anesthesia involved) as step 1 and take it from there.  At this point, nothing to worry about.

 James is LOVING pre-school and getting so smart these days... it's fun to see him grow up and be the happy kid that he is today despite all this crap.  We're also excited that James was allowed to get the COVID vaccine, of which he just got his 2nd shot this week.  Once the CDC approves additional shots for immunocompromised kids 5-12 years old James will need one more due to his immunosuppressants etc... so we'll do that when able.

We are really looking forward to celebrating Christmas with a much healthier James this year and a much more active baby sister Maeve!  We wish you all a wonderful holiday season.  Thank you all for your love and support!!