Today marked the end of Callen’s induction chemotherapy. He underwent placement of a permanent catheter in his chest (his “magic button”) to provide long-term access for his treatments. The PICC line in his left arm (his “straw”) was removed. He had a repeat bone marrow aspirate, bone marrow biopsy, lumbar puncture, and intrathecal (spinal) methotrexate chemotherapy. These results will assess his initial response to therapy and pave the way for planning subsequent phases.

Callen did beautifully with all procedures. He was firmly in command of each phase of his day, and gave new meaning to "informed consent" - clarifying that each member of his team knew the planned procedure, the order in which they were to occur, how many bandaids he would have upon awakening and what snacks would be waiting for him at the end. He even injected the Versed into his line before drifting off to sleep!

Through it all, we were uplifted by the photos of HUNDREDS of you wearing your Team Callen T-shirts today! Your countless “selfies” can be seen in the “About Us” Section, with a link to his Flickr account for additional pictures.

Yes, there will be moments of anxiety in the coming week while we await word of his results. But with Callen leading the charge, there will be countless more hours of smiles, hugs, kisses, hope, happiness, optimism, inspiration and love. He is truly superhero strong!