Mason Schirato

LeeAnne's story about Mason is included here. We thank you for your healing thoughts, kindness, care, and love for Mason, LeeAnne, and their family.

Mason's Story

Mason is a force of nature. He's loving and goofy and witty and so many other beautiful things.

We often joke that Mason joined our family about 10 years later than expected. We waited for him for a long time. It was only after we uprooted from Arizona and relocated to Seattle that he decided to show up. That is typical Mason. He does things on his own terms, likes to make his own rules and questions authority any chance he gets (I think he gets that from dad).

We knew that he would be born with one kidney. We didn't know that two weeks after he was born that he would need emergency surgery to correct a malrotation of his intestines. This was terrifying. How could it be possible that my long-awaited tiny little boy needed to be repaired? He appeared to be perfect in every way. Thanks to the great care we received, we were able to take a healthy Mason home at four weeks old.

Aside from an occasional kidney check-up, Mason's health needs have been typical of any other eight-year old. Recently, Mason began complaining of mild headaches and achiness. On March 14th, he woke up with puffy eyelids. We knew it wasn't pink eye and we couldn't think of any new food or detergents he may have been exposed to. It didn't bother him and he hardly noticed the change in his face. That evening his head began to ache again and he was, what we thought was a little lazier than usual. He said he didn't feel good but he had no fever. The next day we took him to the doctor who thought Mason may have been suffering from cluster headaches and perhaps allergies. We went home with recommendations for Tylenol and rest. The next morning he woke up saying that he still did not feel well and soon after, he vomited twice. His eyes were still puffy. We took him back to the doctor. They did a urinalysis and called his nephrologist who asked that we go back to the office the following day for another urinalysis and bloodwork. Dad flew back into town on Friday morning and took Mason back to the doctor where they ran the additional labs. Two hours later they called to tell us to take Mason to Seattle Children's so that we could have more testing done to rule out leukemia.

In these first five days, Mason has learned that he won't be returning to school this year. This was really difficult for him. He loves his school. He will to not be able to present in the science fair. This is the first year he signed up and was looking forward to being there to show all he learned about pink dolphins. He won't be able to watch his car race in this year's pinewood derby.

He's had a port placed in his chest, had bone marrow extracted from his hip, had a spinal tap and has started chemotherapy. He's never once asked why this is happening to him. I wish I could say the same for dad and I.

We've learned that, god willing all things go well, we are at the beginning of an estimated three-year journey.

When we received this horrible news I had a hard time thinking that we would somehow smile or laugh again. That seems ridiculous to me now because Mason is Mason and he has made us smile since the day he entered our world. I don't think we've ever laughed so hard as we did when he was going in to have his port placed. They gave him "happy juice" to help him calm his nerves. He had the whole room rolling. Next time you see him, ask him about his pink toes.

Thank you for your love and support,

LeeAnne, Richard, Marcus, Keegan, Nana and Mason

To stay in touch with Mason and the Schirato family, a Caring Bridge profile has been created for him. https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/masonschirato