The Beginning of the Battle!

Payton had been running a fever for the past couple of weeks, some days more than others with very vague symptoms of just being irritable, lethargic and not acting himself. I took him to the doctor after about 3 days of symptoms and he was diagnosed with a viral illness which she said could last up to a week. Towards the end of that week, I had Payton to the urgent care wondering if he was dehydrated because he had fevered all day and was not drinking or peeing. After some nausea medicine, he was sent home. For the next week he continued to intermittently run a low grade fever. Another phone call to the doctor and Payton was back in to be checked on again. This time the doctor decided to run some blood work and set up an appointment for a liver ultrasound because his liver looked slightly enlarged. That night, Payton still ran a fever and I called the next day to report the fever and check on the blood work. We ended up back at the doctor's office with Payton and the doctor ended up moving up the ultrasound to the following day. His pediatrician was almost certain that since his blood work looked normal, that the liver enlargement could just be the virus settling in his liver. Chad ended up taking Payton for the ultrasound so I could get Savannah to swim lessons. Chad knew that as they were doing the liver ultrasound but appeared to be measuring something across the screen, that something was wrong. I ended up getting a horrifying phone call to come quickly, they have found a tumor on Payton's kidney, something called Wilm's tumor. That afternoon we ended up in an oncology clinic, meeting with Dr. Bowman, who will now be the oncologist for our little Payton. The tumor was palpable and large and the stage of the tumor cells unknown. A very frightening and saddening picture was painted requiring the removal of a kidney, placement of a port, and minimum of 18-30 weeks of chemotherapy.

After a long and scary weekend, Chad and I returned to Cook Children's monday morning for a CT scan to further evaluate this tumor. The ultrasound was indefinite at describing the extent of the tumor and it was a possibility of their being either lobes or several separate tumors up into the liver. The CT scan was done to determine the difference. That day we got to meet with our surgeon as well and discuss the plans for removal of the kidney first thing tuesday morning.
Payton bravely underwent surgery on tuesday. The tumor was described as the size of a grapefruit which also had "tails" that extended towards the liver. Payton's stomach is already noticeably smaller and thank goodness free of that horrible tumor. Now we await the biopsy reports to find out the plan for chemotherapy. Payton came out of surgery having had a "caudal" or otherwise known as an epidural block. This would keep him comfortable for the next 12 hours and then he began on morphine while his nasogastric tube remained in place. Prior to being put to sleep, Payton was talking about going to ride in Tony's truck. When he awakened, despite his confusion and wondering exactly what did you do to me and where am I, he asked, I go ride in the truck. Thank goodness for the amnesic effect of anesthesia.

Payton's second day in the hospital has been a remarkable day of progress. He awakened still drowsy and barely moving. By the afternoon he perked up wanting to play with a bucket of toys and wanting to get down and walk. He ended up getting out of bed and walked the entire loop around the unit on his first time getting out of bed. His nasogastric tube was removed this afternoon, even though he still can't eat or drink until tomorrow. By tonight he was up in the wagon and almost running around the playroom and looking at the aquariums. He is SO tough and is such a strong little boy. Savannah, Noah, Riley and Ella came up to visit and ended up spending time outside on the playground and eating ice cream in the cafeteria just so Grandma and Jennifer could take turns being able to see him.