My Great Family!: Week 2 Chemo

Monday morning we awoke to Payton having a high fever. We headed to the hospital for Payton’s last day of radiation and a chemo treatment not knowing what to expect since he really didn’t have a very good weekend. We arrived at the hospital and met with Payton’s radiation nurses, where he was immediately put on IV fluids. They decided to go through with his last radiation treatment (we are glad to have that over with, one more step closer). We then went to the oncology clinic where Payton was to get his outpatient chemo treatment. We informed the front desk that he was running a fever and we were immediately seen. After checking Payton’s temperature and testing his blood counts we were told that he needed to be admitted to the hospital. His white blood count was “0”. We got to our room not knowing what to expect, and were told that he might have a virus since his blood count was so low and immune system was down. Payton was pretty sick all day and didn’t get out of bed much.

Tuesday; we are still in the hospital. Payton still has a high fever, vomiting, and low blood count and so he needed a blood transfusion. That was something new for us and was scary. We better get used to it since it sounds like we will need a few of these over the next 30 weeks. They tried a new anti-nausea medicine on Payton today and he started hallucinating, he thought he saw a dog in the room and said he was seeing bubbles which he tried to pop. We decided that we didn’t want him to have that medicine anymore.

Wednesday; we are still in the hospital. Payton still has a high fever, vomiting, and low platelet count so he needed a platelet transfusion. Payton has quite the lungs on him and his favorite word to tell the nurses is “NO”. Payton is pretty self conscious about the incision on his belly, he will often say “don’t touch my “owe.”

I think that this is all starting to affect Payton’s sister Savannah as well as us. Savannah was at her Aunt Jennifer’s and had a melt down. She is starting to ask a lot of questions to why this is happening to her family. It has affected all of us and we are going to have to somehow find a “new normal”. We are all going to have to stay strong to get through the next 30 weeks.

Thursday; we are still in the hospital. Payton’s still has a high fever, vomiting, and his white blood count was a little better today at “0.3”, which we were glad. Payton’s ANC (Absolute Neutrophil) count was 90 today (A normal healthy child’s ANC count is 1,500). We need to get it up to at least 200 to be able to leave. They decided to order a chest x-ray to make sure they weren’t missing anything. We received the results and everything looked just fine. We were so grateful. We are hoping to get out by the weekend since this has been a really long week. Payton still has not wanted to eat anything; I think the last time he ate was Sunday night. Today we noticed that Payton’s hair is gradually starting to fall out which is really hard for us to see.

We are so grateful to all of our friends and family that have helped us get this far. I feel so lucky to be able to spend every day by Payton’s side, while he has been sick. I am so thankful to the people who have provided a way for me (us) to be able to do that and to not have the worry and burden about having to be at work. I am also so grateful that Chad received the fellowship grant which he did so that he has some flexibility as well. It’s been really amazing how the Lord has worked through other people to provide a way for us to be able to be by Payton’s side during this difficult time. We have such amazing friends and family and feel so blessed to know each and every one of you. Thanks for the strength and support that you give us.

Friday; we are still in the hospital. Payton’s fever finally broke (we were thrilled). Payton’s blood count was still a little low and so they decided to keep him at least one more night. Payton received chemo today and it has made him sick again. He was just starting to feel a little better. This is pretty frustrating. We really just have to take this a week at a time. We had Savannah come to visit and stay the night at the hospital. Payton was really excited to see her and had been asking where did sissy go? It has been good for us to all be here to regroup. We have mixed feelings about wanting to go home, we want to get home and yet Payton still is not eating or drinking much and would hate to see him go down hill again over the weekend. We’ll see what the doctors say tomorrow.

Saturday; Payton's white blood cells were up and we were finally able to go home! Of course his first meal after arriving home was hot noodles from Joe's. We hope that Payton will have a good week and will be able to recover his strength to begin chemo again next week.