We went to the H/O Clinic at Cook’s on Friday and met with Dr. Bowman for Payton’s post surgery appointment. Dr. Bowman said that we can finally start doing Sonograms and Chest X-Ray’s instead of MRI’s and CT Scans. What a great accomplishment to finally be at this point. It has been a long 3 years. He said that he would like to continue doing this every 3 months for 1 more year and then every 6 months after. Dr. Bowman would like to run some blood work on Payton’s next appointment to see if we can find out how much iron he has in his liver. The pathology report from his surgery showed some scar tissue as well as iron which can be caused from the chemo and blood transfusions. Payton will be due for his Annual Echo/Ekg to check his heart on this next three month appointment as well, which will be in August. Dr. Bowman also talked to Chad and I about putting Payton on a follow up after cancer treatment care program. Our next appointment we will be meeting with a specialist to discuss how to put this together. This will allow us to be able to keep all of Payton’s chemo records with his dosages that he received together in a book. We will also discuss and go over everything that we need to be doing to make sure that we are on top of things. It sounds like a great program and will be beneficial to have all Payton’s medical information together.
It has been a good week. Payton returned to school and has done well. He was so excited to see Mrs. Robertson and all of his little friends. Payton’s little school friends made me smile as I walked him in and saw how excited they all were to see him. One little kid said “Payton, where have you been?” Another little boy replied “I had surgery too, on my tonsils.” He asked Payton “Did you have surgery on your tonsils too.” Payton didn’t know what to say so he just nodded his head yes. I walked out feeling such joy that he was able to return and such a love for kids, they are great and make me smile. Payton has been tired this week and has been taking naps almost on a daily basis. This has been quite a process recovering from this surgery. I am truly grateful for Payton. Every time I look at him I am reminded of how blessed I am to have him.

The kids are super anxious to get out of school for the summer. I am ready for some days to start sleeping in.

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

Payton’s follow-up appointment with Dr. Miller was yesterday. I wasn’t sure how it would go taking him back to the hospital since the last time we took him he had no idea what was ahead of him. On the way to the hospital, Payton constantly needed reassurance and asked “No needles, right Mom? No blood, right Mom? Bless his heart I am sure that kid doesn’t know what to expect anymore. I decided to stop off and get him a Slurpee on the way to help get his mind off of things. While waiting in the waiting room to see Dr. Miller, my stomach was turning while I watched so many kids with so many different problems. There were kids in wheel chairs, kids with breathing and feeding tubes and it was all just enough to make me sick. You would think that I would have developed a strong stomach after what we have been through with Payton, but it is never easy to watch a child deal with challenges. Dr. Miller pulled off Payton’s bandage and that as well made me feel sick to see his incision. Dr. Miller said that his incision is looking better. He also said that if Payton would have fallen and bumped that growth on his liver that we would have been in the ER, since it would have been very painful. Payton was so cute in telling Dr. Miller that “I listened, I didn’t ride my bike, I didn’t ride my scooter and I didn’t jump on the trampoline.” Dr. Miller said that Payton still needs to wait until the end of May to participate in any physical activity. Payton asks every day when he can go back to the park and ride his bike. Dr. Miller also said that it will take 3 to 4months for the incision and scar to lower and not look so raised. He said to be really careful not to get that area sunburned. We have another appointment to go back in 6 weeks to check his incision again. I have such a great love for Dr. Miller and feel so grateful that he was Payton’s surgeon. Payton is such a joy and a blessing to have around. I have thoroughly loved taking care of and spending time with him over the past three weeks.

As far as our home life situation goes. Chad has been applying for jobs since he graduated from Grad School in December. Chad just got an offer to do a 2 Year Post Doc at The University of Texas at Arlington. We are going to take it and hope that by the time he finishes that the economy will have turned around and there will be more jobs available. We are grateful that everything is coming together.