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.