Day 2

The first 24 hours have been rough for Payton. He is really sore and still groggy. Payton’s IV burst and caused his hand to swell up and look purple. Payton’s nurse poked him three times trying to get a good vein and it continued bursting. They then called a specialist over to try and she tried another three times and each time it wouldn’t flush. Finally they had to move Payton to a rolling bed and take him another floor to have an on-call anesthesiologist try to get his IV in. The 7th time was the charm. While Payton’s nurse was trying to get his IV in him, Payton looked over at me and said “Mom, am I in trouble?” I lost it again. It made me feel horrible if he was thinking that he was getting poked because he was in trouble. They lowered Payton’s Epidural dosage to try and get him to move his feet and legs a little more. He had little sips of water and some ice chips and has been given the ok to try to eat a little, but doesn’t seem to have the desire. It breaks my heart watching Payton go from being a normal healthy boy running around, to being tied down to a hospital bed. He is so sweet and so courageous. Dr. Miller came by to check on Payton and said that they don’t have the results from the pathologist yet but will have them tomorrow. It has been the longest five weeks of my life waiting and wondering what will happen to my little guy. It has torn me apart and I have gone through every emotion possible. I look back at the past month and it all feels like a blur. I cannot recall much of the time and feel like I just went through the motions to get through. I love him more than anything and this past five weeks has once again reminded me of what is most important in life. There is nothing more important than your family and your loved ones. Money and material things will come and go but when you get put in a situation like this nothing else matters. I pray for good results.

Day 1 in the hospital...

What an exhausting day it was yesterday. We arrived at the hospital and Payton immediately started asking questions. We hadn’t said much to Payton about this surgery since we knew that it would scare and worry him. Payton started to ask if they were going to put that thing over his mouth (referring to the gas mask.) He pointed to another part of the hospital and said they only put that thing over your mouth over at that part of the hospital. We checked in and went to the 2nd floor, the surgery floor. Payton started to ask more questions, still not wanting to concern him we told him that he was in for his routine picture scans. We were called back for PRE-OP and they drew Payton’s blood to cross match for any transfusions that he might need. We had requested that Payton get his “giggle juice” (which is what he calls it) so that it would relax him. Chad and I were told that we could walk back to the Surgery room doors while the nurse moved him on a stretcher. I lost it, it was one the hardest things that I have ever had to do next to going in for his nephrectomy surgery. I ached so much for my little guy knowing what he would have to go through over the next few hours. Payton was finally taken into surgery around 12:50 p.m. First Dr. Miller opened Payton and tried to feel around to see if he could feel the spot in his liver; he was unable to feel it. He then placed an Ultra Sound directly on top of Payton’s bare liver to see if he could see the spot with the ultra sound and still nothing. Payton has had 3 previous Ultra Sounds that did not pick it up either so it wasn’t surprising. Dr. Miller then tried the IMRI and the picture came back with nothing on it. Each time they do the IMRI it takes 45 minutes and this was Dr. Miller’s first time of using this machine. Chad and I felt for a bit that Payton was being used as a guinea pig (in pre-op, one of the nurses mentioned that they were excited to see this new device used for the first time on something besides a neurological surgery). By this time Payton had already been in surgery for just over 3 hrs and we hadn’t gotten anywhere. Dr. Miller had the nurse call us and tell us that they were going to try several things to try and get a better view. We were praying that they didn’t just open Payton up and not be able to find this growth. They were finally able to get a good image and Dr. Miller was able to start cutting the liver and removing the growth. Using the IMRI, they marked the spot with a threading needle to show Dr. Miller exactly where to cut. The spot was small enough that Dr. Miller said it was like trying to find a needle in a hay stack. It was 5:00 and Payton had already been under for over 4 hrs. The original plan was to remove the growth and then rescan with the IMRI to confirm the spot had been completely removed. Because of the difficulty they had obtaining the first image, Dr. Miller didn’t want to rely on the IMRI to confirm whether they had removed it all. He called and asked one of the pathologists to stay a little longer to confirm whether the growth had been removed with clean margins. Dr. Miller kept Payton open while waiting for word from the pathologist and we were eventually told that the growth had been removed in whole. Thank goodness. After the surgery they put in an epidural to help with pain management. When Dr. Miller finally came out of surgery to talk with us, he looked exhausted. He felt confident that the growth was removed in whole. He said that it was about the size of your small finger nail and was round like the shape of a pea. Dr. Miller said that Payton did a great job and that we would hear some results on the pathology in the next day or two. What was supposed to be a 4 hr. surgery turned into a 7 hr surgery. Payton then had to go in for a chest x-ray to make sure they couldn’t see any internal bleeding. It was 10:00 before I was able to see Payton and I could hardly wait to love on him. When Payton came out of surgery he asked if he was in trouble. He has been asking that lately and I don’t know why. “Of course not”, I told him.

Payton has been sleepy and feeling groggy. He complains of his back hurting and his body being itchy. What a difference this is compared to his last surgery that he is able to communicate and tell us how he feels. He was up most of the night on and off saying that he wants to go home. Asking where Grandma and sissy are and asking if he can go to school tomorrow to see Mrs. Robertson and the kids. Payton melts my heart and is such a trooper. He is being so brave and we can’t wait to get him better soon. I will update as soon as I get the pathology report. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and kind words.

Update...

What an exhausting day it has been and it still is not over yet. Payton was taken back for surgery at 12:50. Dr. Miller first opened Payton up and tried to feel around to see if he could feel the spot in his liver. After not being able to feel it he then tried an Ultra Sound and still nothing. He then used the IMRI and nothing showed on it. Finally after 4 ½ hrs of trialing he tried the IMRI again and finally got a good enough picture to do the surgery. It is 6:00 p.m. and could be a couple more hours. We are anxious to see our little guy soon.

Easter! April 2010

Easter morning was great. My parents arrived the night before and it was so nice having them here to spend the day with us. The kids were thrilled with their Easter Baskets and it was great being able to spend the morning together. It has been a few years since I have spent Easter morning with my kids since I am usually working. We had a great ham lunch and Grandma and Grandpa had a fun Easter egg hunt planned for the kids. The kids had a great time hunting for the eggs since Grandma and Grandpa had put money in them.

It was a great week spending time with my parents. We took the kids to see How to train your Dragon, went to lunch daily, did a little bit a shopping and spent a lot of time talking about Payton and how concerned we were for his upcoming surgery. My mom has had some health issues herself over the past 6 months. She went on a cruise with my dad and sister and since then, she has come home with this disembarkment syndrome. She has been struggling with this for over 6 months, so it was nice of her to come and help with the kids given her situation.

Surgery update...

Payton’s surgery date has been rescheduled for Monday, April the 12th. It was supposed to be the 6th until they realized that there was a conflict of scheduling with the IMRI that is involved in the surgery. It has been a long few weeks anticipating and awaiting this surgery. We are anxious and trying to stay hopeful that everything will go ok. Payton's surgery time will be around 4 hrs and he will need to be in the hospital for 5 days… with about a 3 week recovery time. His incision will be about the same size as his previous nephrectomy surgery. Thank you for you kind words, prayers, love and support.

Payton's Birthday

We celebrated Payton's Birthday the whole week of his Birthday. We had some friends that planned a fun little get together at CiCi's Pizza for us since we were really stressed out at the time trying to get ready for his surgery. They had done a pirate theme with Balloon’s, Cupcakes and fun gifts. Payton was really surprsied since we did not tell him prior.






Payton has been going to preschool to Mrs. Becki's house, our neighbor on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons after Mrs. Robertson's class. Payton has had a cute little class with three little boys; Payton, Geoffrey and Morgan. Morgan was getting ready to move at the time so Mrs. Becki planned a Birthday Party for Payton and a going away Party for Morgan on their last day of school. These three cute kids are such great friends. She also invited 2 more of Payton's little friends; Nicky and Matt.







On Payton’s Birthday I took Spiderman cupcakes to his Pre-K class. Later that evening we took Payton to Chili’s (his choice of restaurant because of the chocolate molten cake) and we had tickets to see Disney on Ice the Let’s Celebrate showing. We got popcorn and drinks for the kids and they both had a great time. Payton was super excited to see all the fun Disney’s characters since he has spent a lot of time talking about them since our visit to Disney World in December.





We decided to wait and have Payton’s cake the day after his Birthday since Grandpa and Grandma Archibald were coming to Texas to visit and help with Payton’s surgery. They arrived late Saturday evening and Payton’s was excited to finally have his cake and to finish opening his presents. It was a great evening spent since it has been a long 9 months since we have seen them.

My Parents....

I was taking a moment to look over my pictures from this past summer. I must be really emotional this week because I immediately starting crying. Looking at the pictures has made me really miss my parents. I cannot believe that it has been close to a year since I have seen them. I have the most incredible parents in the world. Growing up I know that I was not always the easiest child to raise I was stubborn and very selfish only thinking about what was best for me. I have the kindest most loving Dad in the whole entire world. He is the most patient, unselfish, giving and genuine person that I have ever met and he would do anything for anyone. He is so Christ Like in all of his actions and he is truly such an amazing person. It has taken me many of years to really appreciate the great wonderful person that he is. I believe that I am the person today because of watching his characteristics. I also have a very kind and loving Mom and it has taken me years to grow and appreciate her as well. She is always thinking of others before herself. I have grown really close to my Mom over the past couple of years. We talk on almost on a daily basis and I appreciate the friend that she is to me. I know that I can always call her for anything rather it is to complain about a bad day that I have had or just needing someone to be excited about a good shopping deal that I have gotten.

I don’t want to go another day without letting them knowing what terrific people they are. I am so grateful to such wonderful parents that have installed good qualities in me and made me who I am today.