Hives and other fun stuff

To explain the “comment” that Penny left, reassuring the kids that I wouldn’t actually leave them at home this week, I should tell you about the fight that took place this morning. There was a scene in the kitchen that went like this:

Cabinet door wrenched open…GRUNT!
Cabinet door slammed shut…”No!”
Cabinet door wrenched open…Louder grunt!
Cabinet door slammed shut…”It isn’t!”
This is all minus the dramatic huffing, puffing, eye-rolling, sneering and condescension that went along with this obviously intellectual argument.

So I simply told them that in no uncertain terms that they –Nathaniel and Rachael- were to stop everything they were currently doing, any plans they have of doing it later, in fact, any thoughts they may have of future squabbling in the years that they reside in a house that we pay for…or, and my exact quote was, “When your friends at school ask you what you did over summer vacation you can tell them ‘My mom, dad and sister with cancer went to Disney and we didn’t get to go because we fight too much!’”

According to the babysitter, they were lovely to each other all day.

I’m really glad that we go to the clinic that we do….I love our nurses….I’m thankful for the medical team we have available for Peyton. And after today, I’ll be glad to not see them for a while! It was a long day….a full DMV long…all 200 hours of Lord of the Rings + Extras long…”Do you know how long I was in labor?” long….it was just the day that never wanted to end.

Peyton and I got to the clinic at 9:30 and because of the seeming endless number of patients, we didn’t start getting Peyton’s blood until well after 11. She was pre-medicated with Benadryl because she’s been known to break out in hives during infusions of red blood, which happens because of a reaction between the her immune system and the proteins in the donated blood. She slept like an angel through the first two hours of infusion and that made for a wonderfully peaceful two hours.

Then she woke up and watched a movie, she ate some snacks…and started coughing. I had been out of the infusion room for a few minutes and when I came back in they were laughing at her because after a cough or two they told her to stop it and then she would fake cough and giggle. They don’t want coughing because that could be a sign of an allergic reaction to the blood infusion. So, we’re all joking about Peyton’s fake coughs when I notice a red patch around her armpit…that led to the red patch on her chest…which led to the red patch ALL OVER HER BODY! She was literally bright fushia over 60% of her body. The kid had hives from her collarbone all the way to her thighs, front and back. Because of the way she was laying and the little dress she had on, it was all discreetly hidden by clothing as it developed and by the time we found it, well we were all alarmed. They had to stop her infusion, but luckily she was almost done anyway and they had to treat her with more Benadryl and then some Hydrocortosone.

Because of all the hive fun it was 4:30 before we got to leave the clinic…the hives were fading, but still very apparent. She has to take Benadryl every 6 hours for the next 48 hours before the threat is over. At bedtime the worst of it was over, only a few patches were visible and most of it had faded away, but I see lots of Benadryl in her future with any infusions.

Tomorrow is our big day! We take off for Fun Time! There really isn’t any way to explain how jazzed we are. I just did a little dance in the living room that I’m frankly not ashamed to tell you about but would be horrified it it popped up on YouTube. It’s awesome to just imagine all the fun we’re going to have.

I got the most awesome phone call today. A woman I’ve never met before called me right after I walked in the door and told me that she had started up a foundation in Washington to help families dealing with cancer and especially pediatric cancers. She shared that she’d been following Peyton’s site and has inspired by the blog to get more involved and now she’s making this awesome commitment with her life! She’s going to email me more information about this organization she’s starting, but after such a long and trying day it was such a blessing to hear these words and to know that we’ve had an impact on someone in such a tremendous way. That just thrilled me to the ends of my soul to hear and renewed my faith in the fact that the Lord has given us this burden for a very important reason!

I’m planning to take a computer to download pictures as we go along, but I don’t plan on having time to actually post anything while we’re at Give Kids the World. Who knows, I might be so bursting with fun news that I can’t help myself…I am a bit of an obsessive.

f.r.o.G…fully relying on God
—Anissa