My buddy is bigger than your buddy

Sunday we headed to the Children’s Cancer Center to meet Nathaniel and Rachael’s big buddies for the year. Unfortunately, Rachael’s buddy Lily was sick and couldn’t be there. However, Nathaniel’s buddy was there, all 9″ of him….ok, slight exaggeration, but the guy has to be at least 6’5″…Eddie is huge! But his extremely tall body is full of fun and Nathaniel is already planning to have a good time with him. Nathaniel just thinks it’s cool that he has the “biggest” buddy.

“Yeah, you may be 2 feet taller than me, but my ears are bigger!”

Today was counts day at the clinic for Peyton. We went early to participate in a music class that the clinic puts on for the little ones who miss out on school and playdates. We got to spend some fun time with our little friend Allie, banging on drums, dancing around the room and being overall silly. It’s a hard thing for Peyton to play with Allie, but not because they don’t know how to have fun, because Allie’s body limits so much of what she can do. Allie suffers from ITP, a platelet disorder that keeps her body in constant danger. Peyton’s counts are considered dangerously low when they reach lower than 20,000 and she’s stayed nice and stable around 200,000. Allie’s lucky if hers reach 10,000. She is covered in bruises and her mother’s biggest challenge is keeping Allie from hurting herself, the damage could be critically dangerous. Please keep Allie in prayers for healing and for understanding of the limitations of her tiny body. Every 4 year old should be allowed to hop and jump without worry.

Before and after music class, Peyton got her finger pricked and then a clean bill of health for the next two weeks….except for that whole cancer thing, she’s wonderfully healthy. Peyton’s counts were decent, her ANC was 700 (low, but not too low), hemoglobin was 11 (pretty good) and her platelets were 200,000 (that pretty much rocks). So, we’re good for another two weeks when she’ll get her chemo in her port. Tonight she got her Monday dose, which is 6 pills of chemo.

It sort of makes me laugh because people don’t realize how long the treatment is for leukemia. They assume that because she’s regrowing her hair that she’s stopped the chemo, and she’s doing the chemo gig nightly. But she’s doing so remarkably well, a huge turn from where she was a year ago today.

While at the clinic, we hung with a bunch of chemo friends. Zack Rozmeski, Sydney Sims, Jessica Rose Kohut, and Nikki Hawkins were all getting something done today and although there are certainly better social realms to catch up with friends, but it was a nice chance to just spend some time with some of the coolest kids in the world. Life throws so much of them and they face it bravely, they are all such inspirations.

After we left the clinic we headed down to Clearwater to lend a hand for the Cadillac golf tournament that benefits the Pediatric Cancer Foundation in memory of the Amazing Jacob Duckworth. Peyton and I got to spend some quality time with our PCF friends there and saw one person that Peyton fell in love with while planning the Cure Kids Cancer Walk, Mary Baker. Peyton just lit up when she was Mary and Mary was packing fruit snacks and a juice box in hopes of seeing her. The hug they shared was just priceless and sweet.

We got home in time to pick up the kids and head to ChickFil-A for one of those insane “support your school” nights. Just pure chaos. The kids ate in roughly 4 minutes, the idea of playing with their friends way more important than the digestion process. Peyton licked a few chicken nuggets but didn’t really eat anything. She’s feeling a little off tonight, she’s building up some cold symptoms….in fact, she sneezed so hard on me, that I found (way too late) I had a little Peyton-boogie stuck to my sleeve…because that’s how classy I am!

Tomorrow is another big day. I’m keeping the older two kids out of school tomorrow so we can participate in a special event. We are going to head to Little Tales in the morning, but in the early afternoon we are making our way over the St. Pete Times Forum, home of the Tampa Bay Lightning to be a part of a FANTASTIC announcement. The kids are going to be there supporting one of the players as they support our community in a special way (I’m not actually supposed to tell anyone about it…blah blah blah). They’ll be on the news tomorrow evening, every channel is supposed to be there for the big announcement, so try to catch us if you can.

Also , I got THE funniest phone call today. I saved the message that the lady left because it just cracked me up! Someone from the “Asian-American Times” wants to do a feature story on Peyton. Asian-American Times….I didn’t know we had times….how could I have gone this far in my life without knowing that we had times?? So, I guess I’ll be calling them tomorrow to see what exactly they want and how that’s going to play out.

My sister made a request for something that extended family can wear to support a special cancer kid in the Pootique inventory, so I put some shirts up and organized the store a little better. It should be easier to navigate now and make more sense.

Here’s some clarity on what a Pootique is….Peyton’s nickname is Pookah….a store is called a boutique….Peyton’s Boutique….Pookah’s Boutique….ok, follow me here, Brangelina and Bennifer style….Pootique…..yeah? yeah? Got it?

Just humor me, ok?

f.r.o.G….fully relying on God
—Anissa