Progress

It has been a week of huge progress for Peyton. Nothing CNN notable, but definitely huge in her world.

First, she has been making great strides in the potty department. In fact, the past several nights she’s able to make it through the night in panties instead of a pull-up. She’s been able to go out of the house in panties and let me know when she has to go and that’s fantastic! We’re still having some major issues with the #2 department, but it’s a work in progress with definite signs of improvement.

Secondly, I am working to covertly wean her from the binky. I hate that she has it, her teeth are already showing signs of serious binky-damage, but I have refused to jerk it from her as it has been her greatest comfort. She doesn’t have a security blanket or a favorite toy, it’s just always been the pacifier. So, now that she’s moving towards a less traumatic life, I’m making the attempt to get her less reliant on having one all the time. It’s hard, but she does ok if I keep her very occupied.

Third, today at church, Peyton went to the her age appropriate Sunday School class. Ok, HUGE! She has been going to the adult service with Peter and me since her diagnosis, partly because of the germ factor and partly because she’s not wanted to go with the kids. We’d talked about going to big kid church and she agreed, but I half thought she might back out when we got there. She just walked right in, found a table to sit at and started coloring right away. I did the anxious parent thing “my kid has cancer, please make sure everyone washes their hands, please call me to pick her up if any sick kids show up, please don’t let the other kids touch her head, I’m a little crazy, so just roll with it.” She did great, she was playing and having a wonderful time when I went to pick her up.

It really is this movement to get her back to where she would be if she hadn’t spent the last 14 months in treatment. She’s terribly smart (oh doesn’t every parent say that?) so I’m not to worried about her lacking in that regards, but I do worry about her social skills with kids her own age. She spends so much time with adults that I forget she’s not just a strange little bald midget.

Our friends the Fishmans invited a bunch of families from the Children’s Cancer Center over to their place to enjoy Labor Day with a cookout and pool party. We’re looking forward to that, the kids got really spoiled with the pool at the condo.

Tuesday is Peyton’s big monthly chemo trip to the clinic. She gets her port accessed and her dose of Vincristine, her dose of Methotrexate, starts her 5 days of steroids (oh joy in my heart!) and her never-ending nightly 6MP. Of course, we’ll be checking her counts first to see how they are maintaining and make sure that everything is where it needs to be. It is just strange not to be going every week for those counts, I watch her color a little more closely because I worry a little with so much time between visits that I’ll miss a significant drop in counts.

We hope everyone has a fun and safe holiday tomorrow!

f.r.o.G…fully relying on God
–Anissa