Day 1 Life Changing

Our entire world stopped.

We awoke to a phone call from our doctor saying we needed to pack a bag and take our daughter up to All Children’s Hospital immediately. We dropped our other 2 kids off at my mom’s and left.

On the way there, my wife and I were in tears, and Peyton was in pain. Usually she likes to bounce around and basically be a kid. She just wanted her dad to carry her the whole way.

Once in the doctor’s office at ACH, we were told that yes, she did have Leukemia. They gave her some local anesthesia and we sang some songs while I had to hold her down so they could do a bone marrow and spinal test. She was a trooper throughout, but we found out later that the Leukemia had invaded her body so much that the doctor was unable to get enough bone marrow to test.

They admitted us to the hospital immediately. She had an IV and got morphine every 15 minutes. It may seem odd, but I had heard so much about morphine, I was actually leery of it. But it helped out with her pain, and made her silly. She got 2 blood transfusions. Her white blood cell count was high, but her red blood cell and platelet counts were low. Thanks to the morphine, she slept.

Her mom stayed with her and I went home to be with Nathaniel and Rachael.

That was the longest night of my life. I took both of my kids in our bed and I think I finally crashed around 5 am. Just laid there, numb.