Early on the second day, Peyton had surgery and we got some information.
They installed a port in her chest. This made getting IV’s easier. While she was under, they also did a resting bone marrow and a spinal tap. The spinal tap showed no Leukemia in her spinal fluid, which is a good thing. They also diagnosed her with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). This is the most common, most treatable form. Children between the ages of 2 and 10 tend to do better. Girls apparently do a little bit better than boys. There’s an 87% survival rate with this form of Leukemia. When Anissa and I heard that, we literally did hand springs. Which seems absolutely insane. “Your child has Leukemia…but it can be beat.” These kids don’t have the preconceived notions that adults have about this disease. In other words, ok, your child has cancer. Now, let’s fix that.
You would be surprised at how much information helps. The nurse practitioner spent a good hour or hour and a half just getting us up to speed on what was going on with our daughter. Explaining things, and probably having to repeat herself half a dozen times. Every nurse and doctor that we saw there helped us tremendously. I can’t thank them enough for their time and explanations.
She also started her chemotherapy that day. She’s going to be a “Friday Girl.” Every friday she’ll get her chemo therapy. They also loaded her up with steroids. The steroids are to help her system recover from the chemo. The chemo is pretty much like napalm to the system. It destroys everything in it’s path.
