Peyton…Princess Warrior

NOTE: You may have noticed from the announcement “XYU was here” that our website got hacked. Pete’s going to fix that, but what an inconsiderate thing to do.

When we reel from the idea that Peyton’s two year old body harbors cancer, we are grounded by the news that it’s doing an amazing job of battling it.

On last Thursday I took her to the clinic for a finger poke to see if she would need a transfusion of platelets because her counts were dropping. The normal range is between 150-450,000 and she was at 58,000, and they felt that she could wait the weekend because they transfuse when they hit 20,000. Today Peyton had her chemo treatment and when her blood counts came back her platelet count was over 400,000!

It’s a cycle of highs and lows, when she has more chemo obviously her counts drop and when she has less her body fights to go back to normal, but she’s only had 1 week of lighter chemo doses and her body has already done a great job of getting her back to normal. It’s wonderful news and I know that I felt great about it. We have the rest of this week chemo-free and then next week we start back to a rough regimen of two weeks of chemo 4 days a week. It’s a cycle that’s very hard on her body, has shown the harshest side effects and is also the most painful. So, keep her in prayers that her spirits will stay high and her body will stay strong.

As for how she’s feeling, she’s doing amazing. I really thought she’d start to look and feel sickly, but she just looks like a plump little angel. She’s all smiles and talkative and wanting to go and do, so as much as we can we keep her active. It’s wonderful to see her so full of life and it helps us to cope with the stress of the situation. Her ANC count dropped to 500, which is the magic number that means she’s high risk for infection now and we have to be on super germ duty. I’m sure people think I’m obsessive because I’m constantly washing the kids’ hands, but that’s how we roll these days!

As a family we had a fantastic weekend! On Saturday we went to St. Petersburg and spent the afternoon with a family that we met at the American Cancer Society event we went to in Orlando recently. They have the two year old Adelaine (her picture is in the AMS event posting with Peyton) who shares not only Peyton’s doctor, but her diagnosis and her ability to be joyful no matter what. Her family and ours share so many similarities and have many things in common besides the cancer that brought us together, so we feel lucky to have met them and to be developing this friendship and supportive relationship. I hope we are able to get together often, as their three kids and our three just had a blast together. I feel like God is just bringing the right people into our lives at the right time to give us the care and support we need. We are so blessed and thankful.

On Sunday we went to church and then happened to run into good friends of ours at lunch. We got to eat part of lunch with the Greenaker family, who never fails to make us laugh and bring us tons of cheer. When Peyton started to feel bad as soon as the food arrived (of course, because she’s a girl-child!), they kept Nathaniel and Rachael so we could take her home to figure out what was wrong and get her feeling better. Nathaniel and Rachael had so much fun at Lisa and Harry’s house, it was just great. For these two kids who’ve been dealing with so much it means the world to have friends who open up their homes and devote time to giving them fun and attention. These are special people….and I can hear Lisa’s head swelling up from my computer!!! I love you, Lisa!

—-Anissa

You know the funny thing? She looks just like she did as a baby…only she’s taller and she talks a lot more.

Peyton @ 6 months old

Peyton last week