Homecoming

It always feels great to come home from these hospital visits. Today, the kids were at school and Peyton wandered the house and looked for them, and was upset to find that they weren’t there to welcome her. She was ecstatic to see Daddy and the dog was thrilled to see her.

We stayed an extra night because we needed to get results from the bone marrow aspirate that the performed yesterday afternoon. The worry was that in her CBC showed signs of new blasts (leukemia cells). When the doctor explained that my heart sank, that would mean that she was having a relapse and her chemo was not working and we would be starting from square one with a much heavier treatment plan of chemotherapy. But I was relieved to find out that their suspicion was that a medication they gave her to boost her white cell counts was causing the reading. Blasts are essentially immature white cells that go berserk, so in forcing new healthy white cells to grow it would give a false positive test result for new leukemia cells. We are thankful that the bone marrow results showed that no new leukemia cells were present and she is still where she is supposed to be as far as that benchmark goes.

On a side note, Dr. B, our oncologist says “If she’s relapsed, I’m the Pope.” I told him “We’re not Catholic, that don’t mean a lot to us, get me the pathologist report please!” Glad to know he’s still not the Pope!

This is during Peyton’s Redman reaction to vincomycin

Her foot looks much better. The infection is gone, and we continue to give her antibiotics by mouth for the next 5 days. It is frightening to think how fast the infection set in and spread, and how dangerous it is for her system. They were concerned that it could spread into a blood or bone infection, but catching it and treating it early is key. All the hand-washing and mask wearing can’t help us fight off something that everyone has already and that’s a scary thought. So, we watch any scratches, cuts or bug bites carefully and pray for the best.

We have had fantastic support during this last hospital stay. “Team Mayhew” as I like to think of it sprung into action quickly and efficiently. Grandma Sharon stepped in to help make sure baths, household functions and homework were completed as usual. Jill Bonilla picked the kids up every day for school and Kelly Diaz got the word out that we were in the hospital and meals were provided as well as offers of assistance in any way we could think of. Messages of love and concern flooded in and kept my spirits up during the waiting times. God provides for all our needs through special people and we are so grateful to them all.

We have so many thank you cards to send out for so many reasons and I just hate that I haven’t gotten people acknowledged. I hope that those who have helped us out in whatever measure know what it means to us, how your generosity is appreciated. Time to sit down and write out the cards to send thanks is hard to find right now, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t truly felt in our hearts. And I WILL get those cards out!

With continued faith in God
—Anissa