Camp camp camp

We got a great surprise this morning when Peyton's counts came back moving in a positive direction. After steadily dropping over the last few weeks, her ANC was finally back up to 500, her hemoglobin was up to 11 and her platelet count was over 50K….that's awesome considering where she was at the end of last week. This left her well in the range to get her chemo today so she got her dose of Vincristine and her double leg shot of Vincristine…always fun…and she also got an echocardiogram to check for any side effects from the Doxirubicin that she finished a few weeks ago. I'm not sure when we'll get the results from that test. A check of Peyton's ears found an infection brewing and that may be the cause of the hacking cough she's been suffering through for the past two weeks, so she's now got an antibiotic to take to get that taken care of.

It was so good to be back in our own clinic…to see the familiar faces of our nurses and staff. It's hard to believe that we would miss them, but we did! I know that as we move into maintenance and our clinic visits become more spread out we will see them less and less but they will still be dear to our hearts for all the wonderful care and love they have given us.

Another surprise came to us today. As the camera person in our family, I am usually the one behind the lens and rarely the one in the pictures. You'll notice that very rarely am I actually IN any of the pictures that I post….there's a reason for that. A couple of months ago, Peyton and I were treated to a photo session from a group called Flashes of Hope, they came to the clinic and set up shop with makeup and hair artists from the Aveda salon and the final product of that photo shoot was given to me today.

I will treasure these pictures forever.

Tonight the family piled into the car and drove to drop Nathaniel and Rachael off at camp. With instructions to remember to brush their teeth EVERY day, to put on sunscreen and to have lots of fun, we kissed them goodbye and left them for the rest of the week. The house seems abnormally quiet and I miss them already, but within minutes they were having fun and anticipating all the fun stuff planned for them throughout the week. I know Nathaniel will have no problems with being gone, this is his third year of camp….but my heart is a little heavy with Rachael being gone, this is her first time away from us like this. I'm praying that as she lays in her bunk tonight she remembers the extra kisses I pressed into her hand to hold as a comfort and that Nathaniel is just a few doors down.

Please say some extra prayers for our friend [url=http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/nikkihawkins]Nikki Hawkins[/url]. Nikki left for the American Cancer Society Camp this week and only got to spend two days having fun when she got a fever that send her to Arnold Palmer Hospital in Orlando on Friday. She's been there fighting low blood pressure, a high heart rate and the fever ever since and she needs our prayers for her body to recover and for her to start feeling better.

f.r.o.G…fully relying on God
—Anissa