I wonder if Miss Kay did it?

Peyton had her monthly chemo trip to the clinic where I had to confess the ultimate sin of a cancer mom. Last night at dinner I put Peyton’s chemo on her dinner plate, 1 pill of 6MP and 5 pills of Methotrexate. After getting up to swap out the washer and dryer I came back and her pills were gone. I asked if she’d eaten her pills, she confirmed that she did….then she got up to throw her plate away.

About 6 seconds after plate hit the trash she tells me “My medicine was on that plate!!!”

I had looked at her plate, the pills were gone and she’s excellent about taking her meds, so I hadn’t even questioned it. But apparently she got creative and covered her pills with green beans and now there were at the bottom of the trashcan. Soooo, there I am peering into the trash can, debating with myself on whether or not to stick my hand in and rescue her pills and attempt to wash them off and force feed her the trash chemo…I mean, really, it’s already toxic, what’s a little garbage going to do to her?? Did I mention that I’d just cleaned out the fridge of all the miscellaneous leftovers and random outdated foods?? Yeah, her chemo was sitting drenched in two week old spaghetti sauce and some olives that had been in there so long they bore a strong resemblance to raisins.

I agonized over the fact that she hadn’t gotten her most important dose of chemo of the week…Monday is a big day for us!! That’s 6 pills of chemo she didn’t get. PLUS, any other day of the month and I would have had backup pills to make up for it and could have gotten those pills replaced, but it was the day before we get our refills and they were the last ones in the house. Now, realistically, there is no way that 1 day’s chemo skipped is going to cause an instantaneous relapse…but I never said I was rational about it.

I get to the clinic and they ask me the customary questions about her meds and I spill my guts that Peyton had thrown them away, she hadn’t gotten her meds and I was going to burn in a special level of hell saved for people who kick kittens, talk during movies and don’t give their kids their chemo.

“Really?? She clears her own plate at dinner? That’s impressive.”

THAT is what I got from the nurses. All that angst for nothing! So, tonight she got her pills under close eagle eye supervision.

And, her counts were fantastic. Her hemoglobin was 12.3, her platelets were 197,000, and her ANC was 4900. Now, when I tell those of you who are non-cancer-savvy, those counts are rocking!! Right in the middle or top of normal…the numbers any healthy kid would have. But for those who know this routine know that those numbers almost made my eyeballs fall out of my head. For her counts to be so high, her ANC that high without steroids causing it, that’s bad….not bad, really, but a clear sign that she needs more chemo. Her counts are supposed to be suppressed to a certain degree, that’s how they make sure that they are giving her appropriate doses for her weight. She was about 3500 too high on her ANC, so they upped her chemo dose. It’s awesome to know that she could fight off the Black Plague with that immune system, but it’s not to last long.

Our clinic trip was in the afternoon so we could enjoy our Little Tales time in the morning. Many of our friends were at clinic, inpatient or still on vacation, so the group was small, but fun as always.

I HAVE to share this story. I will prepare you, it’s about the funniest thing I’ve ever heard her say and I’ve heard a lot of gut-splitting things come out of Peyton’s mouth.

Kay Bertoch came in from the playground and shared this little juicy morsel of Peyton-ism.

“Miss Kay, when you go home and pick up Cody from school (Cody is her 13 year old son that Peyton loves), I want you to pull down his pants and check if he has nuts.”

Just digest that for a moment. Are you kidding me?

“I don’t think he’s going to like that.”

“No, he probably won’t like that, but pull his pants down and look.”

“What should they look like?”

“Like my brother’s!”

As if the whole world has seen this poor boy in the buff. He would absolutely die if he knew I was even mentioning this, but really, do you think I could hold this in??

I had thought that we were moving beyond the “nut” issue, but apparently I was mistaken.

Pete’s only response was “That boy better stay away from my daughter!”

Does anyone else think that Peyton may have a great career in store for her as a doctor with a specialty in hernias??

I may get her a t-shirt that says “Please turn your head and cough.”

f.r.o.G…fully relying on God
–Anissa

These are pictures of my kid and my sister’s 4 daughters: Elaine (15), Katie (13), Stephanie (11) and Rosemary (7)

I call this one “Is the glee worth the beating?”