October 21st - Chemotherapy Treatment #39

It was a very smooth weekend. Peyton's treatment went great, and he was only mildly affected by nausea over the weekend. I wish every week was this easy! Today was a preschool day and he was so excited to go. He had a headache but there was no way he was going to miss out on that! He told me he would be just fine. So off he went! One more Friday treatment and we'll be home for a week.

October 14th - Chemotherapy Treatment #38

It was an eventful week in the Sanchez household! Landon was sick on Sunday with some sort of stomach bug. It only lasted for about 24 hours but it was yucky! We thought it was just Landon that was going to be sick but Peyton ended up sick on Thursday and had to stay home because he was throwing up. Luckily my cousins were here from Missouri, and he was able to spend the day resting with Shelly to take care of him. He wasn't much better by Thursday afternoon so I called the hospital to make sure he should still come for treatment if he continued to throw up and not feel well. They said we should still bring him and plan on treatment for Friday as scheduled. By Friday he was feeling a small bit better, but not much. Treatment didn't help with the already nauseated feeling he had! After treatment we thought about taking the boys to a pumpkin patch and corn maze in Denver but Peyton said he really wanted to just go and take a nap. He slept for 3 hours and still didn't have much energy. My cousin Shelly, Landon and I did a little bit of shopping near the 16th Street Mall in Denver. She'd never been to Denver, and we had planned on taking her around to a few of the sites. Since Peyton didn't feel good we didn't venture too far away. Charlie stayed with him and Peyton slept most of the day Friday and Saturday. By Sunday he was feeling more like himself and we headed home. It was a beautiful fall weekend in Denver! The weather was great.
Peyton had to miss preschool on Thursday and was very upset about that, so he was super excited to return today and see all his friends and teachers. I hope this week is a smooth one for him!

October 7th - Chemotherapy Treatment #37

Peyton missed treatment on September 30th due to Charlie and I being in Washington D.C. It was a great experience for us, and gave us a chance to spend some time together just the two of us. We had a great time! As most of you know we had the opportunity to meet Vice President Biden! What an opportunity! We have some fun, new memories.
Treatment this week went very smooth. Peyton didn't have any problems and didn't complain about being sick at all. We love weeks like this! Of course we give him his medicine each day.....I think the new stuff is really working great! Yay! Let's hope the next 3 weeks go just as smoothly.

September 9th - NO CHEMOTHERAPY

Well thank goodness we had labs drawn here in Alamosa this week!!! Peyton's counts were too low for treatment and his doctor called from Denver and said don't drive up here.
I think this will be a great idea and might save us a few unnecessary trips. Peyton gets scared when they draw his blood but he did it! Thanks to Karen for taking him! It's not easy keeping him calm around needles! I do think that some candy was involved....maybe even a sucker or two? :)
This day was bittersweet.....we started treatment in August 2010 and this was the projected "end date" for treatment, but here we are. We will get through this. We were "knocked down" but we've dusted ourselves off and we are headed down this path again. As I've said before we are learning to roll with the punches; it's hard some days but Peyton needs us to be strong. :)
Next week is Jodi's wedding (Charlie's sister). Peyton is in the wedding. He is so excited to get to wear a tuxedo. He's such a charmer and loves getting dressed up! It's also a week off from treatment!

September 2nd - Chemotherapy Treatment #36

This is the 3rd treatment with the new chemo drug. Once again we told the doctors he'd been really sick. Thankfully they've given us an additional medication to help with the nausea. He can take this along with the Zofran he already takes. We're hoping this will help. His color has been pale and he's had dark circles under his eyes, but he seems to have less issues with the nausea.
After talking with doctors about some of the side effects of this new chemotherapy we found out that some weeks Peyton's labs (blood work) might show he isn't strong enough for treatment that week. I asked what that meant. Would we drive all the way to Denver only to be told to go home? To which the doctors replied, "Yes." For that reason we have decided to have local lab work done here in Alamosa each week to determine whether or not to make the trip to Denver on Fridays. The lab here will fax the results to Children's Hospital, and then his doctors will let us know if his counts aren't strong enough for treatment. I would much rather do this than drive all the way to Denver for nothing!! We'll start this next week. Peyton and Landon's sitter, Karen, will do this for us! I can't thank her enough for taking this on. She's awesome and we are lucky to have her!!! I often feel like she picks up where I leave off as mother when I go to work. We are blessed!