March 4th, 2013 - Chemotherapy Treatment # 75

We had to move chemo from Friday to Monday due to Peyton being sick on Thursday. He woke up early Thursday morning with a yucky stomach bug. Charlie stayed home with him on Thursday and by Friday (mid-morning) Peyton was well enough to make the trip to Denver. We had an afternoon eye appointment and those are scheduled months in advance. I was happy he was feeling better.  At least better enough to get through an eye appointment.  His exam went well.  His vision has remained stable now for several months.  His right eye is 20/400 and his left eye can see out to about 3 feet.  Dr. Enzenaur has recommended that Peyton try glasses with bifocals on a permanent basis.  He's not sure this will help much but he said it's definitely worth a try.  He already has been wearing reading glasses for a couple of years so he's familiar with glasses just not bifocals.  That will require an adjustment period.
From Friday night to Sunday night Landon, Charlie and I all got sick with the stomach bug Peyton had.  Yuck!! It was not a fun weekend, but thank goodness by Monday morning we were all recovered and headed to the hospital for a full day of appointments.
Peyton had chemo first.  All went well. Then we headed to meet with the ENT surgeon and a team of speech therapists.  Peyton went through quite an extensive evaluation from this team.  They were trying to decide if Peyton's speech concerns were because of anatomy issues or if speech therapy could help correct his speech.  After a couple hours, and some really interesting assessments, doctors concluded that the only way Peyton's speech could improve would be to have the surgery.  Unfortunately, this doctor told us that the surgery is not a guarantee that his speech will improve immediately. If it doesn't work the first time then Peyton may have to undergo another surgery.  That sounds frustrating, but if in the end it can help him, we feel this is the best option.  Many people (who don't spend much time around him) have a very difficult time understanding him.  As his parents, we understand him the majority of the time, but we know it's hard for others. I pray this works the first time and we don't have to keep going back.  The surgery will be in July.  That will give him time to get his body healthy and recover from chemo.  Doctors say he must be off chemo for at least 6 weeks before heading into surgery.  We'll try to squeeze in as much fun stuff as we can during the first part of summer break!  The second half will be spent recovering.