January 21st - Chemotherapy Treatment #17

Yesterday was a long day for all of us. We had to be at the hospital at 6:00am for Peyton's MRI and then chemo followed that. Things with the MRI went great. We had the results before we left the hospital. There hasn't been any significant changes since the first MRI in March 2010. The oncologist did say that even though we haven't seen changes in the size of the tumor we can be happy that it isn't growing and causing further damage to his vision. She told us that the tumor might not shrink at all, even with 9 more months of treatment, but hopefully it will continue to remain stable and will not grow anymore. Even after treatment is over we'll have to continue with regular MRIs to make sure it doesn't change. This will be a lifelong thing for Peyton and we'll always have to monitor it. Nonetheless, we are happy with the results of the MRI and we see this as good news!
Peyton's favorite nurse, Amy, wasn't there on Friday so he was very sad about that, but we made it! That can be very devastating as he is very much a child that likes rountines and consistency, but he was a big boy and made it through with another (wonderful) nurse. We'll be happy to see Amy next week when she isn't taking a class!! :)
We are staying in Denver until Sunday this week and having dinner with family and friends tonight. Very fun!! We braved Chuck E. Cheese today so the boys could have a little bit of fun and release some energy. It was really fun watching them run around all excited!
Now I'm hoping this cold, that has hit me like a truck, won't continue to get worse and I can be ready for Monday morning, and a trip back up to Denver on Friday. I have to remain strong (that's what I tell myself....I can't get sick!!) :) There's no time for me to be sick.... :)

December 30th - Treatment #16

This wraps up Peyton's treatments for 2 weeks! Yay! We are all very excited to spend a couple of weekends at home. All went well this week except the weather. We left Denver right after treatment and started for home. It took us 4 hours to get to Pueblo; that's twice as long as it usually takes. It was bumper to bumper traffic all the way and we never made it over about 20mph. There were lots of accidents slowing everyone down. We decided to stop in Pueblo and spend the night. Thankfully the boys slept the entire way so it wasn't that bad. However, they were pretty wound up by the time we stopped for the night, and we had a hard time settling them down for the night! :)
We head back to Denver on January 20th after work. Peyton has to be at the hospital at 6:00 am on January 21st for his next MRI. Hopefully we'll see the chemo is starting to work!!

December 23rd - Chemo Treatment #15

Due to this being a holiday week Peyton had treatment on Thursday. Unfortunately, we were all very tired due to being at the hospital with Landon fairly late the night before. Landon was bitten on the hand by a friend's dog. He had to have x-rays, but thankfully no broken bones. Whew....we are very thankful for that! He probably would have needed stitches but doctors said they don't stitch up dog bites due to the risk of infection. Makes sense, so they put him on an antibiotic and here we are! We made it to Denver and through Peyton's treatment without a hitch. Due to La Veta Pass being closed on Thursday night we couldn't come home until Friday morning. We made it and had a wonderful Christmas Eve with family.
A friend of ours mentioned how rough it's been for us lately. She made the comment, "When it rains it pours I guess." Chuckling, I just responded, "At our house, it's been a constant, steady drizzle for months!" lol....... I can laugh, but ohhhh, there are days!!!

December 17th - Chemo Treatment # 14

This ended up being a really long weekend for all of us. Peyton had treatment on Friday and then started feeling a bit sick late Friday evening. He woke us up at 5:00am Saturday saying he was sick. We gave him more nausea medicine and shortly after that he started running a fever. We were planning on heading back to Alamosa, but decided to stay in Denver and see how he was feeling. His fever continued to rise and we ended up calling the doctor. Due to his fever being over 101 degrees, and it being a Saturday, we had to take him into the emergency room at Children's Hospital. We didn't have to wait long to see a doctor, but we had to wait for all the blood work to be done to make sure he didn't have an infection near the area where his mediport is. Thankfully, there wasn't an infection and the doctors just gave him a shot of antibiotics. A few hours later we were able to head back home. We decided to wait until the next day to return home to Alamosa. Peyton had another high fever in the middle of the night, but by the next day he was much much better. We stopped by the North Pole on the way home and visited Santa's workshops and rode some really fun rides! It was great for Peyton to finally think about something fun and get to do something outside of a hospital. This really got him excited for Christmas.

December 10th - Chemo Treament # 13

We made a very fast trip back and forth to Denver this last week. We left on Thursday after work. Peyton's treatment was 8:30 on Friday morning. We wrapped up with that at about noon, grabbed a quick bite of lunch and were on the road home. Peyton had his preschool Christmas concert at 7:00 Friday evening and we wanted to make it back for that. He was so excited. He was singing the songs on the way home! It was adorable. We made it home at 5:45pm despite Landon getting carsick on the way home in Colorado Springs. Charlie and I tag teamed getting Landon undressed, clothes changed, car seat cleaned up and we were back on the road in no time! We are getting quicker with all that. It's amazing all the new "talents" you acquire in parenthood. Ha! Ha! Anyway we made it to the concert and all was well! Life is good..........
We'll travel to Denver the next 3 weekends. Hopefully we can squeeze in a little fun time for the kids and not be so rushed. That's my goal.

November 19th - Chemo Treatment #12

Happy to report that Friday's treatment was great and uneventful. We are happy to spend the next 2 weekends at home and enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday with our family. Can't wait!! Ohhh......how so many of us take "just being home" for granted! I will never do that again!
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

November 12th - Chemo Treatment #11

Another treatment down! Friday was a long day for Peyton. We first saw the eye doctor and then went off to chemo. His vision hasn't changed (thank goodness) but he still can't see things very far away. Not sure what will happen after treatment is over for Peyton in September 2011, but I'm sort of expecting doctors to say he'll need glasses. ? Guess we'll see......
Chemo went well this time around. Fairly uneventful.......We are all excited to only have one more weekend in Denver and then we get to spend 2 weeks at home!!!! Can't wait!
Our drive to Denver was a bit scary this time around as the roads were really icy on Thursday night. But Charlie is a great driver and we just took our time and made it there safe and sound. The kids slept most of the way. I don't like winter driving in Colorado!