Last Week

This past week was kind of a stressful roller coaster of emotions for the Peyton family.

First, on Easter Sunday after naps we noticed that Bailey's back left lymph node was swollen quite large - think the size of a ping-pong ball - and was hard to the touch.  Other than acting a little more fragile than normal, he had been healthy and fine so we called the dr and made an appt for the next morning.  At that appt, she checked his ears, throat, nose and everything looked clear so she sent us for an ultrasound.  During the ultrasound, the technician called in the radiologist after only a few minutes to have a look, which of course skyrocketed my nerves.  When I heard back from the dr on Wednesday about the results she said that the lymph node was clearly enlarged but that they weren't able to determine why so she asked me to take him to get blood work done as soon as I got off the phone with her.  I'm not sure if it was our normally laid back dr's urgency or if it was the fact that I was worried he was going to scream through an intense blood draw or just the fact that I was alone (George was obviously at work) but I was pretty scared.  The whole way to the hospital, I prayed and teared up and talked myself out of crying and tried my best to calm down.  The whole way to the hospital, Bailey waved bye-bye to all the passing cars, made choo-choo noises, and bounced his legs.  God gave us lots of grace that morning as we walked into a waiting room with only a few people, were seen right away, and Bailey didn't even flinch with the needle prick or the blood draw.  I couldn't even tell anything was happening to him - he didn't jump, cry, or even make a peep.  Just said a little ouch when they put the bandaid on.  My touch sweet boy!  We got a phone call that afternoon saying that all the blood work came back completely normal squishing all my fears of the big scary stuff.  Bailey's 2-year well check is in about a month and the dr said if he still had the bump then we would run the same tests and maybe talk to a surgeon about having it removed.  What a huge blessing!  With kids you run into all these little things that are probably minor but there is always that anxiety in the back of my head that asks 'what if this is the one little thing that actually turns out to be a really big thing and then our lives are forever marked with the innocence of before-we-knew and the challenges of after-we-knew.'  Dramatic, yes.  But this, along with so many other times, is when I'm so thankful for my faith in the Lord, the great healer, who is all powerful and in control.  So please prayers for the next month that Bailey's little lump would go away on its own.

Second, as in my body's way of reacting to the stress of the previous three days, on Thursday I woke up with body aches and fever.  It has been a long time since I have had a sincere fever and so it took me until noon to realize what was going on.  Thankfully George and a few friends were able to step in for me and help with the kids as my fever got up to almost 102 - which apparently is a lot worse for an adult than it is for children.  I ended up having strep and have been feeling much better since being on antibiotics.  But until then I felt miserable and was such a baby about it!!

Third, last Friday, George had lasik to correct the vision in his eyes.  I'll admit I was a little nervous for him going into it but it has really turned out well.  The procedure itself took only a few minutes with about 30 min of prep and about 30 of recovery.  Then they sent him home pumped with drugs to take a post-surgical nap.  His eyes were tired afterwards and he had a slew of drops to put in every hour but by that night he was helping with dinner, baths, and our kids night time routines.  I've been impressed.  So far he can see 20/15 in one eye and about 20/30 in the other, which is apparently still a little fuzzy and swollen but George says it gets a little better each day.  I'm already jealous of the fact that he can see without having to put contacts in... but I'm not so jealous of the bug-like eye protectors he had to sleep in for the first week or so.  :)  Amazing what they can do these days!