The latest!

Every morning the doctors make their rounds and give us the latest update regarding Peyton's status. As of this morning, there has been no change in her heart as far as getting back to normal on its own. The doctor informed us today, that Dr. Bradley (the surgeon who will put in the pacemaker and the one who did Peyton's original heart surgery 5 years ago) has cases on Monday - Wednesday, but that Tuesday seems to be the best date to add Peyton in. So, unless something changes tomorrow, it looks like Tuesday will be the day that Peyton will have a pacemaker installed. That is what we know up to this point and so we will be waiting, hoping and praying that something changes tomorrow.

In the meantime, Peyton is hanging in there like a trooper. She doesn't want to be here AT ALL and gets very frustrated about having to lay in the bed so much and have her IV port flushed everytime a new nurse comes on. She had a nurse tell her the other day that there would be no ouchies during the flushing process. After it was over and the nurse had left, Peyton says to me, "she said there would be no ouchies and she was WRONG!!!" She absolutely hates taking all of the medicine and has asked several times if she can go home now. We had another talk to with her tonight about why we are still here and if she completely understands all of this. She says she knows that surgery will fix her heart, but that she really doesn't want to do that. It is so tough because we don't want to see her do another surgery either.

We try to keep her busy with coloring, watching music videos on-line, playing in the BIG PLAY ROOM, and going downstairs with us, Karen's parents and Houston. Going downstairs has been great. The doctor gave special orders for us to be able to do that 30 minutes at a time. Today, we actually took her outside the hospital for some fresh air. She pushed a stroller around and really enjoyed being out of the hospital bed. Actually, I am really surprised that she doesn't like being here more, b/c she loves to be tickled all over her body and I bet I have tickled on average 3 hours a day. She is going to want that to continue when we get home.

Tonight was really awesome because Jon and Nikki (who was watching two of our other children) sent us a video from Anna-Kate and Noah (which is on our facebook pages) and we showed Peyton. She was so glad to see them and asked us to play it over and over several times. She really misses her brothers and sisters and so do we.

I have included a picture and as you see in it, Peyton is actually playing doctor. She runs to the hospital section of the play room every time we go in. I guess that she wants to peform on others what the doctors do to her daily. Today, her Pop-Pop showed up to see her due to a headache. She checked his head out, put a band-aid on his forehead. She filled out a prescription and told him that he could get it filled at CVS. The other day, I went in for a boo-boo on my knee and she checked my blood pressure, checked my temp, gave me a shot and put a band-aid on my finger. I never got anything done to my knee, but when I left, it felt better.

She is really doing well with all that has happened. We are still amazed at her positive outlook and her good spirits. She is really an encouragement to us and she helps us get through this very hard process.

Once again, thank you all for your help, support, and prayers. We heard about a prayer service today at Grace Church for Peyton. We can feel the prayers and we know they are helping us get through this.

Signing off for tonight as my sweet daughter is beckoning me to come and tickle her foot/leg while she falls asleep. Have a great night everyone and thanks for everything!