Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/635316
t m c » p u l s e | j a n / f e b 2 0 1 6 29 A fter a decade of practice, thirteen- year-old Peyton of Sugar Land, Texas, had just achieved one of her many dreams: to perform en pointe in the Nutcracker ballet, just as she had seen ballerinas do since she first saw the performance at age three. "I love dance because I love per- forming on stage…the costumes and lights. But mostly I love making people happy through ballet," Peyton said. A month after her performance, the once lively and bubbly Peyton had become exhausted, socially withdrawn, lost her energy for ballet (her favorite pastime) and had lost a significant amount of weight. Her mother knew something was very wrong. "I was watching Peyton during one of her ballet classes and she stood at the back of the room the entire time and could barely lift her leg during a combination," said Carrie Richardson, B y B r i t n i N . R i l e y Peyton's mother. "I had never seen her act like that before." The following day, Richardson made an appointment for Peyton with the pediatrician she had been seeing since birth. Before even running any tests, Michael Bishop, M.D., a pediatrician at Texas Children's Pediatrics Grand Parkway, suspected that Peyton had leukemia because her organs were so enlarged. "Dr. Bishop sent us to Texas Children's Hospital to begin treatment for Peyton," Richardson said. "When we got there, I was asked what Peyton was Peyton, pictured with the dancing rats from the Nutcracker, after the Houston Ballet revealed her Rose Parade costume. Dancing Through Cancer Throughout her leukemia treatment, one 13-year-old Texas Children's Hospital patient finds comfort and motivation in her passion for ballet I've said throughout my treatment that ballet is harder than cancer. — PEYTON Patient at Texas Children's Hospital being treated for and I said 'leukemia.' I never in my life thought I would be saying that about my daughter." After receiving her diagnosis in January, Peyton's life changed com- pletely. She was no longer able to attend Logos Preparatory Academy because her immune system could not handle being around so many people, nor could she practice ballet the way she once did. "I had just started going to a college preparatory school where you only go three days a week," said Peyton. "Looking back, I think God was prepar- ing me and my mom for all of the time we were about to be spending together." By March, Peyton developed a serious complication of her leukemia treatment. After receiving a small dose of methotrexate during a routine spinal tap, Peyton was unable to move her hand. By the next day, she had suffered a series of seizures and was admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Texas Children's Hospital. "She lost her ability to speak normally and the ability to move part of her body," said Zoann Dreyer, M.D., Peyton's doctor at Texas Children's Cancer Center. "Generally, patients fully recover, but it is very hard for a parent to watch. Even for me, having seen it before, it is very scary to watch someone go through it." The methotrexate reaction left Peyton with limited mobility, meaning she could not dance the way she had before. To remedy this, her doctors rec- ommended she begin physical therapy. David Macha, a lifelong family friend and physical therapist at Memorial Hermann Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Center in Sugar Land, fit the bill. "If you know Peyton, you know she is very happy and outgoing. After she had her seizures, she wasn't that Peyton anymore," Macha said. "Once we started therapy, she started getting the flexibility back in her hips and getting her strength back. She is motivated, driven and wants to keep her dream of being a ballerina. Cancer isn't going to get in her way." Other than losing the ability to dance, Peyton's greatest fear when she learned she had cancer was losing her beautiful red hair that she loved so much. By August, her fear had become a reality.