Hope4Peyton

Tonight I just have a couple of prayer requests that need our attention.

Our friends Monica and Scott Tappan are greiving the loss of Scott's father to lung cancer. He has been fighting cancer for many years and has finally gone to his heavenly reward. We just keep their family in prayer as they cope with the sorrow of losing this much loved man.

A special friend, Noah Fishman is in the hospital tonight. He has neuroblastoma and has been out of treatment. But due to suspect symptoms and blood work, Noah will be having an MRI tomorow to see if he has relapsed. Please keep the Fishman family in your prayers as they prepare to handle what God has planned for them. Besides cancer, RELAPSE has to be one of the scariest words in our vocabulary. Their fears are huge and we need to keep Noah raised up to God.

Peyton has suffered a miserable day of moodiness and body aches. These steroid treatments build up in her system and unleash a world of unhappiness in our sweet little girl. Her hair is still coming out in clumps, she's down to just a few wispy hairs on the top. She's swelled up like a blowfish and is just uncomfortable beyond belief. But she still does find a few smiles and they are precious. Nathaniel and Rachael have tried so hard to cheer her up, but usually make it worse for her, so please say a prayer for both of them as they deal with the changes in their baby sister.

I just want to send out a huge thanks to each person who has supported, encouraged, and prayed for us. You have no idea the impact you have on us, the way you continue to lift us up and keep us focused. We are so continually thankful for the blessings that the Lord provides and you are all a huge part of those blessings.

f.r.o.G…fully relying on God
—Anissa

I took the kids to [url=http://www.caringbridge.org/fl/sydneysims/index.htm]Sydney Sims[/url]' fundraiser yesterday and it was a great event. The sad thing really is that when you see Sydney, the first thing I could think was "She looks wonderful!" She had her face painted with pink and sparkles to look like a princess mask and she was just flittering all over the place with her blond curls and big smile. It was so sad because I know soon she'll lose those curls and her body will be trying to heal from another major surgery to fight the neuroblastoma working to take over. I had the pleasure of meeting her mom Michelle and having the chance to meet so many wonderful people who recognized Peyton from this website. Michelle posted on [url=http://www.caringbridge.org/fl/sydneysims/index.htm]Sydney's site[/url] that the total tally is somewhere between 9-10 thousand dollars for their expenses!!! God provided a huge blessing for them and I know it's just a drop in the bucket of what the expenses will be for her upcoming treatments, but it was good to get out there and support them however we could and to see how the community has come together behind yet another family in such great need.

Last night Pete watched the kids while I went to play poker with some of our friends. I lost, but enjoyed the time to get out of the house and be with grownups!

Peyton's really feeling the effects of her chemo, she's so tired and worn out. This morning she woke me up bright and early to make scrambled eggs…..twice…..but then she wanted to crawl back in bed and go back to sleep…that's just not like her. We made it to church where she snuggled down in Dad's arms and conked out cold. She got moved over to where she could lay down across the chairs and lay her head in my lap and she promptly drooled a small wading pool on my leg…good times! When she got up, I could see all these little brown fluffs of hair all over my lap, but she's still determined to hold onto what hair she's got, so no shaving yet.

And we call her "Slim"….no, those are not just folds of her shirt….yes, that REALLY is her belly!

This week is pretty easy going for us….of course, I say that now and tempt fate….but we have a finger poke on Wednesday (which I may jump the gun and have them do it on Tuesday if she's still acting sluggish and tired, it'll probably end up that she needs some red blood cells to pep her back up) and then on Thursday we go to St. Pete for the radiation simulation. I'm not sure exactly what all that entails, but I do know that they will be fitting her for the head mask she has to wear during treatment to keep her head stationary. It's also a chance to see how well she'll do during the procedure so they know whether she has to be sedated or not.

Thursday afternoon we are heading to my friend Lisa's house for a yard sale catch up session, hopefully we'll nail down some of the specifics so that most of it can be done by the time I get back from the Ronald McDonald house. Anyone who wants to come and lend a hand is more than welcome to attend, feel free to bring your kids, Lisa's opening her pool as way to give the kids some play time!

I got some really special news from Lisa Orlando from the [url=http://www.fastercure.org]Pediatric Cancer Foundation[/url]. They saw the [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvcvi1IioSY]Faces of Childhood Cancer video[/url] I put up on YouTube and they want to use it in their next big fundraiser effort. They're going to be mailing it out as a cd to people in hopes of raising much needed money for research projects for pediatric cancers. This is one amazing group that focuses only on pediatric cancers, especially the ones that all the other researchers and government groups have given up on. I'm honored that they asked to use the video, it was a labor of love, and I'm thrilled that it will be used for the purpose of furthering awareness of these kids, their cancers and the need for a cure!

f.r.o.G…fully relying on God
—Anissa

The Doxorubicin and Vincristine had better be doing it's job on the leukemia because it's sure doing a job on Peyton's hair. Already, it's coming off her head and floating through the air like dandelion fluff and she's started saying that her head itches, which has been about a day or two before we've shaved her head in the past. Once it starts to itch, she starts to rub it and then we have Peyton's hair all over the place…the floor..our food….drinks….mouths….it does not taste like chicken!

I took the kids swimming this morning at the YMCA by our house and we spent a whopping 23 minutes in the water before she decided she was cold and didn't want to be there anymore. Normally I would have told her to just deal with it and give the kids some more time, but right now is not the time to battle-of-the-wills….by sheer volume of her cries she wins. Technically, I'm louder….but I get those nasty looks when I yell back.

We went to Chick-fil-a with some friends and I'm sure that chickens all over the country are in a panic…laying eggs and sweating for their lives…between the amounts of scrambled eggs that this kid puts away and the chicken nuggets that were inhaled….those poor chickens don't stand a chance.

I got the dvd from All Children's Hospital with the segment that will show of Peyton…very cute stuff. [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzu7klbWI_8]You can check it out here[/url]. And I know it's all about the hospital and the great work they do, and kids like Peyton getting the top notch care they need…but could I have looked any more tired and haggard and on the verge of complete breakdown?!! I asked Ann, the sweet lady in charge, if they couldn't have just done me the favor of using me as a voiceover! If nothing else, people will light up the line donating money for the poor, ragged, tired parents. But it is awesome, I'm excited about the upcoming telethon….please watch, it's June 2-3, and our family will be on live at 12 PM and 5PM on June 3rd….if you don't usually watch for the telethon itself, you owe it to yourself to watch for sheer comic value, I can't even begin to imagine what my kids are going to do once the camera is on.

There is going to be a yard sale team meeting on Thursday from 1-3 in Brandon at my friend Lisa's house. She's opening up her home for us to have an organization pow wow and she has a pool so the kids can enjoy themselves. If you'd like to come and let the kiddos swim and check out what's happening on the yard sale front, just shoot me an email at [url=mailto:Anissa.Mayhew@verizon.net]Anissa.Mayhew@verizon.net[/url] and I'll send you the address information. Thank you, Lisa!

f.r.o.G…fully relying on God
—Anissa

I'm guessing that this post will bring an influx of emails from happy Children's Cancer Center parents!!

I have a date for the condo retreat!

The owner of the condo that was auctioned off at the Fore the Children golf tournament event is so very very nice. What we won was a weeklong stay at her condo in Madeira Beach and I talked to the owner today and explained that we'd really hoped to use it as a way for the cancer parents to all have a retreat.

She was kind enough to offer the condo for extra days so that we could take advantage of extra weekend days for the parents at no extra cost!!

So, I'm very excited about planning a fun weekend for the moms to spend together. It's going to be relaxing and a seriously fun time, these moms are such a riot when we get together. I can't wait!

The dads? Well, we'll probably have to plan some fun stuff for them to do also, but they're on their own for feeding themselves!

f.r.o.G…fully relying on God
–Anissa

PS….a change had to be made to the "[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvcvi1IioSY]Faces of Childhood Cancer"[/url] video….again….so I had to re-upload it to YouTube….again….so the link changed….again. If you had it linked to your site and you want to keep it active, you'll have to change the link. Sorry, and THANKS for spreading the word…before I had to change the links, it was up at over 800 hits in 2 days!

At around 2:30 AM this morning….

"I want Daddy to sleep on the couch."

"Why?"

"Because I do."

"You know, it's really Daddy's bed, not Peyton's."

"I know."

"Why can't Daddy sleep in the bed?"

"I want to sleep on his side."

You have to respect her honesty. And I think that Pete's decided that it's just easier to take the couch than to fight her for bed space. It never fails to amaze me how she can dominate the sleeping space! It's a kind sized bed, I have my spot…my spot remains my spot because I have no problem shoving her off of me if she starts to encroach on my spot…but poor Pete. He's trained himself, since they were babies, that if they touch him, he scoots over so he won't roll over on them…therefore, by the time the sun comes up, I'm comfortable, Peyton's sprawled out spread-eagle, perpendicular on the bed and Pete's hugging a 3 inch wide portion of the bed. I can't count the number of morning that I've looked at him and been amazed by his ability to sleep with 3/4 of his body hanging off the bed.

After waking up Peyton when he came to get into bed last night and setting off a crying and eating binge, he's decided that it might just be simpler to take up post on the couch.

Today is the kid's first day of summer break. Home for the summer. All mine for the summer. Allllll summer long. Actually, I'm looking forward to spending this time with them and having them to enjoy…it'll be interesting to see how we make it through with clinic time, steroid-induced irritability, and the eventual trip to Ronald McDonald house next month. Pete's taking that time off work to spend with them and I know that they're going to have a great time together, but they've never done two weeks without Mom at home. They've done months where mom was no help at all, when I had my stroke and really was out of it for several months, but even then my body was present if my full brain capacity wasn't. We have some friends who've offered to bring meals for Pete and the kids while Peyton and I are gone and I so appreciate that.

We were off to a rolling start this morning. Peyton didn't appreciate having to wake up and the first words she spoke were "I DON'T LOVE YOU!" All this because I had to change her pull-up….fine, brat, soak in your stinkiness then! But instead, I changed her, got her dressed and cuddled her for a few minutes. She resisted at first, wanting nothing to do with me, and then finally hugged me back. Then she looked up at me with those big brown eyes full of love and apology and said those magic words "Will you make me breakfast now?" She's learned the meaning of the phrase "Don't bite the hand that feeds you."

Nathaniel went to the dentist this morning to have the cavities taken care of that have been bothering him for over a month. One of his cavities had an abcess, so it had to be pulled. It is a baby molar and would have come out anyway, so no biggie. He was hysterical in his first time having a numb mouth, plus the socket was packed with gauze….I think his exact description was "my face feels like it's going to fall off!" Rachael and Peyton were very concerned for him…they anxiously waited to see how he was going to be afterwards…and when one little girl started screaming during her cleaning, both girls turned to me with eyes bulging and mouths wide.

"Is that Nathaniel?"

I assured them that it wasn't, he was getting the good medicine and wasn't in any pain. They were relieved to see him playing his Gameboy and chilling out after it was all done. Peyton didn't understand that he was just having 1 tooth pulled and whispered to me "He still has all this teeth, they're supposed to be all gone!"

She was disappointed.

Updates:

The Bowman family…I got a chance to talk to Carly's grandmother and she explained that although they initially thought that Lily had the same kind of brain tumor as Carly, she didn't. This was shocking news for them, and they just need all the prayer we can give them. Lily is still at All Children's Hospital, she just had a port put in and her mother is with her. Carly and her 2 brothers are making the rounds from clinic to hospital to home with their grandmother and other family members. It is just overwhelming to think about, so please keep these kids in your prayers and they cope with their mom and dad having to juggle the demands of two daughters with brain tumors.

[url=http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/sydeysims]Sydney Sims[/url]…she is having a fundraiser this Saturday at Twin Lakes Park from 12-3. If you can make it out to support this brave girl and her family, please come.

Also, friends of ours, Paul and Amy Carlucci had a baby yesterday. [url=http://daniel.carlucci.net/]Daniel James Carlucci[/url] was born 1 pound, 7 oz, prematurely at 24 weeks. Their family and this precious little boy need our prayers.

f.r.o.G…fully relying on God
—Anissa