Hope4Peyton

Ok, I've been meaning to write this one up ever since we got the Colts jersey.

If you know me, you know that I'm a fairly large football fan. I cheer for my Steelers (mainly because when I was 7, my brother had picked the team they were playing), and my Lions (because that's where I grew up…and yes, Barry Sanders was the best player ever). Beyond that, I've learned to cheer for certain players (or simply the underdog in some occasions), especially since the invention of Fantasy Football. I even talked my wife into joining a fantasy football league with our neighbor, Greg Wynn. I think she pretty much figured that it was either join the league or have nothing to talk about during football season. For those of you wondering, yes, I've made certain concessions as well, but we won't go into those at this time.

One of my all time favorite players is Peyton Manning. He had a very good year when we were pregnant with our little Peyton (see where this is going?). For those Bucs fans who remember, this was the year he brought his team back from sure defeat on a Monday night in absolutely incredible fashion.

My family has a tradition of the son's middle name being the first name of the father. Both my brother and I share the same middle name. My dad's middle name is his dad's first, and we continued that little tradition with Nathaniel Peter. Now then, we actually got to choose the day Nathaniel was born. It was going to be one day, then the doctor hadn't scheduled us for a room, so we got to delay it a day. This was fine by me as it was a different month, but the same day as mine. Makes it a ton easier if all you have to do is remember a month!

There was never much debate about Rachael's name. I think we both had it set in our minds even before we were pregnant with her. She's named after Anissa's grandma Rachael and my grandma Eve. She also shares the same day of the month as Nathaniel and I. By this time, I think my wife realized what a scatterbrain I can be and so she thought she'd come up with a way I'd never forget the kids' birthdays.

Anissa's pregnancy with Peyton was by far the hardest one. Maybe it was foreshadowing in this story that is our life, but Anissa was on bed rest for the last 2 months of the pregnancy. She was actually scheduled to have the same birthday as the rest of us, but in good ol' Mayhew fashion, she decided to do things her own way and come out a little early. Her birth was by far the most incredible thing I've ever been a part of. She apparently decided she wanted out and wanted out at that time, so the doctors weren't even there. There was a nurse, but she was running around trying to get everything ready for the doctors. So Anissa's best friend, Dawn, and I were the only ones there with Anissa when she said, "The baby's coming NOW!" and she threw herself back in the bed and Peyton shot out like a bullet! She flew out so fast that Dawn had to catch Peyton with her knees so she didn't hit the floor while I was catching Anissa. To this day, Dawn still likes to remind me that she was the first to hold Peyton.

During the pregnancy, Peyton was going to be an Isabelle Renee, Isabella Renee, Gabrielle Renee, or Gabriella Renee. We were locked in on Renee as the middle name, but "Peyton" was actually a very distant 5th. Once she was born and we held her, we decided that since she had a different birthday than the rest of us, she could at least have my initials (PRM). Before we did her birth certificate, I had the thought of, well, if my wife is actually considering letting me name her in part after a football player, how far will she let me go?

And so as I tend to do, I went off on a mental tangent. I started playing with names of my favorite players over the years.

Dan was one of my favorites, but I didn't think that'd fly.

Neither would Jerome.

Barry Renee just didn't quite have that ring to it.

Howie Renee would ensure she'd be a terror on the defensive line. Which is a great trait, just not necessarily for a girl.

Hines Renee would ensure she'd smile all the time and block like an anvil.

Terry Renee was probably the closest one I could even suggest, but by that time I realized I had gotten off on a rather rambling tangent, plus it didn't meet the whole initials requirement.

And so it was, that we decided to go with Peyton Renee. It just sounded right.

So, many years from now, when all of this is a distant memory, and I'm dancing with my beautiful daughter at her wedding, in the back of my mind, I'll remember that she was, in part, named after a 6'5", 230 pound, laser rocket-armed QB, but very nearly was named, Dan Jerome Barry Howie Hines Terry Peyton Renee Mayhew.

Thank you to all of you that are following our lives along all of these ups and downs. We truly can feel all of the love, support and most importantly prayers we've received from all of you. God is with us every step of the way. This has been an extremely rough week on our family and our extended family but as you can see by this post, we still have our sense of humor.

Love

Peter

This week has seen Peyton slow down quite a bit. We've been so blessed to have her in good health and good spirits throughout her treatment (steroid phase..we choose to pretend that time just didn't happen) and so when she seemed to get white as a ghost and was tiring so quickly I called the clinic and took her in for a blood count. I was fully expecting her to need a transfusion which peps her right up, but while her counts are on the way down, they weren't down enough to account for the way she's been feeling.

For just a little while there it was easy to take for granted that she might be lucky to feel great throughout treatment, she wouldn't get all sickly. But the fact of the matter is, we're putting amazingly harsh chemicals in her body, and it can only take so much before it gets worn down. Her slow down is just her medication doing it's work and it, simply put, reallllllly stinks!

She goes in for chemo treatment tomorrow, she gets two IV medications, methotrexate and vincristine and we'll also see if we think she needs blood before the weekend. She has to go back in Monday for her peg asperiginaise, which is her painful double leg shot, so if she can hold out over the weekend then they'll probably do it Monday. I'd prefer they do blood on Friday because we have a great weekend full of fun stuff planned and I'd really like for her to feel good throughout the festivities.

Friday night we're going to have box suite seats to the Tampa Bay Lightening vs. Islanders game, courtesy of the Children's Cancer Center. There should be lots of families and the Powells, Adelaine's family will be there as well, so we're looking forward to a good time.

Saturday we received tickets for the famiy to go to the Wiggles concert from the Children's Cancer Center, as well. Now, I have to tell you, Nathaniel was doing his absolute best to "take one for the team" in regards to this concert. We get a box suite again, so we can enjoy the show with the least amount of exposure to the large crowd, and it should be a grand time for the girls. But Nathaniel..not so much. In fact, when I asked him if he was ok to go, he says to me," Well, I know this is a family thing and I'll go because we're a family, but it's the Wiggles, Mom!" What a sweet kid, willing to go suffer for his little sister's enjoyment…and as much as I'd love to have all the kids with me, I just can't make him do it. I can honestly say if I had a choice, the Wiggles wouldn't be my concert of preference…but these are the sacrifices we make….childbirth, stretchmarks, Wiggles concerts. So, Nathaniel's skipping out and a friend's daughter is going to use his ticket. It all works out and he's grateful beyond all belief.

So, as we approach this busy weekend, pray that Peyton is able to enjoy these events and that her health holds up. Pray for a good family time for us, for this opportunity to be with other families and for blessings for the wonderful people who've provided these chances for our kids to have outings and entertainment we couldn't provide on our own.

Please keep my friend Karen in your prayers as she is still on a ventilator at Tampa General Hospital. She is getting treatment for a fever she has due to pneumonia and she has a rapid heartrate that is a continued worry. I pray for God's will and strength to be with her, and her entire family as they cope with this situation. I pray that God will provide peace and comfort each step of the way for Mark and Nick. God does amazing things, the very fact that Karen exists is proof of that, so we just continue to pray for more amazing gifts from God in her life.

For those who've prayed and kept Kaylie in your thoughts, those wonderful prayers have gone to good use. She's doing so much better, her mother Tisha says that she's pooping and eating (hey, we all take our small joys, right?) and her intestinal blockage has gone away on it's own without the need for surgery. Praise God!! Kaylie and Tisha are still hoping to go home soon, they will administer her chemo and if all goes well Tisha said in possibly 3-4 days after they can go home.

We are so blessed to have the support from our friends, family, church, school and even kind-hearted strangers on the street. We are thankful for the gifts we are given every day in the form of compassion, prayer, love and encouragement. Thank you so much to all who've been here each step of the way with us.

F.R.O.G….fully relying on God
Anissa

This has been a week that has caused a lot of tears for me. Not because of anything wrong with Peyton, Rachael or Nathaniel. Nothing’s wrong with Peter or me. But my heart has had a serious workout this week for those I care about and I’m asking everyone who reads this posting to say lots and lots of prayers for those I’m about to tell you about.

My friend Chris (the one who makes the amazing brownies!) has a father who has hepatitis. This week a donor liver became available and her father was in Gainesville getting prepped for transplant surgery to be performed at 9PM. They were waiting anxiously for them to come get her father when the news came that because of signs of infection he would not be able to get the donor liver and it would be given to another patient. It was such a disappointment and I know that Chris’ family was just so let down. It was a good thing that they found the infection because she explained that can be fatal post-transplant, but it was still a huge letdown. She has a great attitude about it and believes that if God had meant for him to have that liver he would have it, but that wasn’t his liver.

I got word through the “cancer family grapevine” that a family we had met in Orlando at the American Cancer Society function had devastating news this week. Their daughter, a leukemia patient who’d been doing so well and had moved into the maintenance phase of treatment, got an infection that spread into her blood and she died Thursday. This was not a family we were close with, we had only met them for a few minutes during our stay in Orlando, but you feel such a connection with other families going through the same struggle. It was just a blow to my sense of well-being about how well Peyton is doing. Their daughter was also breezing through treatment by all accounts, and then a random infection took her away in a matter of days. What a cruel and painful twist of fate. God’s will is so hard to discern some days, but I’ve been reminded by those around me that we have to have faith that His love is complete and His plan is good. The news of this little girl’s death just brought every fear I have to the surface, I can’t even think of what I would do if we didn’t have Peyton. It’s too painful to think about. But I ask that you pray for strength and peace in the heart of the Sanders family as they deal with the loss of their little one, that God will give them comfort.

Today, I got a call and the news that a friend here in Brandon is taking a turn for the definite worse. Karen is a woman who has had a profound influence in my life, we’ve become good friends over the last couple of years and I know that God brought her into my life to change me for the better. She is the most optimistic and positive person I’ve ever met, with a huge heart and a spirit of gold. Karen was a first year parent at Central the same year we were, she was our cub scout leader, she started and taught Nathaniel’s much loved Lego class and was a vivacious and inspiring person. If something needed to be done, Karen could be counted on to help, that was just the kind of person she is. Karen has cystic fibrosis and over the past year has been getting worse and worse. In the past few months her health has steadily gone downhill and she’d gone on the transplant list for a new set of lungs. This was something we talked about at length, she felt terrible because she felt she was praying for someone to die so she could live, but we prayed over the fact that God’s will would be done and if He wanted her to have new lungs, he would provide them. In fact, once, her husband was on his motorcycle behind me as I drove down the street and I called her and joked that with a slam of my breaks she could have those new lungs…she had a great sense of humor and I loved that about her.

Karen has been in the ICU for several weeks now, as her breathing got worse and worse and I got the news today that she was put into an induced coma and put on life support. Karen and I had talked about the fact that she was adamant that she didn’t want to live on life support and I understood that, but she has given approval to keep her on support for 1 year in the hopes that God will provide those donor lungs that she so desperately needs. I pray that those lungs become available, that God will grant her more time on this earth to be the amazing wife, mother and friend she has always been. She is loved and needed here. But her heart is not cooperating, I don’t know all the terms and the exact situation, but it may be that continued life support will not be a viable option. I was told that her husband Mark would be talking to her doctors to find out if it was possible for her to continue to wait on life support or if it was better to just let her go be with the Lord. I am heartbroken for Mark and their 7 year old son Nick who are going through this terrible time, I pray for guidance and peace in Mark’s heart as he deals with the impossible choices he has to make and for the comfort he must give his son at a time when he himself needs so much. If it is God’s choice to take Karen from us, pray that we are able to be thankful that she is no longer in pain and will be taking wonderful deep breaths at God’s side.

I want to end this post in a positive light and with happiness.

Kaylie is doing much better. The obstruction in her intestines is starting to go away, she’s feeling much improved, the drainage tube has been removed from her nose and she’ll get her first meal tomorrow! Tisha says that her mood is happy and she’s feeling so much better. The lesions on her liver are not more leukemia cells, so that is FANTASTIC news, and now they’re working to see if they’re a fungus or what. If all continues to go well, they will hopefully get to go home in the next few days. Thank you all for your prayers for Kaylie, her improvement can only be in God’s hands.

Peyton had chemo on Wednesday and she did very well through another rough day. Her platelet count, her ANC and her white counts were great but her hemoglobin was on the borderline. I took her back on Friday to see what her counts would be to see if she could make it through the weekend without a transfusion and her hemoglobin had actually gone up! She is doing so well through this cycle of treatment, her counts are higher than they've been in two months and she's feeling really good. We are so thankful to see her progressing and constantly doing better than expected.

For those who don’t live in Florida, I just want you to know that the frosty fall weather is really taking a toll on my kids. Just look at what a hard time they had keeping themselves busy today.

These are Nathaniel and Rachael's school pictures….can you tell me what's off with Rachael's picture? They do us so proud! We love these kids.

f.r.o.G.
fully relying on God
—-Anissa

I read a post in the guestbook from Paul and Tathi, Paul being a guy who works at Verizon with Peter. They were on a bicycle website and saw Peyton’s picture. I had NO idea what they were talking about and so I had to look it up.

Sure enough, this company has a link to Peyton’s website smack dab in the center of their business site. How fantastic is that? People are just so generous and compassionate. We didn’t ask for that, I’m not even sure who owns this business, but there they are, giving my little girl their support!

Check out the website!

I've had the most wonderful opportunity to meet a special family.

I met a local pediatrician who has children at our school. The first time we met, she realized that I was Peyton's mom and she shared that she had been given the heartbreaking task of diagnosing a 9 month old baby girl with leukemia. She explained that this was the only child for this mother, and how devastated she was to have to give this news. For a moment I had this rush of how it felt that morning we found out about Peyton, how I just felt broken and frightened inside and sat on the floor of the bedroom and cried when I told Pete that she was sick. My heart went out to this family and I gave Dr. Champoux Peyton's card with her website and my email address and phone number. I asked that she give it to the family, and that if they ever wanted to talk or needed anything to please let them know that I was there for them.

That was in September and this past week I got an email from the mother, Tisha. They are at St. Joseph's Cancer Clinic, with a different oncology group than we have, but the common factors are all there: fear, anxiety, pain, a sense of loss of the normal life we'd thought our child would have. I immediately responded and asked if I could visit them and bring Peyton up to see them.

We've been twice now and it's just wonderful how the Lord works in our lives. I hate that Peyton has this disease, I would love for nothing more than for her to wake up tomorrow healed, but if we have to do this, then we're finding great things can come of it. We've met our special friends the Powells, I've met Stacey who's the mother of a leukemia survivor, and now I get the chance to know Tisha and Kaylie and Kaylie's beloved grandmother Patti. Angela Powell was able to bring Adelaine up to meet Kaylie and I know that we both felt that we hoped to give Tisha some comfort and support and to let her know that she's never alone during this fight.

Kaylie's at much higher risk than Peyton because of her age. Her chemo treatments are higher dosages than ours and it's just brutal on her system. When she was diagnosed it had affected her kidneys, but now that has gone back to normal. Kaylie is so sick from her chemo, she has developed a blockage in her intestines so she can't eat, she can't poop, she throws up all the time. They had to put a tube down her nose to drain all the yuck in her system so she'd stop vomiting all the time. They are running tests to see if there is damage to her liver, and this poor family has been at the hospital for almost 7 weeks straight!

But Kaylie has the most beautiful little face, her eyes are so deep and intense it's captivating, and she's so calm and serene regardless of everything going on around her. I got to see her smile today and she just lit up like a Christmas tree. It was exhilarating to see her happiness, knowing that she felt lousy and her body is going through so much. Her mother and grandmother stay with her around the clock, never going home, just taking turns holding her and comforting her and this little girl is so loved and treasured.

I ask for everyone who prays for Peyton to please say prayers for Kaylie, she needs extra strength from God during this time. Please pray for strength and hope for Tisha as she struggles to help her sick little girl through this treatment. I could ask for nothing better for this family than for them to feel the kind of love and constant support we've gotten.

F.R.O.G
fully relying on God
—-Anissa