Please introduce yourself!

[Anissa Mayhew]

Please share whatever you want about yourself and your child, family or situation.

Don't forget to add a website if you have one.

[Anissa Mayhew]

My name is Anissa, I live in Brandon, FL. I am 34, married to a wonderful guy named Pete and mom to 3 kids: Nathaniel (10), Rachael (7) and Peyton (4).

Peyton was diagnosed July 13,12006 at the age of 2 with Pre-B Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and CNS positive. She is treated at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg and Tampa. She went through 1 year of hard-core, intense treatment and then spinal-cranial radiation. She started maintenance July 1007 and she is scheduled for end of chemo in October 2008.

I have a website at www.hope4peyton.org

--Anissa Mayhew

[Cheryl]

Hi,

My name is Cheryl Mahannah. I live in Mashpee, MA on Cape Cod. I am married to Wayne and we have two children. Sarah is going to be eight on July 10 and Nicholas was five on May 2. Nicholas was diagnosised with High-Risk Medulloblastoma. He has Post Fossa Syndrome as a result of the surgury to remove a soft ball size tumor. He has already gone thur 33 dose of radiation with vincristine. He had an MRI on June 25 and the results were mixed. He is scheduled to start the first of 6 rounds of chemo on July 11. The drugs they are going to use are cicplatin, vincristine, and cyclophosphamide. I am really frightened and would like to here from moms who are going thur the same stuff we are. I am looking for real life medullo moms. I am to in the dark and need information. We have a website on CaringBridge. It is www.caringbridge.org/visit/mynicholas. Look forward to hearing from you all. I learned of this site from Joanne Lee.

[Tanya Hoven]

My name is Tanya, I live in Brooklyn Park, MN. I am 33, married to Jason and mom to Lily (4 1/2) and Luke (2 - but looks and acts like he's 3).

Lily was diagnosed September 5, 2004 two weeks before her first birthday with Neuroblastoma. She first went to the hospital with a bladder infection and then was diagnosed a couple of days with Neuroblastoma. The tumor was in front of her spine and had reached fingers into her spinal column and squished her spinal cord "flat as a pancake", making her paralyzed at one point. She went through 2 major surgeries and 4 rounds of chemo and then was declared NED. She only has one more oncology visit and then we go into the long-term monitoring.

Lily still has complications with her lower extremities, from the bladder down. Last fall, she had a surgery called a Mitrofanoff to help us cath her without having to go through normal methods. She wears orthotics on her feet to help her walk because of general muscle weakness. However, she is a lively kid and if you didn't see her braces, you wouldn't know there was anything wrong with her.

She is starting to question why she has to wear braces and says that princesses don't wear braces. Anybody have any suggestions on how to deal with this? She will only wear dresses right now and I think it's all related.

Her website is caringbridge.org/lilysmiracle. I have to admit that I don't update very often though.

[Susan Dickson]

My name is Susan Dickson. I live in Tampa, Florida with my husband Allan and two daughters Presley (4 1/2) and Allyson (20 months).

Presley was diagnosed with Pre-B Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia(standard risk) on August 18, 2007. We have been in the maintenance phase of her treatment (will be a total of 2 years) for a couple of months so far and it has not been what we thought it would be. We have been in the hospital for one thing after the other and her counts are very unstable still.

Our website is www.carepages.com page name: PresleyD

[Penny Hawkins]

My name is Penny Hawkins. I am a single mother to Nikki Hawkins (12 yrs old), Jared Hawkins (9 yrs old) and my baby William Hawkins (4yrs old). Nikki was diagnosed at the age of 10 with medulloblastoma the size of a racket ball. Her tumor did not go to the spinal fluid. She had brain surgery and total removal of the tumor. She then completed 31 days of intense radiation therapy. She has also completed 14 months of heavy dose chemo. She currently has MRI's every three months and will be looking at hormone therapy due to NO GROWTH.

Her webpage is: www.caringbridge.org/visit/nikkihawkins

[Lisa Deal]

Hi my name is Lisa Deal. My daughter Hannah was diagnosed with Diffuse Instinsic Pontine Glioma at age 3 and went home to heaven shortly before her 5th birthday. I have a 2 year old son named Matthew and a baby girl due in November 2008. We live in Largo, FL.

Hannah was diagnosed on 6/7/2006 at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, FL and passed on 10/4/2007. She was a wonderful and strong child whom had cancer. You would always find her playing dress up, painting, exploring outside, and loving to visit people/going shopping. Hannah undergone radiation, steriods, and temador for the first 34 days after being diagnosed. Then about 2 months after that she was back on temador until her tumor started to grow on 5/7/2007. She was then put on 3 different trials, with no success. All in all she did wonderful with losing no abilities or having reactions to any medications. In mid September her tumor starting making her body fell and she became ill with pnuemonia in late September.

Now she is my angel and lady bug whom I miss dearly, but am glad that she is cancer free in heaven.

[Maria Gourrie]

Hello my name is Maria Gourrie. I live in Tampa, Florida. I have two wonderful children, Steven almost 6, and Jaylin 4 years old. Jaylin was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma stage 4, January 31st 2007. I am a single mom and proud of it. But I thank GOD eveyday for all the support I get from family and friends. And I would love to get to know everyone here and experience what they have gone through with their love ones.
I have a website for Jaylin , please feel free to check it out. www.caringbridge.org/visit/joyfuljaylin
Jaylin is now NED. THANK GOD. She still get scans done every three months. And she travels to New York City for an experitmental treatment called 3F8 anitbody since Novemeber 2007. She has gone through 6 rounds of chemo, radiation, removal of tumor (the size of a football), bone marrow transplant , home care for feedings, therapy etc., long stays in the hospital and much more. And I still worry about her and my son.

[Katherine Scruggs]

Hello everyone,

My name is Katherine and my daughter Jordan was dx on 02-06-06 with AML Leukemia in blast crisis. She endured only three rounds of chemo before receiving her cure in the form of a bone marrow transplant from an unrelated donor. Although the road has been long, Jordan has done remarkably well and just passed her 2 year transplant anniversary. She was accepted to USF and is starting college in the fall. This will be her first visit back to school since dx and she is beyond excited and thrilled to be going.

I believe in giving back and am using my portrait photography business to donate a portion of all sales to the Pediatric Cancer Foundation (www.pcfusa.org) Without research from groups like this, Jordan may not be here today.

www.caringbridge.org/visit/jordan90
www.katherinescruggs.com

Have a safe and happy 4th of July!

Katherine

[Adria]

My daughter Serenity was diagnosed with ALL on May 24, 2008. She is turning 2 this weekend and we are happy to be through the first phase of chemotherapy (induction). So far she is responding well and her side effects have been minimal.

www.liftingupserenity.com

[Julie V.]

Hello! My name is Julie and I live in the Chicago land area with my husband, Andrew, and our three children. Emma will be 7 years old tomorrow! Joshua just turned 4 last month and Rebecca is almost 18 months old.

Joshua was diagnosed with Wilms in February 2007 (when Rebecca was 4 weeks old) after having a few days of severe intermittent back pain. The tumor on his left kidney was the size of a man's fist. It had ruptured (and probably the reason Joshua had any symptoms. It seems a lot of Wilms children have little to no symptoms). He had his left kidney removed on February 5, 2007 and went through 8 radiation treatments to his stomach as well as 26 weeks of chemotherapy. He is currently in remission and goes every 3 months for visits/tests at Children's. His next visit will be at the end of August which will mark 1 year off of treatment.

We were initially told that Wilms is the rarest form of pediatric cancer and the "best" form of cancer to have if you are going to have cancer (not comforting words). I know of at least 2 families at Children's who have been treated for Wilms.

We have a website at: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/joshuavercouteren

[Ami Czorapinski]

Hi all. My name is Ami and I am the proud mother of Noah who will be 5 in October and identical twin boys Adam and Joshua who just turned 3 in June. My husband Jeff and will celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary this November.

Joshua was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblatic Leukemia on April 17, 2006, when he was only 3 days shy of 10 months old. Since he was considered an infant, he underwent two long and intense years of treatment. He finished treatment in March 2008. Then, two months later Joshua had a isolated testicular relapse. This means another very intense two years of treatment along with radiation to the testicals. We pray that this will be the treatment that cures our son forever.

His website is www.carepages.com Page name: JoshuaCzorapinski

[DeAnna Inglese]

I am a wife and mother of 3 very active boys. Who do all these crazy things and it does not matter that I am with them 24/7 they want to be with me all the time and miss me when I am in the next room. I remind them often.... you are moving out, you know. Joshua is 6, Jacob and Jordan (Twins)(and yes that was a surprise) are 3.

I work PT at night until 2am then up early in the morning to take care of the boys. I am tired, but I love being home with the boys and being able to take them places and do things for them.
Jordan was DX with ALL in June 07. We just hit the one year make and he is doing well.
I have to say Cancer has changed my life and me forever. We have gone through many challenges but we are sticking together as a family and we put each other first before anything else.

Carepapes.com JOJAJO