Prayers for Peyton Lane

We’ve had a very nice stretch of good months for Peyton. It’s been wonderful having all of the additional time to spend as a family. No new big update but we did want to give a special thanks and shoutout to Team NEGU: Never Ever Give Up for these awesome NEGU jars and notes that they send to Peyton often.

They really do put a big smile on her face!

Peyton has decided that she wants to be part of sharing her story and updates now that’s she’s older. Recently her wish was granted from Make-A-Wish Colorado and she got her dream horse!! They are such a pair 💛 The amount of confidence she’s gotten since riding has been amazing.

So, if you’d like to follow along on her journey with Tomme “the smiling horse” her link is below.

Thank you for your continued love, prayers and support.

https://www.instagram.com/the_smiling_horse/?igshid=1rwjyndwfptqc&fbclid=IwAR3FrYMf82Bx6_NqoeAFyFOfhYtk10Y-vV3lYDeHcFCq5m7kP1s6OcL2xgA

I haven't posted here in a while.. I've noticed that people keep coming to her page for an update and asking us. It is a difficult situation. On one hand, I want to be open about her journey to help others starting down this path and I believe in the power of prayer. And on the other hand, I want to live our life under the radar to keep it as normal as possible.

Overall Peyton is doing well. We've had a few obstacles that we've had to work through but she is in great spirits and enjoying each day. We've been trying hard to be super safe during this crazy time but also create memories as a family. Due to covid her original Make A Wish has been cancelled as it was a Disney cruise and the first priority is to keep our kids healthy and safe. This opened up the opportunity to think of a new wish. Her wish grantor told her to think about "I wish I had...." Peyton immediately said a horse! She is over the moon excited. We wanted her to spend some time around horses before she made her official wish and oh my goodness, we haven't seen her smile this big in a long time! So now we are working on trying to make her wish as special as possible.

She has a day full of appointments next week. Cardiology, ophthalmology, oncology, radiology, labs...super long hard day. Her last MRI results were not the best news (or the worst.) It showed that the tumor was stable but enhanced.

Please keep her in your prayers. I believe with all that I am that God hears our prayers and that he has big plans for our girl.

Today our girl had her first round of chemotherapy and she did great. She continues to amaze me with her strength and bravery. Today we spent time with other families and kiddos and for the first time I think Peyton realized she’s not alone.

She’s made quite the impression on the CCBD floor...they even are thinking she could be the honorary mayor. Her laugh and smile is so contagious and she seems to have an entourage of nurses around all of the time, for that I am so thankful. Each and every person that walks into our room creates such a bright light in such a scary time.

We’re home and resting. Keep on praying for her head to heal and for the strength to beat this thing once and for all.

We can’t thank Maddie's Bows enough for supporting our family and working with our girl to create the perfect hair pretty, “The Peyton.” She was so excited to pick out the fabric and even more excited when they came!! She says they’re so cute and SO soft!!

Please take a moment to learn more about this great organization, their story and how they are supporting families one bow at a time 🎀💛🎀

https://rockdotkids.com/products/petyton-bow-headwrap

NYC you were good to us ❤️We learned that our kiddos are great big city travelers and can’t wait to continue to explore this big beautiful world with them.

We also left feeling confident that we are doing the best that we can do for Peyton. The oncologist and neurosurgeon went through Peytons records all the way back to the beginning in 2014. They feel that we have a few good options to think about. Last week, right before we left, Peytons head opened back up and once again we were told to quit taking her meds. I have been a wreck about taking her on / off and of course not treating and doing everything we can to get rid of her tumor. They both felt that due to her not showing any symptoms from the tumor we’re not in a huge sense of urgency and that we should take time to fully let her heal. We can do so by eliminating one of the meds or both for the next 3 months. At the next scan we will reassess and see where we’re at.

The surgeon was wonderful. We all felt so confident with him and his opinions. He said that he agreed that surgery at this time would not be advised but, if we ever had to operate that he would feel safe about getting most of the tumor out. That is all I needed to hear on this trip! I needed to know that if we had an emergency, if it grew faster that we had a surgeon that felt comfortable operating and we found him. We love our medical team here at Children’s Hospital Colorado and don’t plan to leave. As parents we had to know that we’ve done all that we can do and the decisions we’re making for our child are the best.

Now we can sleep a little bit better knowing that we’ve done so.

After we made it through our appointments we enjoyed all that New York City had to offer...a wonderful little vacation for our family and a trip to remember!

This mama is a big ball of GREAT NEWS emotions! Peyton made it through her first MRI without anesthesia...BIG WIN!! Mom and dad got to go in with her. Watching her little body go in that tube I felt like I was going to start bawling, then I felt my hubby nudge my foot and that was as all I needed to refocus. She did so well, we were so proud!

Then we got to play for a bit which was so nice. Normally we’re waking up and groggy but not today! We did crafts and got to play in the Ryan Seacrest Studio.

Then the best of all....

Her scans came back stable and even possibly a little shrinkage!! Her doctor feels like her medication is working even with the break we took.

After we left she got to go to target and pick out a prize for handling all the pokes and long day like a true super girl.

Our prayers are being answered, thank you Lord.

The updates are few and far between but we are so grateful for all of your continued love and prayers for our girl. The last couple months have been rough and I have found that we’ve really been staying under the radar and enjoying time just us. Peyton has been off treatment for almost seven weeks because her incision from her biopsy in May just would not heal. We’d get close and then it would open back up again. This is a side effect from her chemo and something that could happen again even after it scars over. Everyday we put ointment on and a fresh bandage and hope that it continues to heal. Peyton is so tough, most people don’t like to peel a bandaid from their leg or arm and she’s got to get one taken off through her hair everyday. As of last week her head looked good enough to start treatment again. Peyton was not happy about this. Happy no more bandaids, not happy to be back to taking medication at 5:00am and not being able to eat whenever she wanted. We really enjoyed those late night snacks while we could.

Lately we’ve had a few nights of tears and her telling me she just wants to be healthy like the other kids. My heart literally shatters into a million pieces...what I would do to take this from her! I tell her it’s okay to cry and be mad but she is strong and brave and she is going to beat this. I told her you are healthy and strong and are tackling all sorts of fears lately...dancing in a performance, singing class, and wrestling her brother. Those too have gotten so close, he too would do anything for her.

Tomorrow we have her MRI and for the first time we are going to attempt to do it without anesthesia. She’s has been put under anesthesia close to 20 times and if we can do it without that would be a huge win. No matter how many times we do it, how many times I’ve held her as she goes to sleep it never gets easier so I am so hopeful that we won’t have to do it regularly anymore.

I am trying so hard to stay positive but I am terrified about tomorrow. Her doctor told us not to be too alarmed if the scans are “muddy” or show a slight growth since we started and stopped treatment. We need to beat this...any growth is not okay! After we receive the results we’re heading to New York to meet the Neuro Oncology team. We want to have a 2nd opinion and even more important a plan B. What if this treatment opens her wound up again? What if we need to operate? What if???? We have so many questions.

We continue to ask you to pray for our girl. Pray for strength for Peyton tomorrow to go through we MRI without anesthesia. Pray that her scans are stable or better yet the damn thing is gone! Pray that we get the answers we’re searching for in NY.

So much love-

It’s been five years since the first Putting for Peyton Golf Tournament was hosted for our family. I remember it like it yesterday. Every detail, but mostly how I felt. We could feel the love and prayers pouring in from so many people in our community. That night I could not get the words out to say thank you it was all tears. I fear today would have been the same. Over the past few years I had really gotten used to talking to large groups about the reality of childhood cancer. I have met and loved so many other kids. Our tournaments were able to help so many families. For that I am grateful. But, I don’t think I could have made it through today. These fundraisers are a wonderful, but also gut wrenching. I can’t believe that we’re here again. I can’t believe that the tumor that was going away, the one we had one more year of scans to follow is back and bigger than ever. Most days it feels like this is all a dream and I wish I could just wake up.

Our family will not be traveling to California for the tournament. With our plans to go to New York in the next couple weeks is was just too much. Peyton is still off treatment and still waiting and praying for her incision to heal. Even though we’re not there we want to say thank you. Thank you for supporting our family, for golfing, for donating, for volunteering. As we said November of 2014 we will pay it forward again! When we beat this thing once and for all the McMorrans will be working to support families and doing everything we can to make a difference.

So much love to you all and an ever bigger thank you to Katie & Doreen for all your hard work.