"Paintings With A Purpose" began with a private conversation that 9-year-old Peyton Gonzales was not supposed to hear.

Peyton overheard her parents, Jake Gonzales and Brittany Van Eynde, talking about an unexpected medical bill for $6,000 related to her cancer. The Peoria fourth-grade student had been diagnosed with a cancer so rare that it occurs in fewer than one in every 1 million adults. The chances that a child would get adrenal cancer are even lower.

"I was really upset," Jake Gonzales said, recalling the bill.

In tears, Peyton rushed into the room and apologized for causing them problems.

Her parents, owners of a Peoria kitchen and bath remodeling company, told her she didn't need to worry. But Peyton had an idea. She'd been to art galleries with her mother, where she'd seen paintings sell for money.

And Peyton had recently been doing a lot of artwork, bold-colored acrylic paintings with titles such as "Heart," "The Brave Ladybug," and "My Dog Lilly." She decided to sell them to help pay the medical bills.

So far, she's sold 30 prints of her paintings via a website her family helped her create: https://throughpeytonseyes.com/. Buyers decide how much they want to donate and are directed to a GoFundMe page created by her family that has raised more than $11,000.

Peyton underwent 10-hour surgery

Peyton's health problems began in October when at the age of eight she suddenly gained 25 pounds on her small body and began going through puberty. Even her face looked different. She did not look or feel like herself.

Doctors discovered Peyton had a tumor on her right adrenal gland, so big that it stretched into her largest blood vessel — the vena cava. The tumor was growing dangerously close to Peyton's heart.

The adrenal glands are small glands on top of the kidneys and produce hormones the body can't live without.

Surgery in November to remove the tumor at Banner Health's Cardon Children’s Medical Center in Mesa took 10 hours and involved several surgeons and experts from a wide variety of specialties working together.

"It was pretty touch-and-go. It was supposed to be a three- or four-hour surgery and it got more and more serious," her father said.

The team couldn’t keep Peyton’s own blood circulating the same way they normally could for a major surgery, like a heart bypass. There was too much risk that the rush of blood flow would spread pieces of the tumor through her bloodstream, into other parts of her body.

Doctors packed Peyton's head in ice to preserve her brain and drained her blood into the reservoir of a “heart-lung bypass” machine. For 25 minutes, no blood flowed through Peyton’s body. Her heart rested motionless in her chest as the medical team worked to remove the last of the tumor.

Using this “deep hypothermia” technique, the oxygen needs of her body’s organs were decreased by nearly 90%. Blood stopped flowing through Peyton’s body for 30 minutes.

After the surgery, Peyton went through eight cycles — nearly 21 days — of chemotherapy that required more hospital stays. Among the side effects, she suffered hair loss, hearing loss, ringing in her ears, nausea and confusion.

Throughout her health struggle, Peyton continued to create new, original paintings.

She is now up to 21 originals and has made prints to help keep up with demand.

With the help of her parents, she's giving the money she earns into three different funds — one for her medical bills, one for other kids going through cancer, and a third "fun fund" for herself. She really wants to visit Universal Studios. The Make-A-Wish Foundation sent her whole family to DisneyWorld, which she loved — especially the limousine they rode in.

'Out-of-network' emergency room visit = higher bill

Though the family had commercial health insurance at the time of Peyton's diagnosis, their initial six-hour emergency room visit was deemed "out-of-network" by their insurance carrier. Out-of-network refers to charges that are either not covered or are only partially covered by a specific insurance plan.

That's the bill Peyton heard her family talking about when she decided to sell her paintings.

"She has a huge heart. She wants to give back," Jake said.

Because of the amount of time her parents took off work to care for their daughter, the family is now covered by the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, which is the state's Medicaid program that provides government health-insurance coverage for low-income people.

In addition to Peyton's paintings, some friends held a fundraiser for the family that brought in $3,500.

"We almost lost everything in January. We'd never be able to do it without donations," Jake said.

Cancer risk discovered

In the course of her diagnosis and treatment, doctors discovered that Peyton has an extremely rare genetic mutation called Li-Fraumeni Syndrome, which is an inherited predisposition to developing certain cancers, including skin and bone cancer, pediatric hematologist/oncologist Dr. Naresh Reddivalla said.

Almost 80% of children who have adrenal cancer have Li-Fraumeni Syndrome, Reddivalla said.

Not everyone with the gene mutation will necessarily develop cancer, but the risks are substantially higher than in the general population, the Li-Fraumeni Syndrome Association says. A diagnosis is critically important, the association says, so that affected families can seek appropriate genetic counseling as well as screening for early detection of cancer.

Individuals with the syndrome have an approximately 50% chance of developing cancer by the age of 40, and up to a 90% chance by the age of 60, the association says.

"Many people have it and don't even know it," Reddivalla said.

During the course of Peyton's illness, her parents were both screened for Li-Fraumeni and her mother tested positive, which means she is also at higher risk for certain cancers and will be screened accordingly.

Reddivalla treated Peyton and on Tuesday met with both Peyton and her parents to review her latest test results. She'll need to be monitored every three months to make sure the cancer doesn't come back and that her heart continues to function well.

Reddivalla gave her the news she'd been wanting to hear for the past 10 months. Her scans and tests show no evidence of cancer. Peyton, overwhelmed sat on her mother's lap and hid her head.

"She is in complete remission, completely cured. It's wonderful news," he said. "It's been a long journey."

Peyton, holding back tears, said she really wants to go back to the hospital soon and ring the gong to symbolize the end of her treatment. And she'd like to celebrate with cake pops.

Moving forward, she wants to go camping with her family, sing on NBC's "The Voice," and hopes to one day own a farm and rescue animals.

Reach the reporter at Stephanie.Innes@gannett.com or at 602-444-8369. Follow her on Twitter @stephanieinnes

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