Mother of young cancer victim speaks

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Even to the casual observer, young couple Tim and Dayna Motycka had a lot on their plate. Both had full-time jobs, were spending uncounted hours rehabbing the older home they had purchased, and were raising three young children, Kaden, Haley, and Rylee, a chronically ill baby who seemed to be always sick and fussy.

Dayna, this year’s guest speaker for the YMCA’s annual Good Friday Prayer Breakfast, held at Hickory Sticks Golf Club, talked about how the stresses were beginning to take their toll on her and Tim’s marriage — enough so that the couple sought marriage counseling to work on their relationship issues.

The decision was a positive one that Dayna feels saved her marriage and allowed the couple to understand one another better.

“Whether it’s just for yourself, or for your family, or for your marriage, I feel like counseling is a really great thing and more people should be open to it,” she said. “I don’t think counseling shows weakness; I think it shows strength and determination.”

A counseling session with Rylee also helped Dayna connect with her youngest daughter — something she had struggled with because of the stresses caused by Rylee’s constant fussiness.

Counseling helped Dayna work out her relationship issues with Tim and Rylee, something the young mother said was God’s way of placing people “in situations we need to be in at just that exact moment.”. 

As a side note, Dayna noted that it was at the initial counseling session with Rylee that she discovered the red dots – petechiae — that later led to her diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

The diagnosis led to more than a month at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital to treat Rylee’s illness, which, fortunately, is one of the more curable cancers.

Dayna gives God credit for making her take a hard look at Rylee and see something wasn’t right, as well as giving Tim and her the strength to go through the added mental and financial stresses of her daughter’s treatment.

“We couldn’t have done this without our support system and without a God who is continually faithful,” she said. “It really is amazing how He places different people in our lives at just the right times.”

Although she said the last year or so has been stressful at times, Dayna noted the situation also led to a stronger marriage for the Motyckas, as well as a cure for Rylee’s leukemia — all the result of God’s impact on their lives.