Authors: Meghan Redenbach
We got to Roswell around 2:00 p.m. and they could tell she wasn’t happy. They always do blood work again and a cross-match before they do any transfusion just to check the counts. Around 4:30 they came back with her counts and they were up to 8.5, which meant she didn’t need a transfusion. I thought Meg was going to jump out of the bed, she was so happy. It really grossed her out to think about getting someone else’s blood. They said that the CBC was diluted, probably with saline. But we were just happy that she didn’t need a transfusion. She wanted to go to TGIF’s to have steak. Her cousin Amanda works there and waited on us. We came home at 6:30 and hung out. I had a pounding headache. We will all go back to work and school tomorrow.
Friday, April 3
Meg went to school today. When she got home Mrs. Budziszewski came over to tutor for two hours. Meg just hung out at home with Nick and they played X-Box. Mike and I went out with Debbie and Dan for Dinner.
Saturday, April 4
Meg had a little bit of a sore throat that started on Friday, but felt ok. Mike and I went to a spring raffle at Gasport Fire Hall from 2:00 to 7:00. Jordan came to sleep over. We think Meg is getting a cold, because she keeps sneezing. We rented a movie, “The Changeling,” on Pay-Per-View. It was awesome. The girls and I went to bed pretty late.
Sunday, April 5
Meg’s sore throat is gone, but she has a stuffy nose. Jordan, Meghan and I went to Walmart and Grandma’s house. Meg got three new movies to watch. She is tired today and needs her sleep. She worked on her homework.
Monday, April 6
Meg had a little “snuffy” nose but felt ok. Paul the nurse came to take Meg’s blood, and then I took her to school. Mike and she went to the Detroit vs. Sabres game. Nick went with Kempton.
I went to the doctor for my yearly internal sonogram (fun wow). As they were digging around in there the lady didn’t see my right ovary, which is exactly what they said when Meghan went for her regular sonogram. I was a little nervous when she said this. This was where all our fun started.
The game was horrible. Blood work was good.
Tuesday, April 7
Meg went to school today and was feeling great. Miss Dewey came to tutor and Courtney came over too. We had to go to Applebee’s for dinner tonight, because the committee members that organized Meghan’s benefit were all meeting for dinner and we were invited. It was nice to meet and chat with everyone who organized and helped. It was impossible to do this the day of the benefit. We are so very grateful to all of them!
Wednesday, April 8
Meg felt okay today, but didn’t go to school because she had to collect her urine today. The nurse came to do blood work. That all came back great. Meg has been drinking liquids all day long. We have to be at Roswell at 9:00 a.m. They are letting us come on Thursday so Meg can be home for Easter.
Thursday, April 9
Treatment number six today. We got to Roswell around 9:00 a.m. We waited until 11:00 for Meghan to get accessed. Lucky us; we had a nurse in training. Meg said it made her really nervous. They started hydrating her at noon, and she needs to be hydrated for four hours. Mike and I went to the cafeteria and got her a chicken Caesar wrap. The nurse that comes to the house stopped in to visit her while Mike and I were eating. They have been pumping Meg with so much fluid; she didn’t feel well. As soon as she smelled dinner she started to throw up. They gave her the Emend and Zofran with Decadron at 6:30 p.m.; this bag takes one hour. They take Meg’s blood pressure every fifteen minutes with this medicine for an hour. They just leave it on her arm. The big bag of chemo started at 8:30 p.m. and went until 2:30 a.m. Meg was up a lot using the bathroom. She had nausea medicine all night, but it was pretty much to ward off any sickness. She actually had a great night.
Friday, April 10
Meg seems to be doing well this morning. They came in and gave her Zofran at 9:00 a.m. Meg woke up around 9:30 a.m. She didn’t eat any breakfast. The Brauers stopped up after they went to the Broadway Market. They brought Meg a smoothie and chocolate covered fruit. I know Meg was excited to see them.
Meg is sleepy today. She had Benadryl, and that makes her tired. She is trying to get a nap in before Bethany gets here, because she knows she will be watching movies all night. She will get her chemo around 2:00 or 2:30.
Chemo was started at 2:40 p.m. and finished at 3:40 p.m. I will be leaving soon and Miss Maclam will be taking over.
(
Bethany Maclam writes)
Upon arrival, shortly after 2:30, the first thing I noticed was that Nancy looked like she hadn’t slept in a week. Mike came to see Meghan and both (reluctantly) left around 6:00 p.m. About an hour later, “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” began. Afterwards, Meg stashed the DVD case and had me convinced the room was haunted before she burst into laughter. Paybacks are forthcoming.
Sunday, April 12 (Easter)
(
Mom writes
) Glad to be home. Today Meg got up and felt awesome. She is still very tired as it takes a toll on her. She didn’t have to take any nausea medicine today. We went to my brother’s house for dinner around 3:30 and came back home around 8:00. Meg went right to bed. We brought Grandma back home with us. We all went to bed kind of early.
Monday, April 13
We got up today and went to breakfast at Greenlief’s. Nick didn’t come because he had plans to play basketball. Meg felt really good today again and ate a great breakfast. Meg went back home with Grandma today to sleep overnight and keep her company. Grandma kept her full and watered. Meg thinks she over-fed her. They played rummy and Meghan won. Blood work good today.
Tuesday, April 14
Meg felt good and was home from Gram’s around 11:30 a.m. They went out for pancakes to Jeff’s. Her friend Nick came over around 1:00 and stayed until around 8:00. I got them pizza from O’Lears. They watched movies.
Wednesday, April 15
Meg has been sleeping in these days. She has a busy schedule today. Mrs. Brauer is picking Meg up to take her and Maron to softball practice, then to the boy’s game, and then to the elementary school to help mentally challenged adults play volleyball. Meg loved doing this. She got home at 8:00.
Thursday, April 16
The nurse came around 10:30 a.m. Meg was feeling good again today. After he left we went shopping for some things that we needed for our garage sale this weekend. We started pricing and setting up when we got home. When Mike got home he decided to take the three-wheeler back to the shed and had a little incident. He got thrown off the stupid thing and came crawling back to the family room door. His face was all bloody and he was breathing really hard. I sent Meg for Holly. Holly and Gary both came flying over. He was a little roughed up, but he’s going to make it. It set us back a couple of hours setting up. We had to go to Peyton’s first birthday party. It was fun and cute. Blood work good.
Friday, April 17
Meg was feeling good and got up sort of early to help with the garage sale. Grandma came over around 12:30 to spend the day. It was a beautiful day out. Mike had some running around to do as they sold his dad’s house (yahoo). We did pretty well at the sale today. Mike went to the fire hall for a euchre tournament, Nick went to play basketball, and Meghan went to the drive-in with Isaiah and his family. I was home all night alone.
Saturday, April 18
We had to get up early today for the last day of our garage sale. Meg got up pretty early (11:00 a.m.) and felt good. Kayla came over to help me; we had fun. The three of us went to Gasport Fire hall for their garage sale. We made about $240.00 and Kayla made $7.00. We cleaned up afterwards, and around 6:00 Meghan and I went to visit Aunt Debbie. We went to dinner at Grover’s. Johnny came too. It was good. We got home around 10:00 p.m. We went to bed; we were tired.
Sunday, April 19
Meg felt good today and we decided to stay home and strip her wallpaper. She ordered pancakes for breakfast and then we got started. It took us about three and a half hours. Mike went golfing. We moved some of her stuff out of her room so we could get started. It is starting to get closer to painting.
Monday, April 20
Well, it’s back to school today. Vacation is over. Lee came today to do Meg’s blood work. After that Mike took her to school. Her blood work came back all good. She can stop her shots. She loves that. The tutor came today and she did homework until 9:30 at night. When she gets on a mission she goes with it. We were tired with it being our first day back to school and work.
Tuesday, April 21
Meg felt good today. She went to school and then went to softball practice. Nick took Meghan to the movie store to rent movies. Very uneventful today.
Wednesday, April 22
Meg felt good today. She had lots of movies to watch. I had a union meeting. We watched “Stop Loss” when I got home.
Thursday, April 23
Meg felt good today. The nurse came and did her blood work, which came back good. Miss Dewey came to tutor Meg in Spanish. When she left, Meg and I went grocery shopping and then to McDonalds.
Friday, April 24
Meg felt good again today, and it was nice and warm. Meg wore shorts that were a little too short and got dress-coded today at school. She wasn’t happy! Good thing Mike was home today to take her extra clothes. She went to the girls’ softball game at Akron. The girls won.
Saturday, April 25
Mike and Meg went to Home Depot to pick out colors for her bedroom. She picked light blue and lime green. Mike dropped off Meg at the Varsity Baseball game. Meg went over to Bridget Shanahan’s house overnight so she could go with them to volleyball in Rochester. Meg was so excited to go. She called me around 8:00 saying she was having a ball and they had such a nice family.
Sunday, April 26
Meg was gone all day. Mike and I went to the pancake breakfast at the church in town. Then we had to go to Kayla’s First Communion. We took a ride to the Southern Tier to look at Joe’s Cabin. We got home around 7:00 p.m. Mike worked on Meg’s bedroom again. She got home from Rochester around 8:30. She was tired, but had lots of fun. She went to bed early.
Monday, April 27
Meg went to school after blood work. Lee came today. It came back good. Mrs. Budzieszewski came today to tutor. Meg had me call Grandma to come and sleep over. We watched “Dancing with the Stars.” Mike worked on the bedroom when he got home from work.
Tuesday, April 28
Meg got up around 6:45 to eat breakfast because she had her CAT scan at 1:00, and you can’t eat six hours before and drink two hours before. She went back to bed after that and got up around 10:00. Grandma went home to freshen up because she was coming to Roswell with us. We got to Roswell around 12:30 and visited the nurses on 6 North Pediatrics. We then went to the CAT scan area. Meg received her delicious berry “smoothie” around 1:10. It took her about an hour to get it down. We left there around 2:45 and headed to Boulevard Mall to have dinner at TGIF’s and do a little shopping. We went to Aeropostle and American Eagle. They had awesome sales and I had 30% off coupons, so she got lots of good stuff. We got home around 7:00. Mike was working on her room.
Wednesday, April 29
Meg felt good today. I took her to school because Mrs. Rey from the high school was bringing her Life Skills class over to present a check to Meghan. Her students ran a weekly coffee store from 8:00 to 2:00 for the staff and seniors, and whatever money they raised they wanted to give it to Meg. She had a picture taken with them. They were so cute. They gave her a check for $365.00. Mrs. Budzieszewski came to tutor again. After she left, Meghan went to the varsity baseball game. I picked her up around 8:30 p.m. Mike worked outside tonight instead of painting. CAT scan came back good.
Thursday, April 30
Meg went in late after the nurse did her blood work. Miss Dewey came over to tutor. Meg was going to go to the baseball game, but it was rained out. Her blood work came back awesome. Mike finished her room so we started cleaning and moving things back in. It looks awesome. She got to sleep back in her own room.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Today was the seventh treatment. We got to Roswell around 9:30 a.m. I registered Meghan, and Mike and Meg went right up to the floor. There was a message from Robin, from Carly’s Club, to call her. She came up to the room around 11:00 to let us know that Meghan had won the contest she entered called the “Story of Hope”! We were soooo…excited! Meg had to write an inspirational story. There were three categories: youth, teen and adult. She had a good feeling about the story and said “this is the winner!” and she was right. She will meet with the New Era Hat company designers to help her complete her design. The hat will be sold and will be unveiled at the Ride for Roswell on June 27th. She will also get a tour of the facility. Meg has chosen to get chemo around 8:00 p.m. so she can sleep through it. But its 5:15 and she just threw up, and she also threw up at 6:00. She gets herself where she knows she gets sick and her body can’t change that. Therefore, we will start chemo earlier and she won’t think she is getting it, because she will be out from the Benadryl (given at 6:00). Decadron and Zofran given at 6:45 p.m., Emend at 7:30 - it is liquid this time. Started chemo at 8:00 p.m. (Doxorubicin) ended at 8:20 p.m. Mesna at 8:40. She got the three-hour bag of chemo (Ifosfamide) at 9:15 p.m. Chemo was done at 12:15 a.m. She had a good night.
This is Meghan’s winning essay:
December 12, 2008. To most it was a typical Friday. You get up, go to school or work, and get ready for the weekend. For me it was a life-changing day. A day that made me realize how good I had life, and how important the little things were. It was the day I was diagnosed with a very rare form of ovarian cancer. So rare, that I am only the second child ever to have it.
At first I was devastated, I didn’t even know what to do, or say. After a couple of hours sitting on it, I thought to myself, “This could be the best thing that has ever happened to me.” I knew it was going to be a rough journey, but well worth it in the end.