Meghan’s Journey: The Story of Meghan Redenbach: The Teenage Girl Who Showed a Community How to “Man Up” in the Face of Cancer (10 page)

I will admit that at times I feel like I don’t have anyone, and just want to give up. In reality, I have so many people behind me that bring out the strength I have. I guess the saying “You never know how strong you are until strength is your only option,” is really true. People have said it is amazing how I can do all this and stay so positive. I strongly believe that I am doing what any other person would be doing if they were in my position.

Being diagnosed has opened my eyes to everything in life. I have never really appreciated my friends and family as much as I do now. If it weren’t for them, I am not sure I would have gotten as far as I have. Every day I tell myself, “Just another day. No matter what, I will make it to tomorrow. Even if I fight all day. I’ll make it.”

I have always wanted to inspire people, and help people get through things they never imagined they could get through. And to tell you the truth, I am still trying to figure out how. One day it will all come together and all my dreams will come true. I hope this happens for everybody. One of my dreams is to speak for those who are, unfortunately, not able to tell their story. Those who have lost their fight. I plan on winning my fight in honor for those who didn’t get a chance to say, “I’m a survivor.”

Saturday, May 2

Meg is feeling good this morning. She is awake on and off. She asked for some Ativan around 7:30 a.m. to take the edge off. Dietician was in and said her BMT is good, her proteins, her weight, so whatever she does at home she should keep on doing. Meg has been munching on animal crackers today. Zofran at 12:30 p.m. Ativan at 1:30. Mr. and Mrs. Jennings came to visit. They brought Meg Cheezits and Sobe water. Bethany came around 5:30 and brought me dinner (the delicious pasta dish) and also brought some fun and HARD crafts. Pom Pom Shark and Nemo weren’t too bad even though I was the only one to do it. The origami was way too hard for us, but it says “Age 6 and up” on the box. Meg got Zofran at 8:00 and Ativan at 8:25. Benadryl at 8:40. Chemo started at 8:55 p.m. Second bag started at 9:40. She is fast asleep. Meg did awesome through the night.

Sunday, May 3

Meg feels pretty good but likes the security of the nausea medicine. Lots of visitors coming today, I think. Mom and Christie came up from 10:30 a.m. until 12:15, as they were leaving Aunt Debbie showed up. We went to the gift shop and you guessed it! Aunt Debbie bought Meg the little Vera Bradley purse that matches the big one Grandma bought, and of course Aunt Debbie saw one she liked. Aunt Debbie stayed until around 5:00. Deirdre also came and stayed until 7:45. She rubbed Meg’s back and Meg loved it. Mike came around 2:00 and left at around 7:50. Meg got her Zofran and Decadron at 7:50, Benadryl at 8:10, Mesna at 8:40. Chemo started at 9:20 p.m. She was fast asleep again. Meg had another good night. She asked for some nausea medicine around 4:00 a.m.

Monday, May 4

Meg woke up feeling great today. She wants to shower before she goes home. Dr. B says she can go as soon as she is ready. They are sending her with liquid Emend. Meg wants to stay to get her last dose of Zofran. We left the hospital at 12:00 p.m. Meg came home and relaxed; she watched her new TV that Mike bought her. She is feeling great, but we are still keeping up on the medicine. Mike hydrated her last night. She slept all night.

Tuesday, May 5

Meg felt pretty good today, but doesn’t want to push it. She laid around most of the day. Grandma came over to visit all day and stayed for dinner.

Wednesday, May 6

Meg felt a little better today. While she was sleeping, Mike and I went to the kitchen store and Home Depot. We got home around 1:45 p.m. and we had to leave by 2:00 to go downtown to New Era to design Meghan’s new hat that will be unveiled at the Ride for Roswell. Meg met with Ashley and they figured everything out. We should be going to Derby to see the making of the hat.

Thursday, May 7

Meg got up hoping to go to school. The nurse came around 10:00 a.m. and then I took her to school. Meg called me from school around 2:30 and asked if I could pick her up because she had a terrible headache. Mike picked her up on his way through. She went to bed and slept most of the evening. She is getting a cold.

Friday, May 8

Meg stayed home from school today. She is feeling a bit under the weather. A cold is starting to settle in. Mike had a softball game and we went to that. Meg came home and went right to bed.

Saturday, May 9

Meg felt ok, but not 100%. She had Jordan come over and they went to the baseball game for a while. Mike and I went to dinner with Dave and Lisa. Meg and Jordan watched scary movies all night. Meg’s cold is getting worse.

Sunday, May 10

It’s Mother’s Day today. Mike, Meghan, Jordan and I went to breakfast at the Towpath. Nick had to work. We dropped Jordan off at her house and then Meghan off at home and went to Dick’s for Mike’s hockey stuff. At 3:00 we went to my mom’s for a cookout. It was fun. At 9:00 we went to watch Mike play hockey. It was funny.

Monday, May 11

Meg and I got to sleep in because Lee was coming for blood work. I took Meg to school after that. I called later in the day for her counts and her platelets were low. They said she would need to receive some. Since they weren’t 10,000 we could wait until tomorrow to go. The count was at 20,000. Meg came home from school feeling very yucky. She threw up before school when the nurse was here. She had two large glasses of orange juice and it doesn’t mix with the saline. She felt okay after that. She started with a fever around 8:00 p.m.; it ranged from 97.3 – 100.0. If her fever is 100.5 she needs to go immediately to Roswell. We made it through the night.

Tuesday, May 12

Meg is very tired today and doesn’t feel well. We got to Roswell at 10:00 a.m. Meg wasn’t happy about being there. Jean came in and got Meg already to get platelets. She sent her blood work down and her platelets came up to 22,000. Meg took one look at the yucky yellow looking platelets and said, “I need something; I think I am going to throw up.” Jean went to ask Teri for Benadryl, and she said since her numbers are going up she doesn’t need the platelets. So Jean stopped the machine before they entered her body. Meg got the biggest smile on her face. They gave her a respiratory screen to see if she had the flu. We finally left around 12:45 p.m., and she also didn’t need her shots. We stopped at Grandma’s house for lunch and then Meg came home and slept. She laid around most of the night. Upstate delivered her antibiotic. The evening was quiet.

Wednesday, May 13

Meg stayed home today to rest and try to get rid of her cold. She wasn’t too happy about it. Her tutor came at night and she worked on homework all day. No Swine Flu either; the results were negative.

Thursday, May 14

Meg felt a little better today and is going to school after the nurse leaves. Meg came home and was tired. We didn’t really do much of anything, but she is getting ready for her birthday bonfire on Saturday.

Friday, May 15

We all went to work today and Meg went to school to set up a meeting with guidance and her Earth Science teacher. We had concerns about her having enough lab hours. We will be meeting on Monday, at 11:30. We cancelled the bonfire because it was supposed to rain, thunder, lightning and have strong winds. We will reschedule when it gets nicer.

Saturday, May 16

Meg got up and felt good. She wanted to go birthday shopping. We went to Boulevard Mall and then had lunch. We had fun. Mike and I hung out at home.

Sunday, May 17

Today we cleaned in the morning. We were having a surprise birthday party for Meg, she had no idea. Everyone was coming around 4:00 p.m. Dinner was at 5:30. I told Meg we had to go to RJ’s to get a cake for Monday, and I wanted her to pick it out. When we returned most everyone was at our house. Meg was soooo… Surprised! The whole family was there, Dee, Chuck, Deb, Dan, Lindsay, Jonathan and Jonas, Holly, Gary and Peyton. Kayla was sick. Meg was in her glory. She couldn’t believe my whole side of the family was there. It made her day.

Monday, May 18

Today is Meg’s birthday and she is excited to go to school today, but not until after Paul the nurse leaves. Meg got to school around 10:45. I waited in the car until 11:30 for my meeting with her teacher, Ms. O’Rourke, and Lynn Budziewsewski. We discussed that Meg needed to make up labs, and the only way to do this would be to stay after some days until 5:00 and other days until 3:10 or 4:30. Meg wanted to come right home from school on her birthday, but I had to break the news that she must stay until 3:10. Mike picked her up and she was fine. We went out to dinner and Meg ordered shrimp scampi, but she didn’t care for it because it wasn’t like mine. Then we took a quick walk around the car show in Lockport, because it was kind of chilly. That was about it for the evening. Blood work came back good.

Tuesday, May 19

Meg went to school today and stayed after again for Earth Science. Not what she wanted to do, but knows she has to. It was a long day for her. She came home and worked on homework.

Wednesday, May 20

Meg went to school again today and is feeling pretty good, and her cold is getting better. At 4:30 Meg went over to the track meet with Courtney and watched until 8:00 p.m. She was tired.

Thursday, May 21

Meg went into school after the nurse left. He came early (9:00 a.m.), so she was there by 10:15 a.m. Meg stayed again today for Earth Science then went to the track meet. I met her there and I watched the softball game. We got home about 6:30. Blood work came back awesome, and she doesn’t need the nurse to come on Memorial Day. Did more homework tonight.

Friday, May 22

Meg didn’t have school today, because of Memorial Day weekend. Mrs. B came over for two hours anyway and helped Meg with some Math she had to do. Around 2:30 Meg went to Courtney’s house and then to the Ransomville Races at night. She had fun.

Saturday, May 23

Meg called in the morning and wanted to go shopping with Courtney and her mom around. I let her go because we were just working around the house and she would complain she was bored. She got home around 5:00.

Sunday, May 24

Meg slept in today. She came outside and saw that Mike had rented a backhoe, and she was in her glory. Mike taught her how to work it and she worked right alongside him. It was really cute. We worked all day. We went to Dee and Chuck’s for dinner. It was a beautiful day. We went to Mike’s hockey game at 10:50 p.m. Mike ended up not playing because his knee was bothering him, so Nick took his place. He did pretty well. We got home at one in the morning.

Monday, May 25

Meg slept in today. We invited Grandma over for the day while we worked around the house. She came over and brought a great steak dinner. She knows Meg loves steak. She went home around in the evening. Meg helped again on the backhoe and worked to finish up her Earth Science labs, and she did it. Mrs. B. came over to pick up the lab book and some other homework that Meg finished. We were in bed pretty early as we had to be at Roswell by 9:30 a.m. for Meg’s 8
th
treatment. ONE MORE TO GO!!!!

Tuesday, May 26

We arrived at Roswell at 9:30 a.m. and had our favorite room. When we got here I asked about Meg’s Echo test she had to have before chemo. The nurse checked on it and said yes, she needed it done. The problem is they forgot to schedule it during the week so they had to try to squeeze it in at 2:30. Therefore, we had to sit around for 5 hours. Brandee and Kristin (the social worker and psychologist) came in and asked Meghan if she would like to make a new video for the Outreach Program; it would be shown at schools that have kids with cancer. It was supposed to be a quick thing and it ended up taking one and a half hours, then it was time to go for the Echo, which came out awesome. (70%). Whatever that means in Echo terms. Doing the video really kept Meg’s mind off of things. We ordered dinner at 3:00 because all three of us were starving. We were going to go out to lunch, but the videotaping mixed up everything. Mike and I went out to go to the bathroom and Meghan went in her room. We weren’t gone five minutes, came back and she was throwing up. She said it was the smell in the bathroom. I talked to the nurse and Dr. B about keeping everything the same as last time, as it worked well. When they brought in the Emend it was in pill form; last time it was in IV form, and they didn’t give her IV Decadron. Those are the two main things that need to be the same. They called and had the meds changed, which pushed back the chemo until 10:30 p.m. for the first bag, and 11:40 for the second bag. Chemo ended at 2:45 a.m. Meg slept through the entire night. You really have to watch everything.

Wednesday, May 27

Meg is still sleeping and it is almost 11:00 a.m. She said she feels fine. They are going to keep giving her the Ativan right straight through so she doesn’t get the anxiety before treatment. I spoke with Dr. B about the meds not being right, and she said that she would look up everything and change it. She insists that she never had IV Emend, but she did. She said it doesn’t come in IV form. The nurse will also check to see what she had. The nurse checked and I was right—she had IV Emend. She was probably the first person to receive it.

They are going to start chemo a couple of hours early. Meg got up around 11:30 a.m. and wanted hot chocolate and graham crackers. Debbie came to visit around 2:30 and stayed for an hour. She had to work at 4:00. Bethany came up tonight and of course brought everything in sight to eat. Meg will be getting Zofran and Ativan around the clock. Bethany left at 9:30. Meg had cheese sticks, graham crackers, and barbecue chips for dinner. The thing she liked most was the lemonade from Panera. They started chemo around 10:30 p.m. when Meg fell asleep. She kept everything down and slept all night.

Thursday, May 28

Meg slept in again today as she is very tired. Dr. B came in and said she can go to Darien Lake with her eighth grade class for a field trip. She can go on rides as long as her counts are up and nothing pushes on her mediport. She was thrilled. Her cancer counts also came back good. We have now finished the Doxorubicin for good. That was the medicine we hated the most, because it was red and you could see it going in. Meg woke up around 10:00 a.m. and was hungry. I went down and got her fruit, yogurt and granola. She said it was good. After she was done with that she sent me for breakfast pizza, and she had graham crackers too. After she was done eating she wanted lemonade. So it was back to the cafeteria. She then got dressed and wanted to sit in the courtyard. After the courtyard we went into the gift shop and Meg looked around and tried on some jewelry. Then we went up to the room to drop some things off, and Meg wanted to go to the cafeteria for some lunch. She had another lemonade and stuffed potato and bacon soup. I think she might be full.