I can't believe it has been since March that I updated this site.  I guess mentally I just couldn't post any updates for a while.  Up until four months ago, Meghan was doing great and getting stronger and stronger each day.  She was back in school full time and doing very well with her classes.  Four months ago she had scans and they unfortunately showed a new cancer spot on her spleen which is a recurrence of the Hodgkin's.  Luckily it was caught early.  The tumor in her chest is still in remission, which is good news.  Needless to say we were completely shocked and devastated by the news.  Meghan is back in treatment and now has a port.  She has had every kind of intravenous line possible that is used for treating cancer patients.  Out of all of them she dislikes the port the most and her favorite was the Hickman line.  The type of treatment she is receiving is immunotherapy and the drug she is receiving is called Opdivo (Novolumab).  Many of you may have seen this advertised on television.  She goes into clinic every two weeks for an infusion via the port and this will continue for a minimum of 6 months before they will know if it is working or not.  We are now at the 1/2 way point so only three more months.  The plus side to all of this is that the side affects are so much less, she will not loose her hair again, and can continue to go to school.  That being said, there are still side affects and the one she is struggling with the most is tiredness, which seems to be getting progressively worse with each treatment.  Due to the tiredness Meghan dropped two of her classes and now goes into school part time.  The start of the second 1/2 of the school year she will have a homeschool teacher for two classes and will go to school for two classes.[...]

Wow, how time flies!  I didn't realize the last update was in January.  So much has happened since then.  Meghan is doing exceptionally well.  She was able to go home permanently at the end of January.  She is so much happier at home.  Over the last few months the only remaining issue Meghan was struggling with was her red blood counts.  Up until two weeks ago she was needed to get red blood transfusions about every other week.  Then at Meghan's March 20th appointment we went in prepared for another transfusion and we were told she didn't need one that her levels were holding steady and that the count which shows if she is producing red blood or not had finally started to go up!!!  She had another follow up appointment yesterday and her counts are still climbing.  So the doctor decided it was time to pull the plug and remove Meghan's PIC line.  I can't tell you how excited this makes me.  No more weekly dressing changes, line flushes twice a day and having to wrap her arm every time she takes a shower! Additionally, Meghan has graduated to having clinic appointments every other week now instead of weekly![...]

Happy New Year!  Wow, what a crazy last couple months for us.  Lots of good news and progress for Meghan.  Thanksgiving was spent at the apartment and a wonderful co-worker of mine prepared a fabulous Thanksgiving Dinner for us.  The following weeks were fairly quiet with just follow up appointments at the clinic.  But during this time Meghan still struggled to eat and lost a lot more weight.  Just before Christmas Meghan finally agreed to have an NG tube put in so that she could finally get some much needed nutrition.  The tube was in for 2 weeks and during that time she began to feel much better and had more energy.  Now she is eating regular food and she is not losing any more weight.  The weekend before Christmas, thanks to another fabulous co-worker, we stayed at the Waterfront Marriott in Baltimore for 2 nights.  It was Terry, myself, Meghan, Tim and Meghan and Tim each had a friend join us.  We had so much fun just hanging out and playing games.  Meghan hadn't smiled and laughed so much in a long time.  For Christmas the doctors gave us permission to take her home on Christmas Eve and Christmas day.  That was the best present we could have gotten.  New Years Eve was spent at the apartment and we were able to watch the fireworks from the roof top deck, though Meghan went to bed before that because she wasn't feeling well.  New Years day we were able to go home for the day and Terry's family came down for a quick visit.  January 9th marked day 80 post transplant and the doctors finally agreed to let Meghan go home because she is doing so well!!  With the stipulation that until she gets to day 100 post transplant and there are no problems, we keep the apartment and when bad weather is expected we go stay there to be close to the hospital.  That being said, Meghan came home on Friday and the Sunday night had to go back to the apartment because we were going to get ice the next day.  Meghan's clinic appointments are now 1 day a week and she is going to physical therapy one day a week.  Her meds have decreased a lot and she is down to just 2 pills twice a day during the week and 3 on the weekends.  She is also still getting shots twice a day for the blood clot, but has a sonogram scheduled early February and we are hoping they will let us stop the shots. FINGERS CROSSED!!!  Schooling was a struggle while in the city but overall Meghan did very well.  She is really looking forward to having her home school teacher she had before at home and getting back into a regular routine.[...]

My apologies for not posting another update sooner.  Life has been crazy since Meghan was admitted on October 15th to begin the process for her Bone Marrow Transplant.  After the transplant on October 21st, Meghan had some very tough weeks, which were unfortunately expected.  She developed mucuscitis (mouth sores) in her throat and down her esophogus about a week post transplant.  It was very painful and she was on continuous pain meds and a pain pump.  A few days after the transplant she developed an infection in her Hickman line and they had to remove it and put a new PIC line in her right arm.  Then recently she developed a blog clot in the vein that the PIC line was in so they had to remove that line and put in another PIC in her left arm.  Because of the clot Meghan has to have shots twice a day for about another month.  Her poor legs are so bruised and sore from all the shots.  The GREAT news is that Meghan was released from the hospital this past Tuesday!!!!  We have settled into our temporary apartment in Canton at the St. Casimire House, just minutes from the hospital.  We will be here till mid to late January.  Meghan is feeling so much better now that she is out of the hospital.  We are trying to get her into a regular sleep routine again.  She has follow-up clinic appointments 3 times a week right now.  She is still not eating and has lost a lot of weight.  But this is all part of the process.  She tries but nothing tastes good yet.  It will just take some time.[...]

Wow, what a crazy emotional day yesterday was for all of us.  It sure had its ups and downs emotionally.  

Tim did great.  Though he did not sleep at all the night before, he stayed awake the entire night and needless to say because he was awake so was I.  Yesterday I was running on pure adrenaline.  Tim and I arrived at the hospital just after 5 am and Terry met us in the surgery center. Tim handled everything like a champ.  He has never had any type of medical procedure done before so this was all new to him.  The doctors were able to get 700 CCs of bone marrow which is what they needed.  He went into surgery about 7:30 and was in recovery by 10. He had quite a bit of pain but once the pain meds kicked in he felt much better.  Terry and I stayed with him till about 11:30 and then I went up to be with Meghan.[...]

It has been a crazy couple of weeks.  Meghan was admitted to the hospital this past Wednesday and began chemo the same day. From Wednesday to Sunday morning she had a dose of chemo every 6 hours then a different chemo drug yesterday morning and again this morning.  She handled it well till Thursday night.  Since then has been a real struggle for her.  She has not eaten since Thursday evening.  All of this is expected and normal, but not fun.  Tomorrow they will put a feeding tube in in order to get her some nutrition.  She is done with chemo till Wednesday, then will have two or three more days of it then DONE!! After that is it just a matter of waiting for her counts to go up and monitor her to ensure she has no side affects from Tim's bone marrow.[...]

Lots has happened since my last post.  After the third round of chemo Meghan was home for a few days and then ended up back in the hospital for several days/nights.  She had another allergic reaction to a platelet transfusion and then developed a fever.  So she was admitted to the hospital until her ANC (the part of your blood that fights infection) went back up to over 200. For Meghan her's would drop to 0, which is expected.  During her stay she was treated with antibiotics until it rose.[...]

Since the last post, Meghan had her PET scan.  Overall she is making good progress but will need to have two more rounds of chemo, 1 of which she started last week.  She is doing ok with this round just like the last one. [...]

We are going into day 3 of the second round of chemo and day 3 in the hospital.  Will get to go home tomorrow.  Overall Meghan is handling it all much better this round than the first round. Though the nauseousness continues to be a struggle.  They continue to try and find the best meds to help her through this.  They also had to slow the drip on one of the chemo drugs that she gets for 3 days due to the side affects. [...]

The last couple of weeks have been very tough for Meghan.  On July 28th the Hickman Line was put in and chemo chemo started that night.  The plan is three days in a row of chemo.  These three days are spent as an inpatient at Hopkins for a total of 4 day inpatient.  Then she has two weeks off before then next round of chemo, which is scheduled to be August 18th.[...]