Megan's Story

Megan led the normal life of a 15 year old, until October 1, 2008 when, out of no where, she experienced an excruciating headache, which sent her to the local Emergency Room. A girl in her teens can sometimes have headaches, but this one was bad and included loss of vision in one of her eyes, a sick stomach and tingling sensations in her tongue and fingers. The doctor ordered a CT scan to check Meg’s head and discovered a golf ball sized tumor. Meg was emergency transported to Johns Hopkins Hospital for brain surgery.

After Meg’s brain surgery, the doctors advised that Meg’s brain tumor was malignant and that she was going to require additional cancer treatments, to try to destroy any remaining cancer cells. She endured radiation and chemotherapy throughout her sophomore year, making it very difficult for her to physically attend school. She missed being part of her school environment and being with her friends, so she attended as much as she could, but was home schooled by tutors for the majority of the school year.

Megan isn't your typical teen, as everyone discovers when they get to know her. Throughout her illness, she has pushed herself to keep living life to the fullest. Her outlook on life remained amazing to those around her. Rather than focusing on her own diagnosis, Meg worked to help make a difference for others. When she felt ill from chemotherapy, she still spent time with family and friends, making Tie-Dye T-shirts, to sell them and raise money for cancer research.

Meg has a good heart. She sees how precious the little things in life can be. After receiving hand made get well cards from seventh grade students at Sacred Heart School, in Glyndon, Megan expressed that she wanted to meet the students and thank them in person. Setting up the meeting with the students was a bit of a challenge, because she was fighting the side effects of chemotherapy. Despite feeling ill, she cheerfully delivered homemade cookies to the students and shared her story with them and expressed her gratitude for their kindness and many prayers.

Days after celebrating the halfway point of chemotherapy and one week before her 16th birthday, Megan began to experience severe headaches again. She was rushed to the Johns Hopkins Emergency Room. Shortly thereafter, she was told the devastating news that the pain, she was experiencing, was from swelling in her brain and what appeared to be tumor re-growth. Johns Hopkins advised that the chemotherapy was no longer working and they discontinued her treatments. While her doctors and her family searched for medical treatment options, Meg received heavy doses of strong steroids to control the swelling and pain in her brain.

Meg’s family was advised by the doctors at Johns Hopkins that they would have to search for additional treatment options – possibly at another hospital.  Her family researched brain tumor treatment and it was determined that Meg might benefit from consults with doctors at Duke Hospital in North Carolina and Cedars-Sinai Hospital in California.  Both hospitals have special facilities that specialize in brain tumor treatments.  Just 2 days after consulting with Hopkins, the family gathered all of Meg’s medical information and traveled to North Carolina for a consultation.  At the same time, Meg’s family sent additional medical information to the doctors out in California. All of the doctors thought that Meg’s best treatment alternative would be to proceed with the treatment plan offered by the hospital in California.  Meg’s treatment would include a second brain surgery, implanting chemotherapy wafers in her brain and additional follow-up therapy.  The doctors from Duke indicated that, while Meg went for treatment in California, they would proceed with some special tests of her tumor to try to get a better idea what types of chemotherapeutic agents might work or not work for follow-up treatment.

The decision of whether or not to put Meg through a second brain surgery was very difficult, because there was risk of Meg loosing some of her vision or other motor or sensory functions. Meg decided that she wanted to have the surgery and wasn’t going to let the fear of a disability stop her from going for a chance at life. Even though Meg and her family knew that the most important thing to do was to seek Meg’s treatment in California, they did not know how they were going to handle the overwhelming costs that were involved. Nevertheless, the surgery was scheduled.

Megan and her family struggled through emotional, financial and physical difficulties throughout Meg's illness.  HopeForMegan helped them by providing supportive events and fundraisers through the community and raising funds to help with the overwhelming medical and travel expenses for Meg's treatment.