Meghan’s Journey: The Story of Meghan Redenbach: The Teenage Girl Who Showed a Community How to “Man Up” in the Face of Cancer (12 page)

Monday, June 22

Meghan had her Spanish exam this morning. She felt she did pretty well, but she was tired. Her blood work came back good. Meghan has an appointment on the 26
th
of June with Dr. C about removing her mediport. She was very excited about this, as she wants it out, then she will feel like she is really done.

Tuesday, June 23

Today Meg was up and dressed and ready to go. It was Darien Lake day for the eighth graders. The school asked me to go with Meg in case there were any decisions that would need to be made. I took the day off of work and met Meg at the park. The bus arrived around 10:00 a.m. and we stayed until 4:30. It was a beautiful day. I walked around a little, sat at the pool and met all the chaperones for lunch. I didn’t eat; I just visited. It was a pretty relaxing day. Meg rode the bus back to school and Mrs. Kelkenburg gave her a ride home. Mike and I went to Artpark to see a concert.

Wednesday, June 24

Today I went to work, and Mike and Meg went back to New Era for the presentation of her hat and to go to the factory in Derby where they would be able to see the hat being made. Mike said it was awesome. Channel 2 was there. After the presentation at New Era, they took all the winners out to lunch with their families, and then they went to Derby. Mike and Meg came home with boxes of all different hats, and some of her hats. They also gave her the hat she designed in a nice display box. When they got to New Era in Derby they had pizza waiting for them. They didn’t know that they had gone to lunch so they sent it all home with the kids. That was it for today. Meg had a fun-filled day.

Meghan’s hat design

Back of Meg’s hat

Thursday, June 25

Meg had her last day of school today. I picked her up at 10:00 a.m. so she could be home for the nurse by 10:15. My mom was here around 8:30 a.m. to stay while the nurse came so I could get to work on my last day. Mom and Meghan went to Dodge school around noon to have lunch with Mom’s friends. When they were done they went back to Mom’s house and I picked Meg up on my way home. We went to dinner later with Olivia and her mom. We went to the Village Eatery. After dinner we all went to the Movie Store. Blood work was good.

Friday, June 26

Today was Meghan’s visit to Dr. C’s office to find out when her mediport can come out. Dr. C asked Meg a few questions, and most importantly—when did she want the mediport out? Mike said, “What are you doing tomorrow?!” He just laughed and said he was driving to Massachusetts for two weeks. He said he would squeeze her in on July 14
th
. That was perfect. He also cleared her to play volleyball. That was the best news ever, since Spikers Volleyball Club (summer program) starts on Tuesday. After leaving the hospital we drove through the University of Buffalo campus to see where different things were set up for the Ride for Roswell. When we got there we ran into John Eisman who was the captain for Meghan’s team. We helped him set up tents and take things to the tent. We went to Mike’s softball game later on. We came home early because we needed to be at the Ride by 8:00 a.m.

Saturday, June 27

Today was the Ride for Roswell. We met Deirdre and Jonas at the Pepsi Center and they drove across with us, because we had VIP parking. We walked around a little and then went and registered. It was so organized. There were thousands of people, and you didn’t have to wait for anything. We saw lots of pictures and quotes about Meghan. It was so cool. Meghan had nineteen people on her team. Mike rode eight miles. Meg and I hung at the tent. We thought we were going to have to help sell her hats. After all the rides, they had the awards and the unveiling of all the hats. They had all three winners up on stage and talked a little about each hat. They were selling them for $20.00. Meg also met Patrick Kaleta from the Buffalo Sabres Hockey Team. She had a bunch of pictures taken with him. We all had a great time. We cleaned up and were out of there by 2:00 p.m. We were tired. Meg and I went to Laux to get volleyball shoes.

Sunday, June 28

Today we all slept in except Nick; he had to work. We just cleaned up around the house and yard. We had to go to Joe and Debbie Floss’s daughter’s graduation party at Clarence Center Fire Hall Grove. We all stayed until around 8:00 p.m. because we had to be home for Mike and Nick to go to hockey. It was nice to see all of our friends. Lee had to come in the morning to do Meg’s blood work because she wasn’t going to be working on Monday.

Monday, June 29

I called in the morning for Meg’s blood counts, they were all good. Meg, Nick and I went to Dick’s to get Meghan’s volleyball Active Ankles and kneepads. We also went into BJ’s Wholesale and did a little shopping. Nick and Meg were hungry so we stopped at Burger King. We stopped at Kitchen Advantage to wish Luke a happy birthday. We just chilled at home the rest of the evening.

Tuesday, June 30

Today was the first day of Spikers. Meg had her bag packed and ready the night before. She was so excited to go. She tried to keep herself busy right up until we had to go at 5:30 p.m. She wanted to get there early. I stayed in case there was any problem with her, but she was as peppy as when she left. She was so happy to be back. When she got home she was very tired, showered and went to bed.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Meg woke up this morning and was so sore. She said there were muscles that she never knew she had that were sore. She pretty much laid around. Meg went to Bridget’s house to hang out. They went to Bridget’s little brother’s baseball game.

Thursday, July 2

Meg got up around 9:00 because the nurse was coming between 9:30 and 10:00 a.m. Bridget was coming over around 10:30 to do errands with us and go to lunch. I dropped the girls off at Bridget’s house so her mom could drive them to volleyball. Meg got home and was tired and sore, but loved every minute. Blood work came back good.

Friday, July 3

We didn’t do much today. Mike and his friend worked on the front porch and the rest of us chilled. No baseball tonight because of the 4
th
of July. It was a pretty quiet day. We also had a bon fire with Darren and Erin and their family.

Saturday, July 4

We all slept in a bit. We went to the Ravine for firework festivities all day. We met lots of friends there. The fireworks were awesome. Meghan sold about five or six hats and got to talk to Bill Wolcott from the Union Sun and Journal. He did a front page story on her the next day. It was overwhelming.

Sunday, July 5

Meg stayed home today and relaxed. Mike and I went out on the motorcycle for a while. Meg asked me to make her favorite dinner tonight which is steak. We all went to Nick and Mike’s hockey game. They lost, but Nick is now the leading scorer.

Monday, July 6

Meg got up around 8:30 a.m. because a new nurse was coming to do blood work. Lee was off today. The nurse got here at 9:15. She had trouble accessing Meg’s port, she insisted that it had flipped and we should make sure that when we go to Roswell tomorrow that we let them know. Meg didn’t believe this as it felt normal to her. The nurse ended up taking blood from her arm, which Meg said didn’t hurt. She was sticking her like crazy trying to access the port. So of course, I was a nervous wreck about what happens to fix this, and will they fix it since she was going to be getting it out in a week. I called Roswell to get her counts and they were good. I mentioned to Jean what the nurse said, and she seemed to think it wasn’t true and that I shouldn’t worry about it. Not much else happened today.

Tuesday, July 7

Meg had her blood work and CAT scan today. She had to go up to the clinic to have her end-of-treatment checkup and blood work, and then we will go to the second floor for her CAT scan. Jean accessed Meg very easily. Her port didn’t flip. Jean said she thinks the nurse flipped. Jean had Tim run down to CAT scan to get the Gatorade mixture for Meg to drink. We went down around 2:15 p.m. and got taken right away. We went to TGIF’s to eat afterwards. Meg had to be home by 5:00 to go to volleyball. We didn’t get home until late, so I didn’t call for the results of her blood work or CAT scan.

Wednesday, July 8

Today Meg and I got up and we’re cleaning up the house. I got a call from Roswell in the morning with the results from Meg’s blood work and CAT scan. Terri said that there is a little spot on Meg’s other ovary that wasn’t there the last time, and her tumor markers edged up a little, but were still in the normal range. What they wanted to do was have me bring her in on Thursday to have an ultrasound, to be sure that it was just a cyst and follicles and nothing else. I was a wreck when I got this news. Meg was just saying “take the other ovary and just get it over with”. She wasn’t too worried.

Mike called to see how everything was and I told him. He was also a wreck. We had to put off her surgery on the 14
th
until we were sure what was going on. It was a rough night for Mike and me.

Around 11:30 a.m. Meghan went to let the dog out the garage door and there was a yellow envelope that said “Redenbach Family.” Meg brought it in and opened it. There was a note that said, “Dear Mike and Nancy, Hope this helps. God Bless.” There was no name or who it was from. Inside that envelope was a bank envelope with $7000.00 in it, all in hundred dollar bills. We were floored. Meg thought they were fake. We were home all morning and didn’t see anyone drop it off. I immediately called Bethany who claimed she knows nothing about it, but I could tell she did. I asked Gary and Holly if they saw anyone drop it off and they said they didn’t. I then called Betty and she said she saw a red pick-up truck drop it off. We really don’t know anyone with a red pick- up, so we drove around to all the people’s houses we thought might have a red truck and came up with nothing. Mike and Nick couldn’t believe it either.

Thursday, July 9

Today Meg and I got up and went to get her ultrasound done. She had to drink one and one half bottles of water and hold it down for the test. We had to be there at 9:30 a.m. When we got there they took her fairly quickly because she had to pee, bad. The technician looked around at all the pictures with a funny look on her face, and this made Meg nervous. She then said she was going out to show the radiologist, and that he may want to come in and look at things himself. That’s when Meg thought something else was wrong because of the faces and getting the radiologist. He did come in to look at a few things, but then said “EVERYTHING LOOKS FINE,” which was music to our ears. When he walked out I had a meltdown, and the technician told Meg to get dressed and she would take care of me. Then we went up to the clinic to see Terri and let her know what they said. Of course, I had another meltdown. She said she would call me later to confirm everything after talking and sharing it with Dr. B. She called me around 3:30 p.m. and said they wanted Meg to see a specialist in the gynecology department to make sure everything was good. So, we had to cancel her surgery on the 14
th
and take her there at 9:00 a.m., after he looked at the scan and blood work they would call Dr. C back to reschedule, hopefully for Friday the 17
th
.

Friday, July 10

We all slept in today. Mike and I went and did some returns in the morning, and then he went to a golf tournament in Brockport. I then went to pick up my last check and do a few errands. I stopped at Dave and Judy’s to let them know what was going on the last few days. They couldn’t believe it. When Meg and I got home we called Grandma to see if she wanted to go to Village Eatery for dinner, and she did. While I was at Dave and Judy’s, Nick and Meg went and bought the Wii. At night, we watched them play it. Mike got home around 8:30 p.m. We both went to bed and Grandma watched them for a little while longer and then went to bed, too.

Saturday, July 11

Today was a rainy and stormy day. We had to go to the graduation party for the daughter of my friend Kathy Smith. The sun started coming out after about 2:00 and the rain cleared. We saw lots of people from my work there and had a good time. Our whole family went. We got home around 8:00 p.m. Mike and I were in bed early and the kids stayed up to play Wii.

Sunday, July 12

Today was a gorgeous day. Mike and I went to breakfast and then came home and worked around the house. Darren and Erin called and asked us if we wanted to go to dinner with them and Dave and Carrie. We said we would, and Meg babysat for Dave and Carrie. We had a good time.

Monday, July 13

Meg slept in today. We really didn’t have to do anything in the morning. I had an appointment at the dermatologist to check out some moles I thought were bad. Only one looked a little funny and she removed it and sent it away to be checked. She will let me know the results in two weeks. We didn’t really do much today.

Tuesday, July 14

Today we had to take Meg for her appointment with the specialist. He said that everything looked good on the scan and with her blood work. He felt that she could have her line removed. We went up to the pediatric department and let them know what he said. Terri called Dr. C’s office and got the surgery scheduled for Thursday, July 16 at 10:00 in the morning. Meg was happy about this. When we got home she wanted to meet her friend Kaeli Orr at Darien Lake. I took her for a few hours to have some fun. Then it was off to volleyball. Mike went to cut Grandma’s lawn. Meg had fun at volleyball, but said she didn’t do very well today.

Wednesday, July 15

Meg went to bed early today because it was time to get her port out tomorrow. We have to be at Children’s Hospital around 9:00 a.m. It was a pretty normal day.

Thursday, July 16

We got to Children’s around 9:00 and registered downstairs and then went up to the 9
th
floor to wait for our turn to go in for surgery. Meg had a hard time giving a urine sample, but she finally went. We sat around for a long time, because the doctor was running behind. Meg was supposed to go in at 1:00 but never went in until 2:30. Dr. C and his team came in to talk to us before surgery. We love them; they are very down to earth and explain how everything works. Meg was in surgery for about one hour. Mike and I went to grab lunch while waiting for her.

Around 3:30, Dr. C came into the waiting room and said everything went fine. We had to wait about a half hour before we could see her. Mike went in first and then I did. She looked so cute, but had a really dry mouth so we gave her some ice chips. She went back up to her room around 4:15 and she didn’t feel very well. Around 4:45 she started to throw up from the anesthesia. I felt so bad for her. We finally left around 5:45 p.m. Meg laid down when she got home and Mike went golfing. After a good night’s sleep Meg felt 100% better. Meg was on her way to recovery as this was the last hurdle to get over.

This ends my day to day writing in this journal. I will now only write when Meg has doctor visits.

For three months, life for Meghan and her family resumed much of its normality. Meg spent the summer attending camps and preparing for her first full season on the varsity volleyball team. She was also looking forward to entering her freshman year of high school in the fall, and she continued to enjoy spending time with her friends. The Redenbachs learned they would be going on a Make-A-Wish trip to Hawaii in December and were excited to be making these plans together.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Today Meg had to go for her first three-month checkup. This was her first check up since the end of treatment. We had to get blood work done first and then up to CAT scan and back up to pediatrics for her check-up. Meg wasn’t feeling too well today, as she had a cold. The blood draw was no picnic for her; she said it didn’t hurt but just felt weird. When we were in for the CAT scan, we were laughing hysterically about how people would grab the nasty drink and chug it. Meg was amazed. After we went upstairs to see Dr. B. The results of the scan were not back so they had to call us with the results.