GOOD NEWS!!!!!

Just got off the phone with the doctor. The spinal tap test came back negitive. The solid mass isn't cancers. He said that it could just be an over grown portion of her brain we may never know. We are for sure going to do another MRI at the end of March and keep an eye on it. There is still the chance of it moving or growing. Also the cyst can also move and grow so we need to watch that also. Again THANK YOU all for your Prayers.

Valentines & Spinal Tap

For those of you who didn't see Destiny's Valentine Box from last year here is a picture, sorry it is sideways. The picture below is Destiny's Valentine Box for this year. Yes it is a three tier cake. On the top Kristie & Destiny cut a hole in the middle of the first two layers for the valentines. They started working on this a couple of weeks before it was due and they still needed to finish it the night before. Destiny won over all in her class at school for her box.


NOW Megan! Friday, February 13th we headed out at 7 am for her spinal tap at 9 am. We got there and the doctor and nurses were concerned that we might not be able to do the procedure since she was sick and her asthma is acting up. They checked her lungs and her left lung had some fluid in it but it was a just a little bit and they would watch it while she was asleep. Matt was able to go in the back with her while they put her to sleep. He said it was quick and wierd to see her eyes roll in the back of her head. The procedure only took 30min, they took 3 syringes full of spinal fluid. That was wierd to see for me. The reason they took so much so they can do multiple tests. After the doctor was done we had to stay for another 2 hours and have her lay flat on her back. They said since they took so much if she got up her brain would drop, since our brains float in the spinal fluid. It took some time for her to come back to herself. She still needed to lay down for 24 hours after we got home. Matt and I think that was the hardest thing to go through, we had to practically sit on her. The doctor said that we will have the results by Friday, February 20th. As soon as I get them I will post the results. Now I know you are wondering about the blood results so here it is they came back negitive. Meaning that according to them the tumor isn't active. So far it looks like the tumor is benign. The doctor says it looks like we will be doing another MRI in 6 weeks. To answer some of your questions. There was never a bump on the outside of her head, and we haven't had to shave her head yet Darrell. Matt and I would like to thank you for all of your prayers.

More Tests!!!! :(

I am so sorry that I haven't updated our blog. Since it has been a couple of months since the last post I will take some time and let you all know what has been going on. In December Megan saw a Neurologist. That was a joke and a waste of time. They just kept telling us that the cyst was nothing and normal and not to worry about it. I still had them send the CT scans to the Radiologist to see what he thought. From that it was suggested to get an MRI done to get a better picture of the cyst. Megan was able to get in on December 26th. That was an all day event. We had to wait to get the results from that until the first of the year since the Neurologist was out of town. We got the call saying that there was a cyst for sure but, also a solid mass. Now we need to find out what that mass is so I needed to schedule blood work to be done and an appt. with a Neuro Surgeon to get his oppion on the case. It took some time to get the orders faxed to the hospital for the blood work. We got that done on January 19th. I talked to our family doctor on Tuesday the 23rd and he said that it was negitive. Meaning from that test she doesnt have cancer. That brings us to today. We met with the Neuro Surgeon today. It is for sure that she has a tumor but, the questions is it benign or not. He order more blood work today and a urine sample. They took 6 tubes of blood. My poor baby! She was so brave. He also order a spinal tap. Now the reason for all of this is to rule out other types of cancers. The blood work will rule out certain cancers and if the counts are low the spinal tap will confirm cancer or not. Because the tumor is in the brain there is a good chance the blood isn't asborbing the cancer cells where as the spinal fluid will give us better results. After the results come back from both of these test then we will discuss what road we need to go down. I hope this makes sense. I will try to be on top of this more as we go through each step.

***The picture above was taken before the fall. Before church she was playing with my camera.***

Careers!

This last week at the kids school was Spirit Week. Each day had a different theme. Monday they had to dress up like their favorite superhero or their real life hero. Tuesday was believe in your country and had to wear red, white, and blue. Thursday was my favorite it was believe you can succeed they had dress up in what they want to be when they grow up. This was fun to find out what the kids wanted to be when they grow up. Megan got to go to school on Thursday so we had to get her something to wear. She wants to be Hannah Montana when she gets older, Jayson wants to be a professional football player but, since we don't have all the equipment for that he went has a basketball player, he didn't care he loves all sports. Sean wants to be a Scout Master, I think he was just being lazy and didn't want to find something when he could just wear his Cub Scout Uniform. Now for Destiny! She has always wanted to be a Fashion Designer. We took scrap fabric and pinned it to her pants, put ribbon around her neck. She also got to wear my 2" heel boots. Matt was worried about her costume not sure if it would turn out. She really did looked like the fashion designers on some of the shows she watches. Of course they might change their minds in a year.

What a BIG GIRL!!!!

This first picture is right before we left to get her stiches out. She is still shy about having others looking at her. We had to make other stops before we went to the doctors office. Every stop she tryed to hide her face.

When the doctor came in to look at her, she didn't want to look at him. He said that her stiches are very clean and healing very well. We still need to put ointment on it. He said that we also need to put sunscreen on it every time she goes out side because if we don't her scare will discolor and will not fade for three years. He asked Megan if she will sit still while the nurse takes the stiches out or if we need extra nursers to hold her down. She said she will sit still. The nurse came back in with her scissors and tweezers and told Megan that the tweezers will lightly touch her skin to take the stiches out. She asked Megan to sit still. I held her hand and told her to close her eyes. That is exactly what she did. She didn't cry or move the whole time. The nurse also asked Megan if she wanted to keep her stiches, Megan answered with a yes which surprised me. So we have a stick with her stiches taped to it.


This pictures is when we got home. You really can't tell she got them out. But there isn't any blue lines going across her face. Right when we got in the van Megan asked if she could go to school because she misses her teachers and friends. After talking to Matt and going over the rules (can't play outside, no runing, etc.) we decide she can go to school. When we told her that she could go to school she started dancing around sing I get to go to school over and over. She is one happy girl.

These pictures are of my very happy little girl. When I was giving her, her medicine. The yellow around the eyes is her bruising. She is growling at the camara.

Pictures

Here are the pictures I promised. This first one is when we got home from the hospital.





This one is from Friday afternoon after we washed her hair and cleaned her up. After I took the picture Megan asked if she could see the picture. When she saw the picture she said "Mom that is a big ouwie"

Today her right eye is now bruised and swollen. They said her whole face will be swollen in a couple of days.

OUCH!!!!

I am going to give you a heads up on the pics below. They are not pretty. On Thursday, November 6th, Megan went to a friends house around 4 pm. A little after 4 pm the neighorbors kids came knocking on our door. When I answered the oldest said that Megan was bleeding. I was thinking that she fell and scrapped her knee. When I got to the neighorbors house I found the mom kneeling over Megan and holding a papertowel on her head. Megan was covered in blood. The mom turned to me and said that she has a cut about 2" on her forehead. She was playing in her friends room on his bunk bed and fell off and hit her head. We don't know what she hit there wasn't any sign of bleeding anywhere in the room. The only blood was coming out of the room. I turned to Destiny (who had followed me over) to run to get my cellphone. I called Matt to see where he was, He said he was in American Fork. I told him to meet me at the doctors office because Megan cut her head open.

We got to the doctors office and they put us in their surgery room. Megan's doctor looked at the cut and said she needs to go to the Emerency Room now and she will need a Plastic Surgeon. When the doctor was looking at her thats the first time I saw the cut. It was 8" long and 2" wide you could see her skull. I even asked to make sure I knew what I was looking at. We got to the Emerency Room with me driving 60 in a 40. When we got there the stupid ER nurse said that they will look at the cut and decide then if Megan needs a Plastic guy. I was mad. They took one look at it and said call the Plastic guy, but before we do anything we need to do a CATSCAN to make sure there isn't any fractures. They did the CATSCAN and there wasn't any fractures but, there is a spot on the back of her head that could be a tumor or nothing but, we need to take her to see a Nuriologist to make sure.

The Plastic guy came in. He looked like they found him on a street corner. I will tell you something he was the best doctor I ever knew. He was kind and he told Matt and I everything he was doing and why. Yes, Matt and I where in the room while he stiched up Megan. They put her to sleep to do the stiches. That is what this picture is. While she was asleep she stuck her tongue out. At one time she had her lips in the kissing form and was making kissing noises. I told Matt she was giving him kisses.

Before the doctor could sew her up he had to cut some of her tissue because the cut was beveled and it needed to be flat and it was jagged and needed to be smooth. It was wierd to see him do that.

He had to start from the inside out. He gave her one row of stitches and another until he got to the outer surface. Megan has three rows of stitches. When he was done he told us that he doesn't like to count his stitches like most doctors but, if you count the outer ones there is about 2x to 3x that on the inside. After they cleaned her up Matt looked and said that there is about 60-70 stitches on the outside. We are thinking there might be a total of 200 or more.

This picture is when he finished up. Destiny said she looks dead in this picture. Then we waited for her to wake up and made sure she was ok and then brought her home. Friday she spent all day in bed with us in/out of sleep. Today, Saturday she seems to be back to her old self. What amazes Matt and I is how strong she is being through this whole thing. She didn't really cry and she didn't throw a fit like I thought she would.

There are more pictures. I have them on my camera but, for some reason I can't find the thing that lets me hook it up to my computer. As soon as I find it I will post them. I know you all are busy but, if you could take about 5 mins. of your time and send her a note or card she would love it.