Megan's Cancer Battle
Donation protected
In the fall of 2020, living the “new normal” because of Covid’s impact on the world, Megan wasn’t feeling like herself. She thought maybe she had asthma or a respiratory infection, so she did a telehealth visit and got an inhaler. Breathing became incredibly difficult and at this point she wasn’t able to take more than a shallow breath. She got winded just trying to talk and wasn’t able to walk from the couch to the bedroom without help. So on November 11th, getting very scared and thinking she may have Covid, despite having taken all precautions to avoid the virus, she made the trip to the ER.
They did a work up that included a Covid test. The pulmonologist came and felt something was off. He ordered a CT scan of her chest and additional blood work. After some time the doctor came in and said “Good news: you don’t have Covid. Bad news: you have cancer”. The sentence hit like a ton of bricks. How does an otherwise healthy 23 year old end up with cancer???
The next three weeks in the hospital were a blur. The first hurdle was getting transferred from UH Richmond to UH Main Campus. Because the mass was over her heart, she needed a cardiothoracic surgeon to biopsy the 10cm x 7cm x 5cm mass that was inhabiting her chest and robbing her of her ability to breathe. It was crushing her heart, lungs and bronchial tube – no wonder she was getting so winded!!! Due to the hospitals being nearly at capacity, because of Covid, the test results were taking longer to come back. We needed to know exactly what kind of cancer it was and where else it had traveled to. The more research we did the more we learned that all of the rather “common” illnesses she had thought she had, and subsequently dismissed, were all symptoms of Lymphoma. Megan spent nearly a month in the hospital, enduring scans, daily blood draws, bone marrow biopsies, collapsed veins, blood clots, and so on. Finally, her cancer had been typed and staged. She has Stage 1X Diffuse Mediastinal Large B Cell Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.
Time was of the essence as each day, this aggressive cancer was growing in her chest. The treatment plan includes 6 rounds of chemo. Each round requires her to be admitted to UH Seidman for at least 5 days to allow 96 hours of non-stop chemo infusion. She has 14 days between rounds, during which she has numerous blood draws, infusions, appointments etc. Cancer and being a cancer patient has taken over her life and ours.
To get the chemo started right away a PICC line was inserted. She spent Thanksgiving at Seidman Cancer Center being infused with her first 5 day round of chemotherapy. Two days into her first round of chemo she formed a blood clot in the arm with the PICC line, which caused her hand to swell to more than twice its normal size. She is already on 15+ medications and this issue caused her to have to take additional medication to break it up. Because of this issue, after the 5 days of infusion the PICC line had to be removed and another placed in the other arm. She now must be on blood thinners to prevent future clots and because of that cannot have a port placed. She has this central line flushed regularly, but the anxiety over the fact that she could develop an infection, etc. and the PICC line needing to be placed elsewhere again looms over her.
We kept all of this to ourselves as it was decided that this is Megan’s journey and it is up to her when she will be ready to share this with others outside of her immediate family. No one is ever prepared for accidents or major illnesses, especially a vibrant, artistic, fun loving 23 year old, who has her whole life ahead of her. This life all came crashing down around her with not only the physical crisis cancer creates but the financial one. When people found out their immediate response was “What can we do”? “How can I help”. Well….. as humbling as it is this Go Fund Me is to help Megan to get well and take on the expense of cancer treatment.
For Megan’s 20th birthday, she and I got matching tattoos. She drew a simple flower and had the word STRENGTH flow out of the stem. We put these matching tattoos on our biceps – so that when we flex we “show” our strength. Megan is fighting the fight. To continue to be strong she will need us all behind her to show her she has the Strength to get through this. She appreciates encouragement to keep trudging through her darkest moments. She is grateful for positive energy and prayers that confirm to her that there is a bright side to the end of this terrible time and she will come out better than ever on the other side.
They did a work up that included a Covid test. The pulmonologist came and felt something was off. He ordered a CT scan of her chest and additional blood work. After some time the doctor came in and said “Good news: you don’t have Covid. Bad news: you have cancer”. The sentence hit like a ton of bricks. How does an otherwise healthy 23 year old end up with cancer???
The next three weeks in the hospital were a blur. The first hurdle was getting transferred from UH Richmond to UH Main Campus. Because the mass was over her heart, she needed a cardiothoracic surgeon to biopsy the 10cm x 7cm x 5cm mass that was inhabiting her chest and robbing her of her ability to breathe. It was crushing her heart, lungs and bronchial tube – no wonder she was getting so winded!!! Due to the hospitals being nearly at capacity, because of Covid, the test results were taking longer to come back. We needed to know exactly what kind of cancer it was and where else it had traveled to. The more research we did the more we learned that all of the rather “common” illnesses she had thought she had, and subsequently dismissed, were all symptoms of Lymphoma. Megan spent nearly a month in the hospital, enduring scans, daily blood draws, bone marrow biopsies, collapsed veins, blood clots, and so on. Finally, her cancer had been typed and staged. She has Stage 1X Diffuse Mediastinal Large B Cell Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.
Time was of the essence as each day, this aggressive cancer was growing in her chest. The treatment plan includes 6 rounds of chemo. Each round requires her to be admitted to UH Seidman for at least 5 days to allow 96 hours of non-stop chemo infusion. She has 14 days between rounds, during which she has numerous blood draws, infusions, appointments etc. Cancer and being a cancer patient has taken over her life and ours.
To get the chemo started right away a PICC line was inserted. She spent Thanksgiving at Seidman Cancer Center being infused with her first 5 day round of chemotherapy. Two days into her first round of chemo she formed a blood clot in the arm with the PICC line, which caused her hand to swell to more than twice its normal size. She is already on 15+ medications and this issue caused her to have to take additional medication to break it up. Because of this issue, after the 5 days of infusion the PICC line had to be removed and another placed in the other arm. She now must be on blood thinners to prevent future clots and because of that cannot have a port placed. She has this central line flushed regularly, but the anxiety over the fact that she could develop an infection, etc. and the PICC line needing to be placed elsewhere again looms over her.
We kept all of this to ourselves as it was decided that this is Megan’s journey and it is up to her when she will be ready to share this with others outside of her immediate family. No one is ever prepared for accidents or major illnesses, especially a vibrant, artistic, fun loving 23 year old, who has her whole life ahead of her. This life all came crashing down around her with not only the physical crisis cancer creates but the financial one. When people found out their immediate response was “What can we do”? “How can I help”. Well….. as humbling as it is this Go Fund Me is to help Megan to get well and take on the expense of cancer treatment.
For Megan’s 20th birthday, she and I got matching tattoos. She drew a simple flower and had the word STRENGTH flow out of the stem. We put these matching tattoos on our biceps – so that when we flex we “show” our strength. Megan is fighting the fight. To continue to be strong she will need us all behind her to show her she has the Strength to get through this. She appreciates encouragement to keep trudging through her darkest moments. She is grateful for positive energy and prayers that confirm to her that there is a bright side to the end of this terrible time and she will come out better than ever on the other side.
Organizer
Megan Malone
Organizer
Willoughby, OH