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Cancer lightning strikes twice in Pettibone family |
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Written by Reporter1
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Wednesday, 24 June 2009 |
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Page 2 of 2
Today, Jennifer and her husband Tom are fighting another cancer battle. This time, it is for their daughter, Meghan.
Meghan Pettibone is the honorary chairperson for the 2009 Adams County Relay for Life fundraiser to be held Friday and Saturday at the Adams Central football stadium.
Meghan was diagnosed with stage four embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (ERMS) in October of 2008, two months after her third birthday. Approximately 350 children in the United States are diagnosed with ERMS, a rare form of musculoskeletal cancer, each year.
“We were thrown into the whole world of pediatric cancer, and we just never thought we’d have to do that,” said Jennifer. When Meghan was born, she and her husband were happy the infant had all 10 fingers and all 10 toes, and they were curious what color eyes she might eventually have.
“You can never imagine in all of your wildest dreams that something like this is going to happen. It floored us completely,” said Jennifer.
In mid-October 2008, Meghan came down with strep throat. After a week of being treated with antibiotics, Meghan still wasn’t herself. She was lethargic and had no appetite. The doctor prescribed another antibiotic and said he would see her on Monday.
But when her daughter failed to show signs of improvement, Jennifer Pettibone “started getting uncomfortable.” She recalled saying, “I think I would feel better if she were looked at today.” Tom and Jennifer took Meghan to the emergency room at Adams Memorial Hospital.
A computerized tomography (CT) scan was performed, which revealed Meghan had a softball-size mass in her abdomen. The ER physician said he already had two radiologists at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne look at the CT scan. “They don’t know what it is, and I don’t know what it is,” said the doctor.
Later that evening, Meghan was taken to Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne to see a pediatric surgeon who was convinced the mass was a ruptured appendix that had encased itself. He said he would like to go in and remove it on Monday, but he wanted a hematology/oncology doctor on board during the surgery just in case something unexpected was discovered.
However, after looking at the CT scan, the oncologist thought Meghan’s condition might be a form of Burkitt’s lymphoma, a tumor that can double in size in 24 hours. He suggested sending her to Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis.
On the following Monday, Meghan underwent surgery at Riley to have the mass removed. The surgeon spoke to Tom and Jennifer after the operation, and he explained that they removed the mass, but that he wasn’t sure what it was. “My gut instinct tells me it is malignant,” Jennifer recalled the surgeon saying.
The pathology results didn’t come back for nearly four days. Jennifer recalled finally receiving the news that Meghan has stage four ERMS.
“Talk about your world falling apart.”
More surgery was performed the next day to put in a central line that goes into Meghan’s chest to administer medication. That night, she had her first round of chemotherapy.
Meghan has completed 27 weeks of a 54-week treatment schedule. Her mother said Meghan’s chemotherapy treatment schedule is more aggressive than that normally seen for cancer patients.
“It’s a very aggressive cancer, so we have to throw the book at it.”
“People ask me if she hates going to the hospital, but she loves it.” While at the hospital, Meghan enjoys drawing and painting, watching movies, and playing the Wii gaming system. She receives most of her treatments at Riley, but some are done at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne.
Through it all, Meghan has remained positive.
“You have to do what you have to do, and you might as well do it with a good attitude and a smile on your face, because having a bad attitude doesn’t change anything. It just makes it worse,” said Jennifer Pettibone. “If orneriness is a sign of being healthy, she is very healthy. If it weren’t for her bald head and the bump underneath her shirt from her lines, you’d never know she was sick.”
Jennifer said that their family, their friends and the community have been “amazing” in lending support to Meghan, her parents and her seven-year-old brother Zach during Meghan’s illness. “There are no words to really describe it. It’s humbling,” said Jennifer. “It really puts things in perspective. Things that seemed so important a year ago are not as important now. Every day is a blessing. Every day is a gift.”
To keep family and friends up to date on the progress of Meghan’s treatment, Tom and Jennifer joined a free Web site called caringbridge.org. This site provides updates on how she is doing along the way, and it also has a guestbook where people can let the family know they stopped by the site to see how Meghan is doing. “It’s a wonderful tool to have, and people can check in [on Meghan] whenever they want,” said Jennifer.
Meghan’s page can be accessed by visiting caringbridge.org/visit/meghanpettibone.
Jennifer said her family lives a lot of “day by day, hour by hour, and a lot of prayer by prayer.” She added, “We have good days and we have bad days, but anymore, we have beat-the-crap-out-of-cancer days.”
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 25 June 2009 )
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