It’s been 542 days since Megan was diagnosed with stage 4 aveolar rhabdomyosarcoma. Since the moment she was first diagnosed, “normal” has been hard to define for our family. Cancer is an all-consuming disease…not only for its victim, but for everyone who is close to its victim. During Megan’s 54 week treatment, cancer completely consumed our entire family to the point that we lost touch with any sense of normalcy. On January 25, 2016, Megan’s cancer was officially declared to be in remission, which was a day none of us will ever forget. However, even after knowing Megan had won her battle, there has still never been a day that goes by where the evil disease doesn’t creep into our thoughts. As Megan continues her amazing and triumphant recovery, we are all learning to cope with the monthly check ups at the CDH clinic, which are always stressful. We have also discovered that one of the most significant obstacles for a cancer survivor is learning to live life to the fullest between those dreaded three month scans. We are always so stressed about her scans, but I know our anxiety pales in comparison to what Megan has to deal with every three months. The good news is, it seems that as Megan continues to get better, our family also creeps a little closer to that elusive “normal” we have been searching for over the past year and a half. This week was about as normal as can be for our family, which is a beautiful thing.
Megan continues her recovery effort by going to physical therapy three times per week. I was watching her walk today, and it was amazing to see her heals getting so close to the ground. The dreaded chemo-induced foot drop she has been dealing with has been one of her biggest obstacles during recovery. It is so refreshing to know that the night casts and physical therapy are starting to pay dividends for her. One of the challenges of this aspect of her recovery is that she has been walking on her toes for so long that it has become somewhat of a habit for her. We have had to remind her on numerous occasions to work at walking with her heels as close to the floor as possible, because she doesn’t even realize she is doing it. I am hopeful that by the time school starts, she will be very close to walking normally again, which will be a huge relief to Megan.
Megan is also continuing her homebound tutoring in Algebra I. Obviously, Megan was far behind her peers when she started back to school in late February. During her part-time status at Coal City High School, she was able to earn a full credit in English and a half credit by completing health. This summer, she earned another half credit by completing summer school drivers education, and if she can make it through Algebra I, she will enter the next school year only a half semester behind her classmates. Considering everything she has been through, I think it’s pretty amazing she has come so far in such a short time. If she keeps working at it, there is no doubt in my mind she will reach her goal of graduating with her class.
Although we didn’t have any major family events planned this week, we still managed to fill the week with fun memories. On Thursday, Deb and Kenzie enjoyed a mom/daughter day out when they drove to Chicago to see the musical performance of “The Book of Mormon”. They both thought it was hilarious, and I know they had a great time together. After the show, they made their way to “Lou Malnati’s” in Chicago for pizza and salad. Here is a picture of Kenzie anxiously awaiting the food to arrive.
On that same day, Megan went shopping with her good friend Emma Byers and her mom. They drove to the Orland Park mall and had a great time together. I asked Megan to take a picture of the the two of them for me, but she forgot
On Friday, our family was excited because the Cougills were coming over for a swim party and cook out. Jerry and Kay were there, as was their daughter Amanda and her family. We also got to see their son Ryan for the first time in what seems like forever. Ryan and his wife live in Arizona as he is the head baseball coach at Yavapai Jr. College. Jerry had just recently announced his retirement from coaching after he won the state championship at Reed-Custer High School. Ryan’s team won the NCAA Jr. College World Series on the same day that Reed-Custer won the high school state championship, so we had lots of things to celebrate on Friday. It was so good to see everyone, and it gave me an excuse to get out the smoker to cook some ribs and pulled pork. The Cougills are very special people and it was so good to see everyone.
On Saturday, Kenzie left early in the morning to go fishing with her boyfriend, Nick. She had a successful trip as she proudly showed off one of her catches.
On the same day, Megan and I drove to Naperville to do some shopping. It was so much fund to spend the afternoon with her. Downtown Naperville is a beautiful place to shop, and the weather was absolutely perfect. Here is Megan taking a minute to get off her feet.
After some serious power shopping, Megan was hungry, but we didn’t have time to sit down at a restaurant. Megan really wanted three cheese bread from “Lou Malnati’s”, so we ordered it to go along with a frappe from Starbucks. It was not necessarily the supper of champions, but Megan sure enjoyed it:)
Saturday night, our friend Ann Gill invited us to go watch the fireworks display in Diamond. It was the first time I could remember the Village of Diamond holding a fireworks display, and it was really outstanding. We had a great view from Ann’s brother’s house. Megan was even able to catch a couple great pictures of the display.
Tomorrow, we are all excited because Grandpa and Grandma Bugg, Uncle Todd and his son Danny are all coming to celebrate July 4th with us. It will be the icing on the cake of a wonderful holiday weekend.
This was another fantastic week for the Bugg family. Megan continues to amaze everyone with her odds-defying recovery from stage 4 ARMS, and our entire family continues to regain a little more normalcy with each passing week. Happy Fourth of July!!!