One Year On

As some of you know, my little girl, Megyn, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) last year. 

This is the most common form of childhood Leukaemia. It's when the white blood cells go into rapid reproduction and increase until they crowd the bone marrow, preventing the production of healthy blood cells. ALL needs immediate treatment since the blast cells rapidly progress and accumulate, then enters the bloodstream and spread to other organs of the body.

We are coming up to the one year anniversary of Meg's diagnosis. But before we get there, we have to pass the one year anniversary of her falling ill. It was on September 24th 2009 that I picked her up from her after school dance class to be told she'd almost fainted halfway through class. Thinking she'd probably picked up a bug, I took her home and cared for her. Normally, Megyn bounces back from any illness within three to four days, so it came as a shock when five days went by and she was still feeling unwell.

By this time, bruises started popping up on her body and I couldn't figure how she was getting them since she hardly moved around. 

I would pray over her, we would claim her healing and she'd feel better for a day or so then fall ill again. I couldn't seem to get a hold of my doctors for love or money so we took her to the out of hours doc, who calmly informed us that though Meg was covered in bruises and petechiae she was perfectly fine and if she starts to bleed from any part of her body bring her back. I know my anger doesn't translate here (and I'm glad it doesn't) but you can't know how badly I wanted to punch that female doctor!

Needless to say it was another week of praying, claiming and trying to see a doctor.

By the third week, Meg was still up and down. Then on the 17th of October she woke with blood smeared across her face where her nose had bled in the night and she'd wiped it with the back of her hand.

I can't tell you how frantic I was at this point! It took NHS Direct THREE hours to get back to me. After each hour, I'd phone them only to be told the doc was going to phone me. Finally at the third hour, they said they'd tried to contact me but my phone didn't accept withheld calls and did I know why that was? I ask you!

If I hadn't kept phoning them they would not have bothered. That also adds another heap of anger. But since I know anger is a very negative and destructive emotion, I've chosen to let it all go. As a family, we focus on God's goodness and grace. 

All of that agro ended in a trip to A & E to discover Meg's liver and spleen were hugely swollen. She was admitted and had her blood checked for Blast cells, which they found. 

From the moment we found out our precious little girl had Leukaemia, life became a massive emotional roller coaster and five weeks living at Leicester Royal Infirmary Hospital.

I think being able to focus on finishing Let's Pretend, the story I was writing at the time, helped me to keep it together.

So it's been one year since Meg fell ill, and a lot has happened in that year. But, praise God, Meg is now on maintenance chemo and is doing extremely well. We estimate she'll finish treatment around March/April 2012. She'll never be free of doctor's visits for check-ups but I know she'll always be healthy, and nothing else will touch her, because Jesus healed her in her first week of treatment!

This is Meggie on her seventh birthday last year:

And this is her on her eighth birthday this year:



She is still gorgeous! And when her hair grows back this time around, she'll get to keep it. I can't wait to post those photos!

I'll post the symptoms of Leukaemia in case it could help someone out there. My advice to anyone suspecting your child may have Leukaemia, is first, don't listen to anyone who tells you your child is fine if you know in your heart something is wrong. The medical profession still fails to recognise a mother's intuition when it comes to her child. Second, push for tests! It is better to come across as an overprotective mum than fail your child!!! And all it takes is a simple blood test.

Symptoms of Leukaemia

Symptoms might include feeling sick, fevers, chills, night sweats and other flu-like symptoms, or feeling fatigued. Some patients experience nausea or a feeling of fullness due to an enlarged liver and spleen; this can result in unintentional weight loss. If the leukemic cells invade the central nervous system, then neurological symptoms (notably headaches) can occur.

Red blood cell deficiency leads to anemia, which may cause dyspnea (shortness of breath) and pallor (paleness to the skin due to low hemoglobin). Because normal bone marrow is rapidly being replaced by a higher number of immature white blood cells, the lack of red blood cells results in a lack of blood platelets, which are important in the blood clotting process. This means people with leukemia may easily become bruised, bleed excessively, or develop pinprick bleeds (petechiae).

It is true also that all symptoms associated with leukemia can be attributed to other diseases. However, leukemia is always diagnosed through medical tests.



The Reason

My blog posts are more sporadic than I would like. Who wants to be a once-on-an-occasion blogger, right? But that's unfortunately been the case since my Meggie got ill.

A couple of weeks ago, she caught mumps. This week we began the second and last block of intensive chemo. After this, she'll still be having chemo for the next two years but it wouldn't be as intense.

I have to say, I am having a hard time torn between trying to market my books--which, sadly I hardly do--and being completely there for Meg. When I'm writing I feel guilty, and when I'm not I feel guilty. How is it possible to have so much guilt?

For the moment I'm pulling back on the amount of time I spend on the Internet, which will more than likely kill my sales. But I'm sure there will be a day when I can look back on these years without beating myself up too badly.

The point is: Megyn! Without her my life would be pointless. And really, she and my other three are the reason my life makes sense.

I have to remind myself of this cos, right now, I feel as though I'm letting my writing career down. I wonder: is there such a thing as a supermum? And if so, can someone tell me how to attain this amazing status?

Update on Megyn

Just a quick update on Meggie. We are about halfway through her maintenance before we start another seven-week block of  intensive chemo.

In this photo she has about two weeks of hair growth this time around. By the time we hit the end of this phase she will have a good bit of hair. Unfortunately, she'll lose it all again and it won't start to regrow until she comes off the intensive block of chemo.

By mid August she should be finished with all her intensive chemo and will spend the rest of her two and a bit years of treatment on a maintenance plan. This consists of chemo, but nothing like what she's been through or is about to go through again.

It is no exaggeration to say Meg is an extremely brave little girl. None of this has made her lose her faith. There isn't a day she doesn't smile or giggle even when she's in pain.

Thank you all of you who has emailed to ask about her and send your love. She tells me to give you all back her love and cuddles.

Love & hugs to all from Meggie, and from me.

A Little Update on Megyn

Since I promised to keep you up to date on Meg, I thought I'd pop up a small post on her progress. She is doing very well, praise God. The last test results were a DNA level test to check her risk factor (what are the chances of her relapsing). She is low risk, but the test was to check to see if she is undoubtedly low risk. There is a marker the lab looks for which will tell them this. Unfortunately, they couldn't find this marker in Meg's bone marrow. Apparently this doesn't mean it isn't there only that they didn't find it. Therefore they have put her at indeterminate low risk. She will have to go through two further intense batches of treatment instead of one.

If I'm honest, I'm not looking forward to this. At the moment she is fighting and doing well. The intense blocks are not nice and I hate that her little body will be pummeled not once but twice. I don't think I'll ever get to a point when I don't suddenly find myself crying for her. But she is strong and such a lovely, giggly girl. She just gets on with it.

Such a blessed child.

Until next time,
God bless you all x

Back Home With Megyn

Wow! It’s been a loooooog time since I had the chance to touch base. As some of you know, my adorable little girl, Megyn was diagnosed with Leukaemia in late October. In fact, looking below, I can see that it was the day after I posted the "Agents: What is the benefit? And who is Avon?" blog entry that we ended up rushing her to hospital to find out she was so ill.

There is a lot I can say about the medical system leading up to her diagnosis, but I won’t. Suffice to say, if you ever have to take your child to the doctor because they’ve been ill for a while, DO NOT accept the “it’s only a virus, she/he will get over it” line of fobbing off the system seems to prefer as a recognised form of medical care!

I don’t want to get into that line of discussion, because it upsets me very much. What I do want to say is Meg is responded to her chemo treatment astonishingly well and we thank everyone who has prayed for her and those who have continued to pray. As I write this, she has swine flu and a couple other viruses. Yet she is so well, she amazes everyone.

God is indeed an awesome God!

Megyn sends her love to everyone who has taken an interest in her, and promises to update her blog when she feels stronger. megynsblog.blogspot.com

Since I haven’t had much time to market my new book, Divorce Etiquette, I will take the opportunity to remind you that it is out now, and available from The Wild Rose Press.

I love to hear from my fans, so feel free to drop me a line at monique@moniquedevere.co.uk