Starting off summer on a good note

Dear Friends and Family,

I thought I would write an update as Teagan has gratefully made some big improvements this last month. Our household (aka Teagan ) is now miraculously 6 weeks puke free! This feels quite honestly like 6 months for us given Teagan had been puking 2-3 days per week for the past 8 months. I am still rerouting my brain to the calmer more peaceful puke free journey of brain trails.

I just read over my last post briefly to see what was going in our last update and I am so grateful to not have as much to update about medically. Dr. Browd, Teagan's Neurosurgeon, once told us, the longer your family can stay away from the hospital the better off you will all be. I couldn't agree more. Thankfully we have been able to stay away from the hospital more than previously. Since the last update we continued to work with GI in an effort to figure out why she was having so much puking. We had noticed that after cutting out milk and obvious dairy foods, her puking was reduced down to one day instead of 2-3 days per week. When meeting with GI and again trying to unravel this complicated puzzle, I asked if we could go to an Allergist. Quite honestly I asked this for myself as I let her know that if I didn't have to restrict dairy, I didn't want one additional thing on my plate. The GI doctor said to me, I don't think it's really necessary but if you think that would be helpful I'm happy to write a referral. Our GI doctor is so incredibly kind and we have really appreciated her help.

The following week I took Teagan to the NW Asthma and Allergy pediatric allergist specialist. Teagan walked in the office like she owned the place saying hi to everyone and showing them her two new missing teeth. Don't mind that she swallowed both teeth as soon as they popped out but we don't call that a problem in our household:). I was so proud of how social she was as we waited and I filled out another 10 page packet of paperwork. We finally got to go back and see the doctor. They did the litany of pokes on her back and they all show up normal which was good. I then began describing the puking episodes which lasted anywhere from 1-3 days where she would puke every 1-2 hours on the clock for 24-72 hours and then the next morning pop back up puke free. He says to me, "hold on as I need to call another Doctor to consult on this". He stands up and doesn't shut the door. I then hear him begin to speak to this other doctor and preface the conversation with, " I have a very complex kid with a very rare situation". I have to say I cringe when I hear this language given we have heard these words a lot and usually what comes next is not good. I quietly got up and closed the door so that I could not hear more and instead wait for him to tell me once they got it all figured out.

Shortly he comes back in and tells me that he believes she might have FPIES. Food Protein-Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome. FPIES is an allergic reaction in the gastrointestinal system which causes severe vomiting and/or diarrhea usually within 2 hours of ingestion. The only way we will be able to see if she has this is if we go on a strict no dairy diet. He said it also could be fish but urged me not to change too many things at once in her diet. After 8 months of being a puke ninja, I decided to take both diary and fish out and potentially give us a break from puking. I must admit I sometimes feel like we are throwing ideas all over the place given FPIES is usually something kids her age would grow out of at this age but of course I was willing to give it a try. Sure enough, since eliminating dairy and fish she has been puke free!

In complete honesty, I was a little bummed out to imagine adding a strict dairy free diet on top of other care tasks. I never realized how dairy is in almost everything we eat. As I allowed more time for it to sink in, I realized that this really is a brain tumor parents dream come true. Ok, none of this is a dream come true but.....food is something I can control unlike the brain. Food is something I can do. Given this realization and some help from my sister finding new foods, I have become much more accepting of it and we are slowly getting better at this adjustment. Nowadays there are so many alternatives that honestly it is doable.

The timing of this and summer beginning could not have been better!

Looking ahead we have a few more appointments on the horizon ("few" is the best word ever):
* appointment with a GI Nutritionist this week to maneuver around getting calcium needs met
*appointment with the equilibrium doctor in Aug to explore if there might be multiple contributing factors
*6 month scan and endocrinology appt in mid August (previously we had been doing scans every 3 months the last 2.5 years, so this is the longest we have ever gone between scans to check for cancer recurrence-which we always believe will not be)
*3 month GI follow up


So far this summer we have been fun busy. Judd is doing everything and anything golf. This includes golf camp, junior pga traveling team, fairwood junior golfing, and hanging out with Dad golfing nonstop. That apple did not fall too far from the tree. We have introduced a few new therapies for Teagan to help aid healing this summer. She had her second session of hippotherapy (horse therapy) today. I can't tell you how nice it is to bring her to something that any kid would love to do which also happens to be therapy. She is enjoying it and her big brother is a little jealous. We also have her doing neuro-acupuncture. She is so brave and doesn't even cry when they put the small needles in her head that remain there all day. She also continues with her additional therapies which include PT, OT, speech, and neurofeedback on a weekly basis. This is what we "can do" to help aid healing for her.

I am hopeful that in the future I will not have as much to write about. That is always the hope. Now that she is not puking regularly she is building more and more strength. So much so that she is throwing down some really good fits lately. I'm grateful as ever that she has the strength and energy to do so. This doesn't mean I'm not exhausted but it helps to know that my son went through a similar process of figuring out emotions and grateful that she is learning to do the same. This fall both kids will be starting new schools since I am no longer working but we are hopeful this will be a smooth transition and so far have heard great feedback about both new schools.

I hope all of you are having a good start to the summer! I hear rain falling as we speak but it's still summer, right? Hoping for no new unexpected updates and simple ordinary summer days with friends and family. Thank you again for everyone's support and kindness. We are always incredibly grateful for all the joy and love we have seen through these last two and a half years thanks to you all.

The Fettigs


*I thought I would share our newsletter for updates on Sweet Tea Cancer Connections too if you are interested.
https://mailchi.mp/63861c6fbc77/sweet-tea-cancer-connections-newsletter

Continued Improvements

Hi Friends and Family,

I thought I would write an update as so many generous folks have been asking how Teagan is doing. I last updated in March 2019 and gratefully a lot has changed since then in the right direction. Thank you for everyone who continues to show their love and caring hearts. This journey is not for the faint of heart and we appreciate everyone who continues to show love. I must admit, I keep wondering when I should stop updating as life goes on for the rest of the world but as we get further and further out I realize that the complications from the cancer treatments have continued to create issues for Teagan. I hate this but this is the reality which is not unusual for most kids post cancer treatment I have learned. Some have more side effects than others but it is rare to find some who have none at some point through their lives. In fact the statistics show 90% of kids post cancer treatment have some sort of side effect from the cancer treatments they underwent. 80% of these kiddos have lifelong chronic health conditions caused by the treatments. These aren't uplifting statistics but the reality for kids who receive cancer treatments.

Last I updated Teagan had had an upper GI test which helped us discover her stomach is moving food very slowly through her GI system which may be contributing to the puking. The idea being her colon can only hold so much food before it will come up if it's not going out. Since this test we have increased her Erythomyosin med (an antibiotic she takes 3 x day which has the side effect of moving food through her system faster), added daily Miralax, and also added Senna (a natural laxative). We also have cut out all dairy. This combination seems to be helping her poop more regularly now to a point where she is only puking once every 2.5-3 weeks and for not as many days. We don't know the cause of this but likely a side effect of chemo is our guess. We will continue to try and work to improve this for Teagan.

In the last two months we have been visiting Seattle Children's around 1-3 times per week but now gratefully don't have anything scheduled until her next scan in July as well as with GI in July. This feels so great to not see so many doctor appointments on the schedule. We are really grateful for our Neuro Oncology Nurse Practitioners and Late Effects Nurse at Seattle Children's who helped us work through all possible ideas of what could be causing this. Without their help we would likely be waiting 6-8 months just to schedule these individual procedures at Children's. I never thought we would continue to need their help so much post treatment but I am learning this post treatment life is no joke. In fact, we have come to realization that her quality of life is dependent upon the coordination of medical care and advocacy we provide for her as her parents. Given this realization and the continued medical complexities we learn about caused from the treatments that saved her life, I recently decided to not go back to work next year. This was not an easy decision but I could not be more grateful to be exactly where I am with her and available to help. When faced with the unanswered question of the life of my child, it shifted my whole mentality and ideas about life. I am grateful for these last two months where I have been available at a moments notice for the puking episodes which continue but also able to continue her 6 therapies a week as well as schedule in all the doctor appointments as well. I could not be more grateful for the caring and kind people at Maywood Middle School and Issaquah School District who welcomed me this year as well as were incredibly supportive when I left. I'm not sure I could ever thank the kind educators in Issaquah SD enough for their help throughout this.

In an effort to simplify the medical update piece in terms of recent procedures I thought I would share the tests she has had within the last two months:
1.)She had an upper endoscopy under anesthesia which helped show no abnormalities which was reassuring. We are continuing to work with GI as the puking has not yet subsided but somehow has slowed down some. We are at every 2.5 weeks now with fewer number of days while puking every 1-2 hours.
2.) Teagan also completed an EEG where she had 29 sensors hooked up to her head and had to go into it 4 hours sleep deprived and then try and sleep while all hooked up. She did great with the wires but the taking a nap while sleep deprived didn't go over so well. Gratefully they got all the info they needed and again we found no concerning issues. The reason for the EEG was to rule out her having seizures which could have been possibly contributing to her puking episodes.

3.) We are still working on her eyes. We may need to do an eye surgery to straighten out her right eye if we don't see improvements but are still working with a Developmental Optometrist to see what next steps might be. Her eyes have improved their ability to move side to side greatly with daily eye exercises but her right eye still struggles to move outward. Currently both eyes work but only one eye at a time. She also has no depth perception or peripheral vision. This is damage from brain surgery to remove her tumor.

We are grateful for the results of the endoscopy and EEG. We are hopeful for her eyes but not sure what the future will hold though grateful she can see well out of both of them. I have learned when trying to summarize to folks I don't know about Teagan that I use the term "medically complex" or say she has "some unique health needs". It is unfortunately too much of a mouthful at times to share it all and honestly too much to handle for most people. At the same time, I am learning when to share and not to share and sometimes I fail miserably. I am slowly learning to find a balance as it is hard as a Mom who has been entrenched in it for 2.5 years and counting but I won't give up trying:)


Thankfully through this rollercoaster ride of life our family will continue to ride after our daughter was diagnosed with brain cancer, we continue to see beauty.

*Three weeks ago, Teagan took her first steps, as she learned to walk for the 3rd time. I somehow caught it on video and shared it on FB if you haven't seen it. Quite a miracle and this provides us so much hope for her walking independently again!

*We recently had a visit from all three of her birth to 3 year old therapists who used to come to our house weekly (physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy). This visit was quite magical as it helped remind me of all the progress she has made and the incredible comebacks she made post radiation necrosis. We continue to be so grateful for all the therapists, providers, and others we run into that we honestly would never have met if not for Teagan getting brain cancer that have provided so much support and help for Teagan along the way. We will never be able to adequately thank them all but we are so grateful!

*I have been asked to do a short speech tomorrow for the Jaquish Dukelow Memorial Guild, one of Seattle Children's Guilds that has raised 1.5 million the last 20 years for continuing research for pediatric cancer at Seattle Children's Hospital. I've never done this before but grateful for the opportunity to share Teagan's journey and hopefully help others see the need for further research for better treatments given the incredible side effects of these treatments.

*Our nonprofit, Sweet Tea Cancer Connections (STCC), just partnered with researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and have scheduled our first focus group June 7th at Seattle Children's to get guidance on our app that is being developed to connect other parents at different stages of illness. Our hope is we can learn more about how they currently connect with other parents, how they use technology for support, and your personal and family needs for social and resource support. STCC is also finishing up two projects with the University of Washington. One with the UW Foster School of Business who has helped us design our marketing plan for our app. The other with the UW Capstone project which is helping to develop our app. I cannot tell you how helpful having a project for me is in terms of giving me something concrete I can work towards giving back to our new community. It is not easy to transition to a caregiver role and to have so many unknowns on our plate in terms of Teagan's future life as well as dealing with the complexities that come with having a child with special needs. It is helpful for me though to be able to turn this pain into purpose through this project. With time, I am excited to see this continue to flourish. This is passion defined for me and I am so grateful for all the incredible people who have helped this come this far and continue to assist this moving forward. I will never be able to adequately thank you all but please know how grateful I am.


I feel like I could go on and on about the beauty that so closely coincides with suffering along this journey. I am so grateful for this as it is such a necessary piece of what keeps us being grateful for everyday even if some days are filled with a lot of pain and tears (for me at least). I am learning a lot about navigating post treatment life for Teagan as well as taking on new roles as a caretaker as well as a special needs Mom. I am not ungrateful for this as I get to do so but I also think calling out reality within this is important too. It is not for the faint of heart and we also did not get a choice. So we move forward and I learn to pursue how one can find a healthy balance while facing some big questions about life or death on a daily basis. We daily ponder what the future will look like for our kiddos with so many unknowns. I also then continue to inquire how one keeps healthy as a Mom in the midst. If there is one thing I have a choice about, it is choosing to provide the best quality of care coordination I can for Teagan and also try to be as healthy as I can through this diagnosis which has changed our life forever. I liken it to a car crash that happened but then you continue to get triggered or potentially hit or actually hit with a new side effect at times from random directions. With this naturally comes some fear. How could it not? Getting the triggers and car crashes to stop is out of our control. The goal then being trying to find peace and beauty in the midst.

Thank you all for all your support and love you are sending Teagan and our family. We are so grateful for this and the amazing beauty you have helped provide for us along this ride. Hope you have a great weekend and enjoy the beautiful summer weather!

Care Coordination

I have been meaning to do an update but so much has been going on with Teagan that I keep waiting to to do an update once we know more. Unfortunately we continue to keep waiting and still don't have any answers but we are feeling like hopefully we are beginning to get closer to an answer.

Three weeks ago Teagan had a clean scan! We were originally planning on doing it on the 27th but a week prior we noticed that Teagan's ataxia (shaking) had increased, her one eye seemed to be more off center than normal, and her puking was continuing. We got an emergent scan done as our concern beyond the potential of cancer returning was that possibly her necrosis could be spreading. This would be a big deal given it is located next to the brain stem and necrosis spreading could be mean paralysis or death. Naturally with the help of our team at Children's to do an emergent scan and thankfully it did not show any evidence of disease and no necrosis spreading. Given our scan was emergent we only were able to get a brain scan and not a spine scan as well. The 27th we returned for her spine scan and thankfully it was clear as well.

I noticed I didn't do my typical post about a clean scan. I think the reason being is that we have been chasing puke around fervently without any idea what is causing it. Teagan has been puking typically for 2-3 days per week. We are now going on our 5th month of this with no one being able to help lead us in any direction. Puking of course is not just puking anymore as the big concern is making sure she can keep down one of her medicines which she takes 3 times a day and regulates her blood pressure. Also, as a Mom holding a child while they continue to puke over and over again week after week, it gets a little tiresome.

So much so that recently I have taken a leave from work to be available for the level of care Teagan is demanding. Last week on my 3rd day of leave, Teagan began puking again. We had an upper GI study scheduled that same morning so we went to this with puke bag in tow. Being the trooper Teagan is, she did as she was asked and drank the chalk like barium mixed with orange soda. After she drank it we had to position her on her side and back while taking multiple x-rays to watch the barium move through her system. At one point after drinking more as asked, she turned over and puked it right back up. Thankfully she was able to keep the original amount down enough that we could finish this series of xrays. Following this, we had to go out in the waiting room and for four more hours, every 30 minutes, we had to bring her in to take another xray of her tummy looking for progression of the barium through her stomach and digestive system. Typically this entire exam takes 3 hours but we noticed that Teagan's belly is pushing her food through extremely slow which got us out of there in 4.5 hours. The radiologists mentioned we may need additional testing to see if it might be gastroparesis. Gastroperisis means partial paralysis of the stomach. It is a common side effect of chemotherapy. We are hoping to learn more about the potential for this at our next appointment. If so, it may require yet another 4 hour test she will need to do with more nuclear medicine to truly make this determination. Meanwhile I need to return a stool sample to also rule out some type of potential bacterial issue. We also did a poop cleanse giving Teagan a large amount of miralax to clean out her system. Oh the joys of working to rule out every last potential GI cause:) Poop galore last weekend!

This week we have an appointment with Ear Nose Throat. A few puking episodes back right before we were leaving on mid winter break vacation, Teagan was puking and one of her tubes popped out. These tubes were placed last spring to allow her to go into the pressurized hyperbaric chamber. They were supposed to come out on their own in October but had not worked their way out. Apparently I heard from one of our Nurse Practitioners that radiation to the brain can cause one's ear drums to dry out and thus often kids will produce more earwax than normal. When Teagan's tube popped out it was covered in wax. We began to wonder if maybe she had something going on with her inner ear impacting her equilibrium and making her nauseous. I did some research and also found out that equilibrium issues are common for kids with posterior fossa syndrome which she had. I also learned from our Neuro Oncology NP that there are special doctors called Otoneurologists who are available to assist with this. I'm hoping we may be able to get a referral to look more into this.

Honestly it is really hard to not have any answers while we watch her consistently puking. One good thing about the last two years though is that our family has built some serious inner strength and we will not give up until we figure this out with the help of Specialists. Gratefully now I am available full time to figure this out as well. I have found in my experience as a Caretaker with a child with medically complex issues that her quality of life depends on the quality of care coordination and advocacy on my part. Unfortunately she can't tell me what hurts other than she doesn't feel good, her tummy hurts, or her head hurts. Naturally this leaves a lot of questions in between. There is a certain level of stress a parent/caregiver holds when their child is not feeling well. Then add to it the potential for what is wrong to be terminal (thankfully we aren't worried about this one right now with a recent clean scan). Then add the fact that we are going on 5 months now and us adults have not yet figured this out. It is frustrating to say the least. Frustration doesn't help get answers though so we will continue to advocate and coordinate her care between the different specialists while being grateful for the days she feels well and is not puking. After puking yesterday morning, she bounced back today and was able to go to her brother's hockey tournament and got to see her friend Maggie at the ice rink. This was his first tournament ever and it was a lot of fun to watch how much he has grown and learned this season. This morning he got the MVP award and we were so proud of him!

Thanks for everyone's continued support and checking in to see how things are going. We so appreciate it. It can be easy at times to wonder when we might get a break from this all. I have learned to stop thinking this way as I have learned it takes away from the moments I have now. Instead I remain hopeful the next update I will be able to let you know what it was that has been bothering Teagan. Until then, we will be grateful for every day she feels well and I get to be home with the kids and our family. Sometimes joy is as simple as that:)

Late Effects of Cancer Treatment

Hi All,

I realized I have posted some pics lately of us in ER without many details so thought I would send out a little update. Since late October, Teagan has continued on a puking streak of about once a week. We had thought we had figured it out with Endocrinology in November from the lack of cortisol contributing to her being nauseous but unfortunately it returned. Everytime this happens we end up going to the hospital where they do their obligatory imaging of her ventricles in her brain as well as a shunt series x ray. These two things are checking to see if her shunt (aka brain drain) is functioning properly. Thankfully no images or x rays have shown any indication of anything with her shunt not working. Typically we try our best to time it right when we go to the hospital so we can do a haste MRI in outpatient because if we have to go through ER they only offers a CT scan which means more radiation unfortunately to Teagan's poor head. We have unfortunately been at the hospital quite a lot lately and are becoming frequent visitors of the ER as well. I cannot tell you how much I do not like going to the ER. Talk about every ounce of my body remembering the first day we came there to find out Teagan had brain cancer. Bodies and brains do not forget such stuff so naturally it always brings up a lot of feels on many levels.

Recently Teagan's puking episodes have unfortunately gotten a bit worse. Two weeks ago she did not sit upright for three days, did not eat, and everytime she sat up she would puke over and over again. She told us her head was hurting. We took her to the hospital and her ventricles seemed not to show any concern with her shunt but unfortunately her symptoms were so incredibly similar to when her shunt was overdraining during chemo (extensive puking, no eating, not sitting upright as sitting upright makes her shunt (brain drain) drain more and leads to more puking). Imaging does not show overdraining unfortunately.

I was at work so Jeff took her in and convinced them to adjust her shunt setting from 1.0 to 1.5. They adjusted it with their super magnet outside the valve and sure enough the next morning she popped back up and was back to herself. Typically a shunt adjustment would not work that quickly but something worked. I cannot tell you the incredible relief which washed over me when I was able to see her when she woke up and was talking and back to herself for the most part. The incredible relief in and of itself is beyond draining but thankfully in the right direction. We hope in the back of our minds that this adjustment was correct for her shunt and we will be able to check at the end of February during her next scan if this adjustment was not a correct adjustment (hopefully we don't have to check this before then with any issues).

Last Sunday, we ended up in ER with Teagan again the entire day. She woke up in the middle of the night screaming her head hurt and then she went back to sleep. That next morning when she woke up it was obvious she was not feeling good. Sure enough she began puking just after waking. Puking is complicated now that she has to take hydrocortisone (steroid) to make up for the lack of cortisol she produces from radiation damage to her pituitary gland. Hydrocortisone regulates Teagan's blood pressure. Without this medication on board it could kill her. So unfortunately she threw up Sunday morning right after I gave her hydrocortisone. I then administered her another dose and she puked it up a second time 10 minutes after giving it to her. I tried a 3rd time to give her meds and again 10 minutes later she puked it up yet again. If after trying to give this medication three times and it is not able to be kept down, you have to call the on-call Endocrinologist. I did so and she instructed us to give Teagan the injection in her leg of Solucortef which allows this medication to get into her system. Immediately following this, we must take her to ER. Since I was already going to ER, I decided to let them give her the injection there and then monitor her. Teagan continued puking every 20 minutes on Sunday for about 12 hours. At ER they gave her the stress does injection and then had us stay there until her afternoon dose to see if she could keep it down. If she was able to keep it down, we could go home. If not, they told us we would need to stay the night to monitor her. Thankfully after they gave her some Zofran (anti nausea med), she was able to keep down her afternoon dose for 40 minutes before puking again. Thankfully she only needed 20-25 minutes to keep it down so we were able to go home. She continued to puke on the way home and then all night at our house. The next morning.....she popped back up saying, "I feel better Momma".

Man oh man this is a tough road. I'm not going to lie. Sunday night I put together a big email to our previous Neuro Oncology team searching for some ideas of what we can do to figure this out better. The amount this is impacting poor Teagan's quality of life let alone our whole family's is extreme. Settling has never been an option for us and if I do one thing as her Mom is to try and help improve the quality of the life she was left with after much of the damage done by many of the treatments we allowed to be given to her to save her life. Two days later I scheduled GI testing we will begin next week and then we have a laundry list of additional tests and testing to do in an effort if nothing else to begin to rule some of the potential reasons for the puking out. Living each week waiting for her to get sick has left me a little skittish I won't lie. Thankfully she has consistently been perking back up after these puking/sickness spells so I am learning to talk myself through it with this reminder as best I can.

One highlight recently is Teagan got some new ankle foot braces that go all the way up her calves. She also has matching shoes that are wedges to fit braces so that her body and bones stack correctly for her to more effortlessly stand. For the first time since brain surgery two years ago, she was able to stand last week for 10minutes!!!! This is huge because in order to walk you must stand first! So grateful for finding out about these new braces through another Mom I met at Teagan’s preschool last year.

Recently I was also asked to talk on behalf of a caretaker perspective. I have never thought of myself as a caretaker. Mom, yes, which is what I am most proud of in life. Caretaker is something I imagined doing when taking care of my own parents when they get old. Through this experience it became blatantly obvious that caretaking is a new part of my identity. Our daughter still cannot walk (but we are still hopeful) and started with one potentially terminal condition and after treatment now has three potentially terminal conditions which could take her. The amount of side effects from the treatment designed to save her life are incredibly extensive. But yet I still didn't consider myself a caregiver.

I guess I am a caretaker after all in addition to being a Mom first. I'm doing what any Mom would do which is to be the best Mom possible to their child who unfortunately got a brain tumor. So we continue to care for Teagan as best we can as we know that the care we provide her amounts to her quality of life. We continue to be grateful for caring for her and continue to try and improve the care we are giving her. For today, she got to play in the snow with her brother, have hot chocolate by the fire, and just be a kid while being healthy enough to throw a solid 4 year old fit while leaving Starbucks. One day and moment at a time is the only way to live and be grateful for this life of ours:)

Thanks for everyone's continuing support and love sent Teagan's way!

Rollercoasting continues

Hello to all our supporters and friends!  

I wanted to make sure to write an update as I have been meaning to but not yet done so.  I noticed the last update I did Teagan had started preschool and just had a good scan!  Two weeks ago, thank goodness, Teagan got another clean scan! This was a big one (who am I kidding they are all big) as we had been dealing with a month of random puking which always raises the normal level of concern. 

Think I may break things down a little given the time of night I'm writing this for a quicker update if possible:) I'll give you the best news first:)

*October 20th, 2018
Sweet Tea Cancer Connections held it's first Gala! I still cannot believe this happened but thanks to Sooze Johnson's amazing help, the amazing help from all our volunteers, the incredibly kind people who donated and contributed to the event, and all our attendees (it sold out at 170), it went off magically. We had anticipated 50k as our goal to raise money for the development and maintenance of our app and it came in at almost 130k.  I still can't believe this happened. We had an entire table of folks from Seattle Children's who were Teagan's providers and supporters of the app there as well as table of my cancer parent friends who so graciously attended and are incredibly supportive of our cause. Thank you to everyone who was a part of making this happen as it was an incredible group effort. Please know thank you's are in still in the works and apologize for the delays ahead of time as they are still coming.

*Oct 21st at 6am (4 hours after returning home from the Gala..it was a late night) I woke up to Teagan puking. I have never experienced such a high and low in such a small time. Teagan continued puking on and off for the next month. Thankfully  through a method of ruling out potential causes. Jeff and I asked our Endocrinologist to check her cortisol. Right away we found out that unfortunately Teagan suffered the 3rd piece of the trifecta of radiation damage to her pituitary gland from proton radiation.
Trifecta of proton radiation damage break down:
1.) Damage to thyroid-daily medications for life-easy tablet 
2.) No longer produces human growth hormones (hgh)-nightly injections of hgh for life 
3.) No longer produces cortisol-3 x day hyrocortisone (natural steroid) for life to replace her cortisol. Without cortisol on board, it can be fatal so this is a new necessity.
*We also have to be watching now for early onset of puberty at age 4 or 5 related to pituitary damage as well. If this was to happen, she would need an additional medicine to delay puberty.

*Beginning of November:Thankfully we figured out the addition of hydrocortisone to make up for the lack of cortisol around early November. We immediately began to see the improvements for Teagan once hydrocortisone (natural cortisol steroid replacement) was on board. She stopped puking sporadically, her energy levels went up, she stopped spacing out as much, and her overall energy levels improved. Hallelujah!

*November 16th- Teagan had her 3 month scan. We were able to fit 4 appointments in on this day. The first was sedation and her full MRI brain and spinal scan to check for recurrence of cancer. The second was learning how to give an emergency cortisol dosage in Teagan's leg if Teagan was not able to keep it down. The third was meeting with the Endocrinologist to check her thyroid, human growth hormone, and cortisol levels. Fourth, we met with a dietician who is working with us given the potential she may have damage from radiation to her hypothalamus which controls appetite. Lastly, we met to hear our scan results with thankfully the best news was saved for last. We were able to drive home that afternoon with a tremendous sense of relief and excitement for the holidays.

*November 26th, 3 days ago-Teagan woke up and began puking. 6 times in total the first day.
Let me break down puking for you.  Puking is concerning for many reasons for a parent with a child who had brain cancer. 
-Puking is what first began happening for Teagan when we found out she had brain cancer. It is a common symptom when kids find out they have brain cancer. One always fears something wrong in the brain after all that she has been through which began with puking. How could you not:)
-Puking could mean her shunt (which drains cerebral spinal fluid out of her brain to control pressures in her head) could be failing. Mind you this kiddo has a recalled shunt which they thought would be fun to try and a chemo kid (I'm being sarcastic as the intention was good but naturally puking for her raises huge alarms for neuro surgery who would rather have her shunt replaced). The problem with replacing a shunt that has not shown us it is not working is that they can't guarantee the next one will work.
-A third concern is on board since this month now with puking. Unfortunately Teagan no longer produces adequate cortisol. Cortisol is the hormone that controls fight or flight. It also regulates blood pressure. If she was to get in an accident and stress levels went up or she was to faint, she would not have anything on board to regulate blood pressure which could result in death. Thus no matter how sick she is we must be able to give her her hydrocortisone which would prevent such.

So here we are today. Thankfully at 4pm yesterday Teagan stopped puking and turned a corner.  I came home from work as Jeff was home all day with her and Judd now has a fever. I was able to give him Tylenol and he stayed home recovering at home today.  It is interesting I have to say to have two kids get sick so close to each other and notice the drastic difference in our approach to their sicknesses. It is quite the unique experience when you realize that if you just let the puking run it's course, or like in this case her stomach bug, but in doing so miss a shunt failure it could be life threatening. Furthermore if she can't keep down her cortisol meds due to puking, she also risks a life threatening situation. All of this for what we are hoping was just a stomach bug.  Man is this ride exhausting at times.

Yesterday I explained it like this to Teagan's School Nurse who thankfully I also work with and know. Cancer will not take her quickly. Lack of human growth hormones or thyroid will not take her quickly. Her shunt malfunctioning could kill her quickly. Not having cortisol on board could kill her quickly.  Given we have multiple life threatening issues on board with varying degrees I try and focus on the most pressing. I noticed the health room assistant listening to us with an interesting look on her face . Yes, this is not normal I agree but I don't know how else to say it. 

Living with a child with multiple life threatening conditions is a unique experience. I realize I am not alone in this and there are many other parents out there who can relate. It is hard at times though to explain the thoughts and perspective it brings to you on an hourly basis. I often am asking myself am I overreacting a lot given all we have been through and my sense of knowing I see things differently now and have many triggers in the medical/hospital setting from the last two years.  Sometimes it can feel a little isolating but thankfully I have made other friends who understand this and these connections mean the world to me. There are times where I want to just go hide and get away to try and get a break but that is not a choice nor do I want to do so and miss out on life. Others ask how I do this or say I'm so brave. I honestly don't have a choice. What I am doing is living one hour or half hour or minute at a time while keeping hope alive. Hope is what I live on:)  I wake up everyday not knowing what today will bring but am hopeful for the more life I get with my loved ones. It ain't always pretty, don't get me wrong, and it sure aint' easy. But this is the reality I am better of accepting than fighting.

 We cannot thank everyone enough for the continued support. I had originally wished that once we got done with treatment our life would get back on track and I wouldn't still be writing updates. I have since realized and learned that we are on a new path. I continue to learn that this new path then often takes new unexpected paths on a daily or hourly basis. I want to make sure to show my gratefulness for everyone's continued support and thus wanted to update others. I have had a hard time not continuing to ask how this all happened but am trying very hard to reframe this and just say this is happening.  It is helping take out that additional layer of suffering for me asking why. Why does not help anything honestly for me and I am learning to not ask why because it doesn't really matter why. What matters is for the moment both kiddos are tucked into bed at home, I'm in the comfort of our home, and I'm grateful for this moment and hopeful tomorrow will come and I will get to enjoy another day with my family and friends. It really can be that simple for me:)

Thank you again for your continued supports, well wishes, and prayers. This support continues to help our entire family along these new paths that arise along the way. We are so grateful for all your support and hope you have a great weekend!

Clean Scan and off to Preschool!

I'm sorry for the delay on the update but thankfully Thursday before last, the 30th, Teagan had another clean scan!  We got to drop another penny into our special scan jar my sister in law gave us.  I dream of this jar getting so full someday that it overflows with pennies and clean scans!  This would be my dream come true!

Thankfully Teagan's clear scan let us breath a sigh of relief after her previous scan was cancelled due to her puking the morning of her previous scheduled scan. Thankfully we are thinking that this puking may have been caused by some spinning we were having her do for eye exercises we were given as homework from her developmental optometrist or from car sickness from driving two hours everyday for daily intensive therapy services. Either way, thankfully the puking has stopped and most importantly she had a clean scan. Not only was this scan clean but it also is continuing to show signs up improvement in the areas of radiation necrosis. 

Our NP at Seattle Children's was able to speak with the Radiologist who read the scan and they mentioned that they believe the previous hyperbaric oxygen treatment may be leading to these continued improved scans because this is not normal to see continued improvement this far post necrosis.  This was good to hear as we were previously told there is no data to prove effectiveness of the hyperbaric oxygen treatment. Thankfully Teagain now is data for the effectiveness of hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatment working we believe:)   

A lot has been changing as the season begins to turn. Teagan had her first day of preschool today and Judd had his first day of school last Wednesday! Judd and Teagan are at the same school and Teagan is very excited to be with the same teacher as last year! It was a little hard not being there with them to drop them off but Jeff sent me lots of pictures!

I also just started back to work after almost two years off since Teagan was diagnosed and thankfully I am surrounded by an amazing team and am at a great new school. I am noticing such a difference from the high school level to the middle school level but I feel like this change was a move in the right direction.  It is interesting to watch the new me consistently bump into the old me. It often feels like I'm watching from afar as I observe the lack of connectedness between the two at times. It is hard to describe as I can say the last two years has provided a huge shift in the way I think and view things. It's unique as one is not better than the other. Instead, it just feels like my perspective is very different.

Judd is halfway through his hockey tryouts as we speak.  I've got a lot to learn about this sport they call hockey:) It's seems a little intense, just sayin', but Judd seems to be really enjoying it so I'll take his lead.  Teagan's sport at 3 years old is therapies. We have her in physical therapy twice a week, occupational therapy once a week, speech therapy once a week, we see her developmental optometrist once every four weeks for homework exercises, and we also have her trying neurofeedback for her brain twice a week.  With the brain, we must do everything within our reach to help her brain continue to heal and the window of neuroplasticity is greatest now.  Jeff and I are not willing to try and cut corners when it comes to this so we continue to juggle and make the best of our situation. Thankfully our incredibly generous family and friends help us out so that we can continue to get Judd to his activities in order to get Teagan to all her therapies and so far in the first few weeks we have been able to juggle it all. We are hoping this relentless approach rubs off on Teagan and so far it has. On Wednesdays she powers through 3 hours straight of therapy. This was the only way we can do this with both of us working and fit it all in. We are so thankful for Teagan's continual improvements and strength gains!

Next week Teagan has a 4 hour neuropsychological evaluation to gather baseline data. The following week we will get the results. I am trying ahead of time to not put too much weight on these results as I continue to believe in hope and and the amazing neuroplasticity of her brain at this age.

We are hopeful for an uneventful fall and winter. Teagan's next scan is scheduled for November 16th. We are looking into whether we will combine this scan with an eye surgery in an effort to try and get her eye straightened out. Time will tell and as long as we are home and the kids are enjoying their new friends in school, life is good. 

Wishing you all a great back to school time and hope you are all doing well! I love it when my updates are short as that always means less medical stuff going on! Cheers to that!

Life is full of transitions

Hope you all are having a great summer! Such beautiful weather we continue to have! Thought I would write an update as it’s been about a month since I last wrote.

Today is Teagan's last day of intensive therapy! For the last 3.5 weeks we have been driving up to Lynnwood (about an hour drive north) for Teagan to receive physical therapy 5 time per week, occupational therapy 4 times per week, and speech therapy once a week.  It has been a long haul as we leave the house at 6:45am everyday and return at 11am. This has made potty training nearly impossible but thankfully later in life no one asks you what age you were potty trained:) Instead she has had a great opportunity to begin to build strength and is continuing to make slow and steady progress. I am so incredibly happy that our original request to do intensive inpatient therapy was not approved by insurance as this was a much better option and a better fit for our family.

I have also learned through many conversations with other Moms in the waiting room that this seems to be the norm in the summer or over holiday breaks to do intensive daily therapy to help provide a boost and challenge to encourage growth/healing/strength for kids like Teagan with PT, OT, or speech challenges. Rehab Without Walls has been a great place that offers some alternative approaches but most importantly Teagan has made friends and everyday walks right in and does 2 hours straight of therapy without a complaint. Pretty darn impressive I must say for a 3 year old to do this much therapy on a daily basis for almost 4 weeks and not complain. 

One surprise we learned through this new therapy place was Teagan can go into therapy all by herself. I am used to always being with her but we noticed that she tends to work a little harder if Mom is not there. Big surprise:) This has been good for me as I slowly pull away but this also allowed me to meet many amazing parents in the waiting room while waiting for her.  One parent in particular I met whose son had the same type of cancer as Teagan's at 18 months old (4 months younger than Teagan). In meeting her, I learned that her son learned to walk after 7 years.  I cannot tell you how much hope this provides me to hear this.  You better believe I got this Mom's contact info as I hold on to these types of encounters pretty close for the hope it provides us especially along this very slow and steady journey towards what I hope and believe includes Teagan learning to walk. I also met another child's Mom whose son had brain cancer and you would not have known it from looking at how well he was doing. I must say I have never seen so many kids who were not able to walk as I have seen at Rehab without Walls. It is not a good thing to see this but for some reason for me to see this and know there are so many others out there that understand this jounrey and many whose children don't have the hope of relearning to walk (many with cerebral palsy) helped me to continue to keep things in perspective. These moments of perspective are so helpful for me.

In addition to daily therapy this last month, we have been enjoying summer. I sit in awe watching Judd and Teagan play around the house. I watch as Judd adjusts activities to include his sister and am in awe of how much he enjoys helping her. Not to say they don't argue or fuss but it brings so much joy to see them play this summer at home. We don't need to go anywhere special just being together is simply enough. Grateful beyond words to be able to sleep in our bed every night this summer and do so many social things we weren't able to do last summer while Teagan was in radiation.

As the summer comes to an end, my planning brain has been working on trying to plan my transition back to work.  One might think my daily lessons in learning I have no control over life might clue me in on this approach but apparently not always. I had originally planned, 3 months ago, for Teagan to have her next big scan on August 3rd before I return to work.  I had everything planned out and on the morning of August 3rd, we get up and get Teagan ready to go to the hospital for her hour long sedated MRI and she pukes right before we left.  This is a huge fear alarm for any brain tumor parent who knows puking is one of the more common symptoms of recurrence of brain tumor. This puking is what happened when we first discovered her tumor, this is what happened through all of chemo, and this had not happened since the beginning of radiation (the puking). I held her in my arms over the sink as I couldn't make it to the toilet in time feeling her body as she puked and the memories and emotions came flooding back.

It's almost as my body has been through this fear cycle so many times that I can sometimes step outside and watch the patterns my body goes through with fear.  Jeff and I look at eachother and without saying anything can see the wheels spinning in our heads. We begin to try and problem solve about what we do next. Neither of us can think clearly but we head in to the hospital with the hopes that maybe it was a one time thing.  As we continue to get closer to the hospital she pukes again twice. We get into the hospital room after a little time of not puking and she continues to puke 5 or 6 more times.  At this time she is puking in front of the anesthesiologist which is a no go for the scan for risk of causing aspiration if she was to puke while under anesthesia.  Thankfully for the timing they were able to do a haste MRI (quick non sedated MRI) to check her ventricles in her head to make sure they had not changed size.  They also did a shunt series xray to make sure her shunt equipment in her head and belly was in place. Thankfully both of these checked out good and we left thinking maybe she got a quick virus or possibly the new eye exercises we got from her developmental optometrist made her dizzy that morning. One is always guessing when it comes to the brain. Unfortunately we left the hospital unable to get a new MRI until the 30th of August (ugh).

Preparing for these routine scans to check for recurrence of tumor is an exhausting process in and of itself. Typically prior to our 3 months scans for Teagan, we have a routine where we have a pre scan dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant the night before. This place provides good mexican food and very LARGE margaritas for Mom. The week or two leading up to the scan is filled with scanxiety where you brain goes back and forth with what if her cancer came back, etc., etc. By the end of Friday night, after all the prep going into it and then to have it cancelled we were exhausted. This type of stress literally takes everything out of you.  Thankfully in peer exhaustion I was able to fall sleep early and Teagn did not puke again that day.

Fast forward one week to the day, this last Friday, Teagan mentioned on the drive to therapy that she felt nauseous.  Of course I am on red alert watching her like a hawk and I began to worry. She still had energy though and was still acting otherwise normal. Typcial Teagan powerd through an entire hour of physcial therapy and an hour of speech. When she came out from speech, I noticed she seemed off. I have been around her puking so much that I feel like I have decent puke radar with her. Luckily I got her to the bathroom just in time before she puked. She said she felt better afterwards and we drove home with her sleeping. I spent that day on the phone with neurosurgery trying to problem solve the possibily of her recalled shunt not working as well as neuro oncology trying to figure out if this could be a sign of recurrence of tumor or connected to the return of radiation necrosis.  We were told there was no way to move up her scan and if she pukes one more time, we will need to go into ER and begin delving deeper into what could be going on.

So here we are today on Wednesday and she is appearing ok. I am really hoping we don't have another Friday puke day again this week but her energy and appetite all seem to be back to normal since last Friday.  When we are not sure what is coming next,  I notice myself living fully present in the hour or the day. Thinking beyond this is not helpful.  We have eased off some of the eye excercises and are hopeful being done with the hour long drives into therapy in the mornings will rule out car sickness as well. We now wait until her next scan on the 30th of August when we hope for good results and no additional symptoms beforehand. If this isn't yet another lesson in having no control over what awaits, I'm not sure what is:)

Thankfully though Teagan has adjusted to taking her daily human growth hormone shots nightly with true Teagan toughness. Judd has been incredibly helpful and lays on his tummy next to her to comfort her when we give her daily buttox shots. We also met with endocrinology and learned that she will be followed for life by endocrinology. Through this conversation we learned about some of the side effects of human growth hormones which we hope she does not get. Some include higher risk to develop diabetes, potential hip and knee displacement, early onset of puberty, increased ventricles, and reacurrence of tumor. I kid you not that one of the top listed side effects says "For those who had brain tumors, this medication could cause recurrence of tumor". Thankfully Dr. Pihoker had already warned us of this that there is no convincing data for this. This is exactly what any parent with a child who had cancer does NOT want to ever here. Then again we don't have a choice as human growth hormone is absolutely necessary not only for growth but cell production, musle growth, etc. etc.. So we take it and we hope she will be less likely to encounter the side effects. 

Side note: I can't tell you how much I hate it when doctors tell me something is rare. It almost feels like they just told me it's going to happen because everything Teagan has is rare. Needless to say we use the words less likely:)

Teagan will be starting up preschool again this fall and Judd will be in 1st grade. We really like the special needs preschool she will be attending and it is at the same school where Judd attends. Both kids are excited for school but also tell us they don't want summer to end.

I can relate as I have so enjoyed being able to be with the kiddos the last year and a half and help care for Teagan thanks to all the generous donations of sick leave I received from my collegues in Issaquah School District.  We all are transitioning into new territory but I continue to remind myself every day is new for not just me but everyone. None of us are promised tomorrow or can predict what will happen next so we just take one thing at a time. Time will always tell and just like time has gotten us to where we are today it will carry us forward.  

Tomorrow morning Teagan will be in the chief of police ceremony at the Showare Center! Judd and Teagan are very excited about this and they will get to be in a motorcade. Anyone who wants to join is welcome as they have numerous kids attending who will be chief of polices from all around the surrounding cities. The Kiwanas club has also donated to decorate Teagan's bedroom as part of her chief of police gift which will happen on September 1st. MC Rustic Home will be decorating it for us Which we are very excited about! She is very excited about this and we are so grateful for all the kindness we have received from the King County Sheriff's Office towards our family. 

We are putting the final finishes on our MVP app design through Sweet Tea Cancer Connections. Currently we are planning our first Gala and big fundraiser to help raise money to develop and maintain our app. Please check out our website if you are interested in learning more and/or attending. We have recently had some really exciting conversations with two leading researchers who do psycho social research in pediatric oncology and are brainstorming ways that our app can not only connect parents with children impacted by pediatric cancer but also contribute to psycho social research in the pediatric oncology community.  I am extremely excited about the possibilities to create change and give back in a positive way to the community which I am now apart of! 

Thanks for reading this update and hope everyone has a great rest of their summer! Thank you everyone for your continued support and kind hearts. It means the world to our family along this journey. We send you all much love!

Post Treatment Updates

Thought it might be helpful to give an update as it's been a month since I last updated this and as usual life continues to keep us on our toes. Within the last month a lot has transcribed. It's funny as I always believe no news is good news but I have been working on this now for a month trying to get additional treatment for Teagan's post treatment side effects and it has been a slow process. Just this last week, after a month straight of advocating, I feel we finally have made some progress!

After returning home from Denver's hyperbaric oxygen treatment in May, I have been working on trying to get Teagan into more intensive physical therapy with the hope that now that she has more energy she could better benefit from additional therapies (our biggest concern getting her to walk again).  We had Teagan complete an occupational therapy evaluation, a physical therapy evaluation, and a speech evaluation with the intent to refer Teagan for intensive inpatient therapy services at Seattle Children's Hospital. This would include 3 hours per day of varied therapies (OT, PT, and Speech) throughout the day but would also involve us having to sleep at the hospital 6 days a week. I was not excited about having to sleep at the hospital but I will do anything to make steps towards getting Teagan to walk again and sleep is a small price to pay.  Immediately after completing the evals, Seattle Children's put in a request to insurance for intensive therapy for Teagan.  Unfortunately our insurance denied our request. Thankfully there is always the option to appeal these decisions.  We had 3 days to to do a peer to peer (our rehab doctor speaks directly with the insurance doctor) but unfortunately our doctor missed this deadline. This left us with a new 30 day deadline to do a written appeal. Our Rehab doctor completed this the following week and again we were denied as they let us know that Teagan would equally benefit from outpatient therapies instead of inpatient intensive therapy.  

Somehow it has become quite common that after I get disappointing news something good comes around the corner.  Maybe it doesn't always but I like to believe this.  I literally got off the phone with our insurance case manager upset over this second denial and feeling quite literally like who is willing to help take responsibility for all these side effects my daughter has, when my friend Stacy, text me the name of a place, Rehab without Walls, which come to find out offers intensive therapy in the outpatient setting. As you could imagine, I picked up the phone right away and learned within minutes of the insurance denial that I will be able to take Teagan to Rehab without Walls in Lynwood daily for the three weeks before I go back to work and Teagan will thankfully get the intensive therapy I was so wishing for her this summer. Better yet we get to sleep at home with is much easier on our family. We are waiting now to find out when she will begin but are excited that this turned out better than what I had anticipated and now am thankful for the denial as I would likely not have found this without it. 

Teagan will have physical therapy for one hour a day every day for three weeks. This session will be followed by alternating days of the second session include one hour of occupational therapy and the next day one hour of speech (flipping everyday OT and Speech therapy on alternating days).  We are going to start out with two hours every day and then if she can handle more we have the option of going to three hours a day but given she is only 3 years old I'm thinking two hours will be a good push.

We also found out a few weeks ago after getting an artificial stimulation of human growth hormone IV test for Teagan that unfortunately her body no longer produces human growth hormones.  This is another side effect of radiation as the radiation Teagan received harmed her pituitary gland which affects her thyroid (which she now takes daily medication for) and her human growth hormone production (hgh). Thankfully her cortisol levels were normal so we don't need this addressed as well.

We learned that Teagan will now need to receive human growth hormone injections once a day for the rest of her life.  When our Endocrinologist told me this on the phone it was alot to take in.  I was very emotional and continue to be about this. It is hard to accept having to give your child injections for the rest of their life (or she will have to give herself these eventually the rest of her life).  After learning that her level was 2.0 and 7.0 is the cutoff for needing human growth hormones it seems obvious that she had a need. Her feet also can fit into the same shoes she walked into chemotherapy treatment with a year and a half ago and she is struggling to put on muscle on her body.  I learned from my friend Google that, "When growth hormone is released from the pituitary gland, it “tells” the liver to release a second hormone, called insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1). Together,growth hormone and IGF-1 tell the bones, muscles, and other organs and tissues to grow by adding more cells".  You could begin the imagine the laundry list of issues that could follow if we were not to give Teagan this as her body would not be producing more cells in her body not just for growth but also for organs and tissues in her body.

Learning the necessity for hgh, I came to terms as best as one does and continues to try to.  Shortly thereafter, I was informed that insurance denied the prescription for human growth hormone saying Teagan is not in the lowest 3% of average height of her normal average peers. The "normal average peers" stuck out to me as unfortunately Teagan's path is far from normal or average. Thankfully the endocrine Nurses at Seattle Children's are incredibly helpful and connected us with the Pftizer Bridge program that brought out our hgh for Teagan today and will cover the first three months for free to allow Teagan to get this much needed hgh until the appeal goes through with our insurance. I am hopeful once they know her history this appeal will be approved as she honestly would have quite costly medical problems if her body did not continue to produce new cells and grow.

I must say navigating the whole post treatment side effects is quite a process. I am finding the way to find services for your child often involves talking to other parents who can refer me to other places as unfortunately I have not found any type of survivorship services that helps guide families. This is quite a shock to me as pediatric cancer has been around for so long. I keep trying to think positively saying that it could be that unfortunately Teagan has suffered quite a lot of side effects so I am in need of more than the average rehab services but it just seems like some type of survivorship services might be available for these kiddos who often will be living with a lifetime of side effects from these treatments.  Don't get me wrong I get to do this and if there is one thing I'm going to "die on the hill" for this will be it but I just can't help but wonder about other parents who don't find out about these other services via happenstance and what type of follow up care these kiddos get. I'm finding in my small sample of others parents I have met that the follow up services, short of everyone's MRI's, vary so much child to child even if the kids got similar cancer treatments.  Can't help but to reflect on this.

Finally last weekend, I got the privilege to attend the ISPNO Neuro Oncology Conference in Denver with my sister Meghan. It was so great to hang out with Meg, sans kids, but also was a huge support for me to have my big sister with me while I sat through the entire Family day learning more in depth about all the side effects from treatments, learning how to best talk to our kids about cancer as they develop and grow older, learning what is best in terms of nutrition for kids post treatment, palliative care topics, a nonprofit section learning more the lay of the land for pediatric cancer nonprofits etc., etc.  This was the first psychosocial support services I have ever found for parents post treatment and I am so grateful for attending this conference.

Having heard and sat through our end of treatment summary, I was familiar with some of the side effects but I quickly realized my sister had not and it was so incredibly supportive to have her sit  with me and understand how hard this can be to hear this information. For example, hearing certain things like you should apply for SSI now, because there is a chance your child may not be able to live independently in the future. Hearing radiation's side effects referred to as the "gift that keeps giving" as we already are living the side effects and I fear for further damage from radiation. At the same time, I also met two other Mothers whose children had medulloblastoma (same type of cancer as Teagan) and their children's cancer relapsed. Both Moms were able to find an additional treatment that they taught me about and I was able to see both of their son's there in person alive. I had previously believed that if Teagan's cancer returned there were likely not many, if any, options. Meeting these two other Mothers alone gives me such incredible hope.

We are hopeful that Teagan's intensive therapy will be beneficial for her and I am working on getting a therapy schedule worked out that Jeff will be able to keep up with while I'm at work starting back up in August.  This journey is not easy I must admit.  The grieving that is involved for parents who have a child diagnosed with cancer and they lose their old family norm is complicated. This grief appears daily often and rears up even when unexpected. That being said, I always keep in perspective that I "get to do this" and work to continue to have grace with myself all along the way. One person I recently spoke with said to me, "Life if funny and not the ha ha funny. You never know what's coming but it has a way of making you a more beautiful person through all this.". I like her spin as I work everyday through tears and happiness to spin this as best I can. The alternative is much much harder so I'll keep spinning things towards the positive while also acknowledging the depth of grief and pain that comes along with it. 

Thank you for everyone's continuing support and love along the way. This journey is not one that ends when treatment as we are living and learning this daily.  August 16th, Teagan gets to be the "chief for the day" for the King County Sheriff's Office. My friend's husband is the Chief of Police in Covington and they invited Teagan to be a part of this special day for her and Judd. Teagan will have a full uniform and get to be the Covington Days Parade and on the 16th of August be in a motorcade from the Showare Center to the Burien Police Station. Quite frankly, this continued support continues to fill our sails with energy and hope and show us how beautiful others are around us. We are constantly reminded that there is no shortage of love in this world and how beautiful this is to see over and over.

Tatum

May 2018 Update

Hello All,

I just realized my last update was at the beginning of May! Yikes. Thankfully we have been busy in a good way! 

Recent Updates:

*Returned home on May 7th!  I have never felt so cozy in my home and grateful to be home! I have a complete new empathy for families who have to uproot for treatment for their kids. Not that I didn’t before but just have a little different perspective now. Brent’s Place was amazing and we could not have been in a better place. The friends we met, the staff, and the volunteers were beyond great! We are so thankful for all their help in Denver! 

*Two days after returning we got Teagan another thyroid test. This was Teagan’s third test and it ended up still being low. Low thyroid level is often a side effect from radiation as the radiation can impact her pituitary gland which controls her hormones. We now have her on a thyroid medication and in a month we will recheck her levels through a blood draw to see how her body is reacting to this new medicine.

*Teagan started preschool a week after returning from Denver without a hitch! She is loving it and literally on the first day turns and waves and says, “Bye Mom!” Needless to say, it wasn’t quite so easy for me but luckily I made it to the fence and out of site before breaking down in tears. It is hard enough as a Mom leaving your child for the first time but this was particularly hard! Teagan and I have been together pretty much everyday since Dec 5, 2016 so you could imagine the emotions. Thankfully Jeff was there to help me pull myself back together. He is my rock.

*After dropping Teagan off for her first day, I got a call from the hyperbaric oxygen clinic in Denver. Teagan we found out was approved for an additional 20 oxygen treatments. We are currently working on seeing if we can get the expiration date on these extended to allow more time for her to reap the benefits of the first 40 treatments before exploring the option of additional treatments. 

*Teagan got a clean scan on May 21st! Her new scan continued to show improvements in the areas of radiation necrosis and most importantly no evidence of disease (no cancer)! These continued improvements in the areas of necrosis we feel are connected to her latest hyperbaric oxygen treatments but of course we will never be able to say with 100% certainty. I was more worried than normal about this scan given the radiologist were never able to 100% completely rule out recurrence of tumor and if so there would be a chance,though debatable, that the oxygen could feed the tumor. We were beyond relieved with this positive scan!

* Teagan got her human growth hormone infusion test last week. This requires an IV where they artificially stimulate her human growth hormone and then measure it 4 times following. We are a little worried as her shoe size has not grown much in the last year and a half and she has low muscle tone. It is hard to tell though because  she has foot braces so all her shoes are two sizes too big in order to fit the braces.  Additionally she has had so many steroids that she lost a lot of muscle tone. We are hopeful that this test will rule it out and should find out next week. If not, she will need human growth hormone injections the rest of her life. 

*This week Teagan will finish her 2nd and 3rd assessments to see if she might qualify for intensive inpatient therapy at Seattle Children’s Hospital. This would require we stay inpatient overnight at the hospital at Seattle Children’s for two to four weeks sometime this summer. Teagan would get 3 hours of therapy per day (likely physical therapy and occupational therapy) and our hope would be that now that she has so much more energy and endurance she could handle this
and makes gains. We are hoping to find out if she qualifies and if insurance will cover it in the next few weeks.


Wow. After writing this I realize this is a lot. Sometimes you forget when you’re in it and then there are moments, like now, when you write it down and it makes you reflect. This is a lot at times to swallow all of these things going on. Thankfully much easier to though when we are at home and contemplating treatments to assist her in healing.  I remind myself again and again that we get to do these things. Every month, sometimes more than once a month, I see kids we have met through treatment who are are no longer here due to their cancer. It is heartbreaking to see and hear this.

Just today I learned that one girl we met at Seattle Children’s and who also had brain cancer passed away. I will never forget meeting her as she was the kindest young soul. We chatted with her and her Mom for a while and then when we were about to leave to go into the patient room she turned to Teagan and tells Teagan, “you got this”. Witnessing the love from a young girl who had brain cancer telling my two year old daughter who had brain cancer she’s got it, brought tears to my eyes.  The amount of love I have witnessed through this journey is endless and something that forever has changed my life. It helps remind me when I get frustrated or exhausted, which honestly happens quite frequently, that we get to do this. 

Hope you are all doing well and enjoying your precious lives! Today is National Cancer Survivor Day. Thinking of all those here on earth as well as those no longer here who have survived cancer today.

Tatum

1 Treatment Left

Hi All,

I have been meaning to write this week to give an update. Teagan is currently in the chamber getting oxygen and once she gets out we are headed to the airport to come home for the weekend. She has her last treatment on Monday so we will fly back Sunday evening and then come back home for good on Monday after her last treatment.  Had to get home this weekend for Judd's first tball game with Dad coaching as well as our first fundraiser for Sweet Tea Cancer Connections at the Fairwood Golf & Country Club. There is also a twilight this weekend so will get my first break in two months to golf and be with friends!

I have to start by telling you how well Teagan is doing!  Her energy level continues to improve and and her language also is continuing to explode!  Last night we were downstairs eating dinner with the friends we made here and she asked her friend Emma if she wants to play the piano with her.  This seems pretty normal but it's a big deal for our little girl to initiate social interactions using full sentences.  Don't get me wrong she would always get the message across previously given how social she is but using full sentences is a big deal. On Wednesday at arts and crafts, she went up to a boy and said, "My name is Teagan. What's your name?" Again, normal typical kid like interactions that continue to be a big deal for us!  

In fact, we are hoping to have her begin preschool in the next couple weeks. She will likely only get in a few weeks before summer but the desire for her to socialize is so strong I figure why not start her. We had originally planned on her starting last fall before she got radiation necrosis so it's really exciting to still be able to have her start as we originally planned (even if for only a few weeks). She will get to go to a special needs preschool she qualified for which is located at the same school as Judd. We got her a new pink Paw Patrol backpack and lunch bag which she picked out and she is extremely excited!

Teagan does still struggle with balance and cannot walk independently still. This is something that ever since waking up from brain surgery she has struggled with as she previously used to be able to walk independently. No doctors will give us false promises which I respect. We will continue to work on this and are even more hopeful now that she has the energy and stamina to begin to build more muscle and make gains. We never ever will lose hope here!

In packing up our stuff and cleaning out our apartment for the next family to come in, it has invoked a lot of thought. Honestly, this whole experience  invokes thought. How could it not?  Previous to this I had never experienced being away from home while my daughter was receiving treatment. This experience has opened even further my empathy box for families impacted by cancer. Being at this house and making friends with new families who are currently in the midst of treatment and their fight brought up a lot of emotions.  Having gone through treatment with Teagan and knowing the struggle and pain it involves and then seeing others in the thick of it was hard to sit with. The human desire to help other human beings with a story similar to yours and yearning for the right thing to say or do can be a struggle. Cleaning our apartment and wondering what family will be in here next, how old the child will be, and what type of cancer they might have. The mind goes wild with wonder rooted in a deep empathy for these people we don't even know but can literally feel their pain. The love this journey pulls out of me from places I didn't even know existed continues. Not a bad thing. Not a bad thing at all.

Teagan will be getting out of the chamber soon.....so what's next. We don't know what will come next. One never does with cancer.  We just hope for the best. What we do know is that on the 21st of May Teagan has a full MRI to check for evidence of disease.  Then on the 23rd with meet with her Radiation Oncologist as apparently these will be additional appointments we have now with her new diagnosis of radiation necrosis.  We also will be checking her thyroid when we first get back as her levels have continued to be low so we will hopefully learn more about this.

What we do know is we will not take a second for granted at home as a family! I have always loved being home with our family but now so even more. What we do know is Teagan gets to be back home in her own bed and play with Judd in their playroom. What we do know is our family gets to enjoy the ordinary days together. What we do know is Teagan, thanks to this therapy, has received a ton of healing to her entire body which has left her with more energy than I have seen her have since before diagnosis.  This I will take........all of it!  Life is good!

P.S.
*If you have not see the post on FB, Teagan was featured on CBS news here in Denver.
Here is the link if you would like to watch:
http://denver.cbslocal.com/2018/05/02/toddler-healing-treatment-denver/

*If  you are interested in learning more about the STCC fundraiser we are doing with glassybaby, here is the link:) People can make purchases online with our "sweettea" code if they are not able to show up in person. Perfect Mother's day gift that also goes to a great cause for STCC and glassbaby (founder of glassybaby is a 3 time cancer survivor herself).

Halfway

We just got back from dropping Jeff and Judd off at the airport to return home and thankfully Teagan transfered from sleeping in the car back to her crib so I have some time to write. It's interesting how lonely coming back here to the apartment is without them is. We got to be together for four days straight and this was the longest time we got to be together in a month. Helps us truly appreciate all the time we have together as a family.  The need to go "do stuff" is quite nonexistent I must say as we are happy to play in the play area here or go out to breakfast together as a family and that is plenty good enough.  I think this may have to do with the fact that when you don't get to be together as a family what you do really doesn't seem to matter much anymore as long as you are together (at least for me).

I'm actually quite thankful for this as prior to Teagan's cancer diagnosis I often would go to great lenghts to think of what fun stuff we were going to do and sometimes would put unnecessary pressure upon myself to make sure we were coming up or keeping up with all the fun kids stuff to do.  Having to relocate our family for Teagan's treatment, though don't get me wrong I would much rather choose something else, has helped create a clean and simple perspective on what really matters. I say clean and simple because it has helped me realize there are really very few things that truly matter for me and lots of litle stuff that doesn't matter much. Another thankful lesson that has reappeared yet again along this journey!

Last Tuesday, marked the 4 week point which is halfway through Teagan's hypberbaric oxygen therapy treatment (HBOT).  Teagan continues to show improvements. Jeff and I were talking last night about all the improvements we are seeing which include increasingly less ataxia (shaking-especially less in her left hand), almost non existent staring off episodes, and a huge increase in energy which is likely one of the most obvious benefits as this allows her endurance to be such that she can now walk everywhere we go in her walker which was not possible prior to this.  She also is able to wake up much quicker from her naps and her energy previously used to taper off around 2pm and this little thang lasts until you must put her down at night. Last night for example, her and her brother sharing a bedroom decided they were going to stay up and chat and play in her crib.  Most often this would make me irritated but I must say I was beyond excited that a.) she could last this long into the night and b.)not only could she last this long but also had the energy to be trying to climb out of her crib and trying to wrestle with her brother.

Needless to say, we are very optimistic and thankful for the results we are seeing.  Teagan also got to move into the large chamber last week with 4-6 other adults. Given how social she is she has adjusted well to this. Previously they had her in a smaller chamber by herself with a technician but since she was doing so well they moved her into the larger chamber now.  Teresa, the Secretary, gives Teagan a new butterfly sticker everytime she comes out of the chamber and she now has her walker beautifully decorated with butterflies. 

Along with her increase in energy she is now able to talk with others and her favorite sayings as we walk every morning to the chamber is asking other strangers, "What's your name?" and "What are you doing?".  She literally loves to ask each and every person these questions. She also has a routine of stopping by the wound care and diabetes center front desk on our way and saying hi to her favorite person at the front desk, Ginger. Teagan in her true silly fashion calls her Gingerbread. Last week while walking out of the chamber, I put on some music as we walked out. Teagan loves to dance but music continues to calm me throughout this entire journey.  We put on Can't Stop the Feeling by Justin Timberlake (Thanks Tenille for the song recommendation!) and Teagan proceeded to see one of the regular radiation nurses, Nicole, in the hallway and had a dance party with her. As you can see by her regular encounters of asking everyone their names and what they are doing she has made friends quite easily. I will have to get video of her moves as if you haven't seen them they are off the charts!  They will make any stranger in the hallway smile! Her and Judd are quite the little dancers together! 

Two weeks ago, they asked us if they can do a local news story on Teagan to help share the progress she is making. I have always been a little bit shy of the spotlight but I figure if we are able to help one parent to learn about this healing treatment and save them the months of research we had to do to find this, it will be well worth it.  Sometime next week, they said they hope to bring the cameras in to do this story which should be fun. I'll make sure to share this when it happens.  

Speaking of spotlight, Teagan made the spotlight last week on Children's Cancer Research Fund's (CCRF) Instagram Takeover. If you haven't seen these pics I would encourage you look up Children's Cancer Research Fund on Facebook as well as Instgram.  CCRF not only helped share Teagan's story but also was so gracious to share with their followers about the app our nonprofit is creating.  It was a little overwhelming in a good way to see 900 likes on their first post of Teagan.  It always feel so good when other people making efforts to help the cancer community embrace us and are willing to help us out. 

This among many other examples along this journey continue to affirm how generous and caring people are in this world.  I continue to be humbled by the generosity and love which exists among our fellow human beings. When given messages of this not being so, I must say I don't listen and then consciously make efforts to be around others who share the same grateful energy.  Life is much too short not to.  

Lastly, thankfully Judd is now feeling better. On Tuesday night when Jeff got here, about 20 minutes after we got back to the apartment, Judd began puking up large amounts which lasted until 3am puking every hour.  Thankfully Jeff was here and not me alone and by the next morning Judd was feeling better.  Since this journey began with Teagan's sickness Judd's tummy has been pretty sensitive and/or often the way he holds his emotions. Cancer we have learned effects the whole family. We think it was connected with constipation and luckily there were no germs spread to Teagan as throwing up for her would be a trip to ER and likely concerns with her shunt, etc. She did show a decrease in energy following this but we are hopeful it is just the lack of sleep coupled with how easily her neurological symptoms are effected by lack of sleep. We are watching her closely now to make sure her energy returns once she is able to catch back up on her sleep. Thankfully, this turned out to be a huge break on our front with no puking from Teagan and thus no unnecessary ER trip.

Thank you everyone for your continued support.  We appreciate your continued prayers and positive thoughts towards Teagan. Hope you had a great weekend and we look forward to updating you on Teagan's continued progress!

2 of 8 weeks in tomorrow

Dear Friends, Family, and kind Followers of Teagan's progress,

I wanted to write a little update on how things are going for Teagan as tomorrow will be her full 2nd week of hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatment here in Denver, Colorado. So far she has adjusted well. She no longer cries in the morning asking why we have to go which is a big Mom relief (phew!). She does cry every morning when I put her down in the chamber but thankfully quickly stops as I can hear her from outside as she begins playing with her animals and toys.  Given I can't be with her in the chamber, I have selected a nice collection of toys and books to help pass the time as it is 2 hours from start to finish. The toys I can send in must be plastic and not have air inside them as with the pressurization this could cause toys with air in them to explode. In addition, only certain papers or coloring books can go in with her that are not a fire hazard. Luckily we got all the toys squared away and she has quite the set of legos, plastic toys, books, and snacks to help her through the daily treatments.  I promise her a sucker everyday after she gets out and she never fails in reminding me.  Gotta enjoy the little things in life and not worry about the small stuff (like too much sugar) she reminds me as she pops in her sucker and takes off down the hall to the car to leave!

Everyday Teagan walks into treatment on her own which is about 1/4mile walk each way.  In addition she is walking to and from the car.  This may not seem like a big deal but she has not had the endurance to do such for quite some time so this is very exciting for us. I bring the walker everywhere now and we use it like any other kid who walks unless it's something I need to get done in a timely manner.  Teagan daily has taught me to slow down in life. This I am very thankful for and I must say this has not come easy for me as someone who loves checking things off a list. Don't get me wrong, I still love making a good list, but I have learned to ask myself, sometimes out loud, what's the rush? Where I am rushing to?  What's the rush of living life when all we have is now or today.  Through this journey I have realized I am often rushing to nowhere. So thankful for this lesson she teaches and reminds me everyday!

We have also noticed that her ataxia (shaking) is a little bit better (not a lot but a little). The doctor today said that they don't expect for us to see changes or differences from treatment possibly for another two weeks to a month. So we will continue taking her there daily and hoping and believing in positive results.  Today for the first time yet, she did not cry when I left her as she told me she was going to show Judd how brave she was. I think we all get by now how brave she is:)

Judd and Jeff were able to fly in last Friday together and we got to spend the day together on Saturday as a family. Unfortunately a water pipe at home burst that brings water into the house so part of the day Saturday was spent figuring this out from afar. Jeff flew out Saturday night as he had to work Sunday morning but luckily Judd is staying with Teagan and I this week.  It has been quite the adjustment for both kids who are so happy to see eachother but also having to learn to share again as they are not used to this. Had a few little disputes over toys but honestly everytime this happens I am so happy that a.) they are together b.) Teagan is healthy enough to fight back and c.)they are both portraying developmentally appropriate behavior-fighting with their sibling. Sunday we got to go to the aquarium and it was so refreshing to be able to do a fun outing! 

Last Friday, unfortunately we learned that the one other boy we met Teagan's age that had the same type of cancer, Hunter, passed away. His Mom had reached out to me during chemo and is one of the most positive and hopeful cancer Moms around.  I must say that this hit very close to home as this is the first child that our family actually knew the family of who died of cancer since Teagan was diagnosed.  This is Jeff and our worst nightmare and with it being the same type of cancer it hits even closer to home. I cannot imagine the pain this family is experiencing. It has been amazing to see the community of Maple Valley rally around this family and to see all the love being offered up to them.

A few weeks ago as well, I learned that Sooze Johnson, who is the reason Sweet Tea Cancer Connections (STCC) is as far along as it is currently, was diagnosed with lung cancer.  I met Sooze last Spring when she came to our house to do a spotlight article on Teagan for the Golf and Country Club we belong to.  Teagan warmed right up to her and when I told Sooze about the app I was working on creating she asked how she could help.  I wish I could explain all the ways she has helped and assisted STCC because it is beyond explainable.  This woman is a powerhouse and comes from a professional background where this is in her wheelhouse.  I am still in disbelief of this news but always, always have hope that the doctors will be able to treat and restore her health. We often send Sooze videos to try and thank her for all her help and recently I explained to Teagan about Auntie Sooze's cancer and then asked her with video playing what she thinks (we try to be completely honest and open with our kids about cancer). Teagan says to the camera, "You'll be ok Auntie Sooze. I'm ok. I've got a dolly."  It warms my heart to see a three year old showing compassion and empathy while also spreading love at such a young age.

We are looking forward to this weekend being able to fly home and be together as a family with the four of us for Easter weekend.  One thing being away from home does is truly help us appreciate our home, our family, our community, and all the little things that we associate with home. Thankful for this!

I must also say that we are so thankful for all the gifts and cards we have received while here!  I can't thank you all individually in this post but please know how much we appreciate your kindness. I can't tell you how warm it makes us feel to see our mailbox full and Teagan gets beyond excited. Just today my cousin Linda from Michigan sent a care package with bunny handprint pictures from all the kids in her preschool class.  To know that other little kids are thinking of Teagan and wishing her well makes me as a Mom, who sometimes worries about how much time she gets here on earth, so happy to know that she is helping others spread love! We are beyond thankful for all your positive thoughts, prayers, and well wishes for Teagan. I truly believe all this positive energy, prayers, and well wishes are working and please keep them a comin' Teagan's way!  

Hope you are all doing well and having a great week!

Houston we have landed.....in Denver

Hope everyone is doing well!  So much has happened recently I have a hard time remembering where I left off.

I think last time I wrote we were waiting to get final confirmation on the date for Teagan's hyperbaric oxygen therpy treatment to start.  We had hoped it would start on the 12th and it did! She got her evaluation yesterday for the hyperbaric chamber and today received her first treatment. I wish this update was that simple but alot has happened between my last post on caringbridge and today. I will do bullet form to make it a quicker read:)

*March 2nd (Friday before last)-Teagan got her cortisol test where they artificially stimulated her cortisol and then took two separate blood draws every half hour following. Thankfully this test came back great and they were able to confirm her cortisol is being released as they would hope! Big win on this!

*March 6th (last Tuesday)-Teagan got tubes placed in her ears so we don't have any issues in the oxygen chamber with her ear drums rupturing due to the pressurized chamber she will be inside for 2 hours every day for 6-8 weeks.  We have never had such a simple procedure yet. She only needed gas, no IV, to go under and she woke up alert and happy (not angry in her usual way after IV anesthia). We had a 6am check in and were home by 9:30am! I sat there daydreaming that this was my life at Seattle Childrens Hospital. I'm sure though that if we hadn't been through what we have this would be scary. All is relative and all is real for us humans:)

March 7th (Wednesday) -Teagan spiked a fever 100.7. She also had a rash extending down her chest and her VP shunt line which goes from her shunt (drain) in her head down into her belly. This is what drains her cerebral spinal fluid out of her head and into her belly.  A fever on its own would not be so worrisome but this rash or irritation directly over her line in addition to the fever added a level of concern. We continued to watch it.

March 8th (Thursday)- Teagan had a full brain and spine MRI. This MRI involves her being put under anesthia for an hour.  This was her two month post radiation necrosis scan following her Avastin immunotherapy  treatment. This scan showed good results in terms of the necrosis healing.  There were three spots in the radiation bed that previously showed up that were a lighter color around the spots.  This is a little concerning but thankfully our Neuro Onc Nurse Pracitioner, Susan, helped us consult with Teagan's Radiologist who also felt that there was no need to be too concerned over this. Of course the radiology report, says it cannot rule out recurrence, but tomorrow the Brain Tumor Board will look over the scans together as a team and they will follow up with us if there are any concerns raised though we don't anticipate such.
While we were waiting in the room, we noticed that Susan was coming in the room late.  This is never a good sign so I was a little nervous. She came in and began telling us the news with the concerns about the three spots. I, who was already emotional with the fact I was leaving the next day for Denver, began to cry. Teagan, for the first time, looks up at me and says, "no Momma cry" and then burried her head in my chest and began to cry.  This led to a world record Mom stops her crying and comforts Teagan. I am always so proud how tuned in Teagan is to other kids at the hospital and how they are feeling but this one moved me to see how tender her heart is.


March 9th (Friday)- 
Teagan still had fever and rash now was a little swollen over her line.  We sat in the parking lot at Boeing Field calling our Neuro Onc Nurse Practioner (who is the most amazing person EVER). She asked if we can postpone our flight and come to Seattle Childrens to get a blood test.  I decided to pull a "Ninja Cancer Mom" move (thanks for the term Audrey) and I called directly to Colorado Children's before we took off to see if we could go to their outpatient as soon as we got there.  Given Seattle Children's is so amazing, by the time we got there the two hospitals had already consulted and they saw us before they closed with the idea we could avoid ER. They were great and we were able to see a Neuro Oncoloist and a Neuro Surgeon Nurse Practioner for the shunt.  They all agreed it was her fighting something viral and the shunt line for whatever reason was reacting. They asked us to keep an eye on it and if something changed go to ER.
We were able to check into our place at Brent's place briefly before we headed to the hospital and learned that our room was not yet ready so we had a one bedroom hospitality suite.  Jeff and I made a quick call to stay at a hotel for the weekend as the room was quite small for all four of us.  I lay in bed that night laughing and half crying about this idea that I had it all planned out that Jeff would come and help us get situated with Judd and then fly out Sunday all set up. Plans are only plans:)

March 10th (Saturday)
We woke up and Teagan's chest was more swollen than the previous day.  We called the on call Neuro Oncologist and headed into Colorado Children's ER.  We were thankful for them to draw blood from Teagan and get a CBC and blood cultures completed to make sure there was not a bacterial infection in her shunt line which was our biggest concern.  We got everyone all set up for a long ER wait which Judd loved as he got endless ipad time. After a few hours of waiting we were able to find out that her white blood cell count was normal which we were so grateful for indicating she was not fighting something more making it more than likely it was a viral infections. Blood cultures take 72 hours to bake so we would wait to hear back on this but no news is good news and we have not heard anything back on this thankfully.

March 11th (Sunday)-We had a big sigh of relief now that we felt confident Teagan did not have a bacterial infection in her shunt line.  We were able to move my suitcases to our hospitality suite, do a Target trip, and drop off Judd and Jeff at the airport. I think I did enough crying prior to this goodbye that I was able to keep myself together for the most part. Judd was so excited to fly the plane home that he didn't seem bothered a bit. Teagan was upset as she wanted to go on the airplane too.  It was a little bit surreal driving away from the airport saying to myself, here we go. 

All that said, we are in Denver mostly situated now! Sheesh that was a lot to write and a serious rollercoaster of emotions and events. Teagan and I are in a one bedroom hospitality suite and will move into our two bedroom apartment after her treatment tomorrow. Teagan is continuing to ask me when we are going home and when Dadda and Judd are coming. Thankfully she quickly diverts her attention the next second to her doll or whatever toy is nearby.  Kids are so incredibly present. If only I could do the same:)

Teagan had her first treatment today and she did amazing. She didn't even cry when I left her and for the first hour she played with her toys. The following hour she began crying Mommy but they let her bring snacks in there with her so every 30 minutes they took off her hood and she could snack for 5 minutes which helped calm her down. The first 30 minutes they pressurize the chamber and the last 30 minutes they depressurive the chamber. I of course was waiting for her with a promised sucker when she got out. We are so beyond proud of her!

I must say before wrapping up there were two big events prior to us leaving that made this transition so much easier for our family and we are beyond grateful for. Many of you may have seen my FB post that shows pics of the jet airplane ride we got to take here to Denver. Our good friend Kim, who is married to one of Jeff's best friends from college (Cam), offered to fly us to Denver in her Boss's jet airplane so we did not have to worry about germs for Teagan.  This was the most convenient flight ever as we drove up to the plane loaded our bags and arrived to car ready for us in Denver.  I mean, seriously, who does this? This also was a huge selling point we were able to use in telling Judd that Mom and Teagan are leaving for 8 weeks. Judd was beyond excited for this flight and even got to actually sit in the cockpit and fly the plane while we were flying! If you saw the pic of him flying, you can see the joy in his face which made my heart swell!

Another huge help we have received is that the company Jeff works for (which happens to be an airlines company) offered our family as many tickets to fly us all back and forth as needed during Teagan's treatment.  Judd will be coming to stay a week with us every two weeks so I can be with my son and we do not have to worry about these flights. We also plan to come home for the Easter weekend and again don't have to worry about these flights.  This is HUGE to us as this means Judd can see his Mom and sister every two weeks and Jeff can come when he is able to in between work even if just for a night. 

There are many many times I don't have words to do justice to how grateful we are for our community of friends and family as well as strangers who have helped us along this journey.  Every day is such a blessing. We don't know what tomorrow brings for any of us. Everyday I think about how grateful I am to be alive and healthy.  I think about how we don't know our future but how grateful for every day I get with her and our family of four. I think about what a great life Teagan has and how everyone's support to our family makes her life that much better. This support you see helps us as parents which then effects her directly.  Everything counts and everything matters. This is exactly why life is so precious.

Thank you everyone for all your support, love, and prayers sent our way!

Denver Housing/Treatment Update

Hi All! I wanted to send a quick update as I have had so many people graciously offer to assist us with our housing search in Denver, Colorado. I figure this will be the easiest way through one update to update you all.  I must say my sister, Meg, did such an amazing job of writing these while we were in treatment that writing these updates now still feels new to me. I am forever grateful for Meg's updates to you all!

I must say I am constantly in awe of what nice human beings this world if filled with!  Thank you everyone who has reached out to read my last update and also to those who have been in contact with me with ideas and connections for housing in Denver. Yesterday we got confirmation that we have been accepted to stay at a place called Brent's House in Aurora, Colorado. Brent's place is a community house that allows children with cancer to stay there. It is similar to Ronald MacDonald but it has two bedroom furnished apartments with your own kitchen.  I originally did not think we would qualify as it typically fills with cancer kids who are going through bone marrow transplant procedures and need a super clean place. I honestly called hoping they might be able to tell me about other resources but to my surprise they said that she would not normally be accepted given she has compelted treatment but currently they have open rooms so we could come!

I cannot tell you what a huge relief this is!  We had quite some trouble finding a place without knowing a for sure end date of treatment given we have to wait to see how Teagan responds to her treatment. In other words, if the treatment does not work they will terminate treatment early.  Furthermore, I feel so much better knowing I will be in a place where they have other children that Teagan can interact with, they have a play toy she can play on and lots of toys, and that I will be surrounded by other families who have a common understanding of this world of cancer.  Anyone who knows me well, knows I typically am a big fan of my independence. I can simply say life has changed quite a bit now. When going through treatment, being away from home, not having our family together, and dealing with all the fears that I still have on board from the last treatment we went through I am comforted knowing we will be in a little community and not alone in an apartment by ourselves going to and from treatment.

So what is next....

Tomorrow we go in to Seattle Children's Hospital to do a third cortisol test for Teagan. Unfortunately after getting two blood draws, Teagan's cortisol and thyroid levels are low.  They also are watching her growth hormone levels as well.  Unfortunately, another side effect of radiatioin is potential damage to the pituitary gland in her brain.  We have learned from meeting Teagan's Endocrinologist that the pituitary gland controls cortisol levels, thyroid function, and human growth hormones. Tomorrow, Teagan will get an IV at Seattle Children's Hospital's Infusion clinic while they give her a medication to artificially stimulate her cortisol and then will draw blood from her every half hour for a total of three times.  From here we will learn more about her cortisol and next steps we may have to take to help this piece. Following this, we will need to then learn more about her thyroid as well as her growth hormones.  

Next Tuesday, the 6th, Teagan will have tubes placed in her ears at Seattle Children's so that the pressure in the hyperbaric oxygen therapy multiplace chamber does not cause her ear pain or potentially damage her ears. 

Next Thursday, the 8th, Teagan has her full 2 month post radiation necrosis MRI. This is a big scan as the doctors already told us there is always a 5% chance what they are calling radiation necrosis could be recurrence of tumor. 5% chance doesn't seem like much but she had a 3% chance of getting radiation necrosis so quite frankly I live in a world of 5%=50%. Thankfully I am well aware my calibration is completely off and gets further off the closer I get to scans:)  We always hold hope close around these times:)

We are currently waiting to hear back from the doctors for the last confirmation on treatment start date but we are hoping the week of the 12th we wil be able to move down to Denver and get Teagan's treatment started.  We are planning on telling Judd this weekend and thankfully we have two sets of Grandparents and my sister in law who live in town to help us cover the care of Judd while Jeff is working and out of town.  

Long story short, we could not do this without family and friends. We are beyond thankful for everyone's support from near and far. I thought I was going to hop on and give a quick housing update and here I am carrying on.  I suppose this is because this is not easy. When there is the potential to try a treatment that could help heal our daughter's brain, I can handle "not easy" and am happy to "bring it" on my daughter's behalf. I no longer fight tears like I used to before as it is just now part of what happens when you are reminded of life and death on a daily basis.  It puts you so close to the meaning of life that it carries such beautiful highs and joys like I have never experienced before but also such hard and difficult times and emotions.  This brings you full circle as a good reminder to truly be grateful for every day we are here and healthy!  

Thank you again and I will do my best to keep you updated as we go along!

Tatum

New Treatment-HBOT

I sit here in Palm Springs on vacation while Teagan is napping, Judd watching a show on the ipad, and Jeff out golfing. The sun is shining, and we have an amazing view of the mountains.  We are sitting here enjoying as normal a life as we could ask for.  Actually, it's better than normal as we are on vacation in a sunny place in February!

I realize I have not posted for almost two months as Teagan has been improving each week it seems. She unfortunately is not back to where she was prior to radiation necrosis but is still getting stronger and stronger. As a recap she finished her Avastin (Immunotherapy) treatment at Seattle Children's Hospital on December 22nd, 2017.  The scans following this treatment showed improvements in the areas of her brain affected by necrosis which we are most grateful of.  There is still so much to be learned about how this will affect her brain, but we remain hopeful.  Teagan is now able to sit up again, can talk again, and can walk with the help of her walker again. Necrosis had previously taken these away and we were told she may not gain these back. 

Following Teagan's last Avastin treatment, Jeff and I wondered even more than ever how this necrosis could further effect Teagan's ability to learn to walk. She has much more ataxia (shaking), her left hand is now much more difficult for her to use, she has foot drop, she had decreased muscle mass from the high dose of steroids, and her previously dominant eye has changed to the other eye.  In the back of my mind, I remembered a parent I met through the app we are creating whose child died of medulloblastoma at St. Jude's hospital. This parent had told me if I ever need a second opinion to contact Dr. Gajjar. 

With even more uncertainty now with the addition of radiation necrosis, I decided to email Dr. Gajjar and find out if there is anything more we can do to assist Teagan with walking assuming they might have something different there we could add in addition to what we are already doing to help Teagan learn to walk again.  In my email, I mentioned the radiation necrosis Teagan was recently diagnosed with.  Dr. Gajjar emailed back immediately and told us what everyone else has told us is that it's going to take lots of time and work to get Teagan back to walking. Again, no false promises were made telling us if she will ever be able to walk again.  He also asked us if we were doing Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) as well. I had never heard of this so I immediately emailed back to inquire more.

We learned that Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy at St. Jude's is something that they treat all their radiation necrosis kids with as their first line of defense and then follow often with Avastin (the immunotherapy chemo drug Teagan got in Nov/Dec 2017). I passed this along to Jeff and he immediately began searching the internet to learn more via research studies on hyperbaric oxygen therapy for radiation necrosis. We talked with Dr. Geyer, our Oncologist, who spoke with Dr. Gajjar at St. Jude's.  Dr. Geyer basically told us there are not any clinical studies on HBOT given the small number of kids who suffer from this. He let us know it would be up to us if we decided we wanted to have Teagan do this treatment.

In case you are not familiar with hyperbaric oxygen therapy, a simple google search in layman terms helps explain. 

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is a medical treatment which enhances the body's natural healing process by inhalation of 100% oxygen in a monoplace or multiplace chamber, where atmospheric pressure is increased and controlled.  It is used for a wide variety of treatments.

Under normal circumstances, oxygen is transported throughout the body only by red blood cells. With HBOT, oxygen is dissolved into all of the body's fluids, the plasma, the central nervous system fluids, the lymph, and the bone and can be carried to areas where circulation is diminished or blocked.  In this way, extra oxygen can reach all of the damaged tissues and the body can support its own healing process.  The increased oxygen greatly enhances the ability of white blood cells to kill bacteria, reduces swelling and allows new blood vessels to grow more rapidly into the affected areas.  


Jeff and I soon realized we now knew of a treatment, HBOT, that has the potential to further heal Teagan's radiation necrosis.  We have no guarantees it will work and if it doesn't they will stop treatments right away.  How though as a parent with this knowledge can you not pursue everything you know that could potentially heal your child's brain? Especially when the side effects are minimal as compared to the side effects she is currently experiencing from chemo and radiation.

Last Wednesday, we learned that Teagan has been approved by insurance to receive Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for her radiation necrosis.  HBOT will require Teagan to be treated for two hours a day in the pressurized hyperbaric oxygen chamber five days a week for 6-8 weeks. I will not be able to go in with her for her treatment unfortunately. We have begun to explain this to the kids as Teagan is going to go visit a little rocket ship which will be helping to repair the damage the big rocket ship has caused Teagan's brain.  

This last month, I have spent searching for hyperbaric oxygen multiplace chambers in the United states that treat children.  Virginia Mason has a chamber here in Seattle but unfortunately, they don't treat children. Portland had one that was willing to try and treat Teagan but they were out of network.  Finally, we were able to narrow it down to Long Beach, Denver, and Houston.  Thankfully we stumbled upon a doctor, Dr. Thombs, in Denver who was overgenerous and willing to put through the approval to insurance while working with our case manager at Premera. With his help, he saved our family a trip to Denver just for the approval process. 


We are now searching for a place for Teagan and I to stay in Denver for 6-8 weeks while she is in treatment. Thankfully we have the option of finding a place given all the generous donations our community has offered us when Teagan was first diagnosed.  I hope to try and make the best of our time there. Honestly the hardest part is going to be leaving our son Judd.   Judd is just now getting to the point where he is no longer afraid of going to the bathroom at school in fear of his class leaving him and now I am going to leave him. We have not told him the details of leaving just yet as we want to wait until we have an actual date.  Before we leave we need to get tubes put in Teagan's ear to deal with the pressure in the chamber and are hoping we can find out next week when we can get this done and then find a place following in Denver.  

I hate that I have to leave Judd but we are hopeful we can find a way for him to come visit and we will do our best to try and make it as least painful as possible.  If there is one thing, cancer has done is it has made me much more mentally tough. If I can do 8 months of chemo and radiation, I can do 8 weeks of HBOT.  This doesn't mean I am not ridden with fear at times and brought to tears on a very consistent basis. I believe though that we can do this and we will make the best of it because we actually have an opportunity to provide our daughter with a healing treatment! Not every parent with a child who has had cancer gets this opportunity for a healing treatment and for this I am grateful!  

One day at a time and one moment at a time.  This is what I used to tell myself in treatment and often find myself telling myself post treatment. We have yet to have a time longer than three months which we have not been challenged by some unknown side effect with Teagan. This amount of stress over this long of a period of time is not easy on the body or the mind.  It takes a toll but I will always have hope.  In fact, I am most hopeful that I can use this experience to lead me closer to post traumatic growth or benefit finding.   Wikipedia describes it as, " positive psychological change experienced as a result of adversity and other challenges in order to rise to a higher level of functioning. These circumstances represent significant challenges to the adaptive resources of the individual, and pose significant challenges to their way of understanding the world and their place in it. Posttraumatic growth is not about returning to the same life as it was previously experienced before a period of traumatic suffering, but rather it is about undergoing significant 'life-changing' psychological shifts in thinking and relating to the world, that contribute to a personal process of change, that is deeply meaningful”.

I continue to strive towards post traumatic growth. It is not clean, in fact it is very messy and looks and feels at times like anything but pleasant. I still believe, hope, and am determined to do my best to make this journey with a child who has had cancer one that helps our family love more deeply, enjoy life more, appreciate each other more, be more empathetic to others, and be more present in this short time together we have here on earth.


P.S. If anyone knows anyone in Denver that knows of a place to rent in a safe neighborhood, feel free to let me know. We are searching VRBO and AirB&B currently.  We are hoping we will be able to go in mid March after Teagan's next big scan March 8th at Seattle Children's Hospital. Thank you in advance!


 

 

Sweet Tea Cancer Connections Holiday Gift Baskets

Yesterday we delivered gift baskets to two families at Seattle Childrens hospital, two families at the Ronald MacDonald house, and one family at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance apartments. All families are being treated at Seattle Childrens hospital currently.  These baskets included gift cards to Starbucks (the only food vendor at SCH), visa gift cards to help with food, gas money, presents for their own kids, a self care treat for Mom or Dad, a plush towel, a mug with soothing teas from Starbucks, Beautycounter lotion and body wash, and some chocolates.

While coordinating deliveries, one mom commented that she had never experienced such kindness from a stranger. Her remarks helped me realize that those of us who have experienced a child with cancer are not actually strangers. We are all too familiar with each other's deepest fears - that our most precious babies could die - and we have no control over how it plays out.

These families are new members of our cancer family. Yesterday we were able to let them know that they are not alone and that there is always hope.

Please see the links below to learn more about the families you helped support. These families are early in their journeys and will continue to need support. All prayers, positive thoughts, kind gestures and love that you can send their way will be deeply felt and appreciated.

 

Jade and Chy Williams (daughter is Chaelyn-Wilms' tumor)

Chelsie Gonia (daughter is Alyssa-Neuroblastoma)

Kara & Jay Jones (daughter is Hunter Rose-Neuroblastoma)

Audrey & Matt Taylor (daughter is Danica-ATRT brain tumor)

Kathy Clark (son is Jace- posterior fossa embryonal tumor-brain tumor)

 

Good news!

Good news! 

Many of you have likely seen my FB post announcing Friday night that Teagan's scan yesterday showed no evidence of disease and the scan also showed that the Avastin (immunotherapy drug) has been helping her radiation necrosis! This was the best news and Christmas gift we could have received Friday night. As I said on the post, I kept taking breaths of fresh air Friday night as I think I hadn't done so in the last two months living on the edge of such uncertainty of Teagan's life. We still will always live with uncertainty every three months while checking for evidence of disease and for the next two years watching for the potential spread of necrosis to return. The uncertainty these last two months before finding out the positive effects of Avastin though felt like uncertainty on top of uncertainty.

I realized this morning I have not posted since we first got the diagnosis of radiation necrosis.  It has been a rough two months which might help explain why.  The first line of defense against the radiation necrosis was a large amount of steroids.  This helped reduce the swelling in her brain around the necrosis sites. Teagan gained almost 20 pounds in two weeks on her little body from steroids. This made it difficult for her to breathe, difficult for her to move, and pretty much hard all the way around for her poor little body. Another additional side effect of the steroids was that it did not allow her brain to sleep.  For the first two weeks, I was sleeping on the floor with her in her bedroom as she was waking every other hour. When she would wake up her brain was wide awake so getting her to go back down was not an easy feat.  We had also been working very hard to potty train her and this of course went by the wayside as the steroids made her extremely constipated. Finally after three weeks of no sleep, Jeff and I got smart enough (or we realized we were quite the opposite for taking so long) to realize we needed to change her bed back into a crib. Thankfully by this time, they had started to wean Teagan off the steroids so together the crib and the lessening of the steroids allowed us to slowly began to get some sleep with only a 11pm and 2am wake up. Slowly we moved to a 2am wakeup and then the Saturday after Thanksgiving she came off her steroids completely and within days she was sleeping through the night and also could take more than a 1 hour naps (like she used to).  

During this time, Teagan was also receiving Avastin treatments every 2 weeks. Avastin is a chemotherapy drug with delivers immunotherapy.  Our SCH team had said they recommended we put in a PICC line in her arm which would have been a temporary line (similar to the double hickman in her chest she had for chemo and radiation) for Avastin. Jeff and I were hoping to avoid this as it demands becoming a nurse again and flushing it twice a day as well as dressing changes and ER visits for any temperatures. Thankfully they were willing to allow us to try doing the regular IV. Teagan did amazing the first two times.  She didn't  cry and watched the nurse put in her IV both times. The third time they had to poke her six times before calling in anesthesia with an ultrasound to get the IV into her vein. The nurse told me she is a little more "fluffy" since the steroids stepped on board. Luckily the IV went in right away and as usual Teagan barely cried. Her pain threshold has become quite high through all this.

Friday afternoon, Teagan was put under for her full MRI which we do routinely to check for evidence of disease. They were able to place her IV at the same time while she was under so we didn't need to worry about her IV not going in.  This MRI showed no evidence of disease (no cancer) and it also showed that the Avastin had improved the three areas of radiation necrosis!  This was a huge relief as they had told us there is a 5% chance the necrosis could be evidence of disease but they did not think so based upon the location of necrosis.  5% though doesn't give me any piece of mind anymore as radiation necrosis is very rare and only happens to 3% of kids. I find that these small odds sometimes make me more nervous given all the rarities Teagan has managed to undergo. Thankfully the odds worked out in Teagan's favor from what they can see now and for this we are so thankful!

These last two months have been a hard time as Teagan turned into a completely different kid with no sleep, roid rages, and without much energy to move around given she was so exhausted and had little energy for anything other than eating.  It was hard to see her have to go through this when I had hoped for so long she would be done with treatment.  At the same time, we were so thankful we had a medical option to treat her with. In addition to this, we are always on alert watching her breathing to see if she skipped breaths or for any sputtering when swallowing. Both of these symptoms would show up if necrosis was to spread into her brain stem. Thankfully she has not experienced any of these thus far.

Teagan's words on a daily and weekly basis continue to take off. Her fine motor skills are slowly coming back as well though her fingers on her left hand tend to curl under more than before. Teagan had previously lost her ability to stand and sit from the necrosis and now can sit up right and can also walk in her walker. She is not nearly as stable as she was prior to the necrosis but we will get there. She is making so many improvements and we learned that the steroids they gave her actually ate up muscle mass so we are hopeful the longer she is off of them the more muscle she can regain which hopefully will only help her moving forward (literally). 

Amidst all of the above, we have had so many positive and hopeful things help nourish our hope. 
 
*The same week we got the diagnosis of necrosis, I learned that my colleagues from Issaquah School District donated enough leave to get me through the majority of the school year paid and with medical benefits so I can continue to be with Teagan to help her re-recover.  I am still in awe of this and could not be more thankful for all the caring hearts in the Issaquah School District. It was so hopeful to receive this gift the same week as we learned of the necrosis and now were given an entirely new road map ahead of us with even more unknown turns and bumps than we had imagined. Thank you everyone for this more than generous gift to myself and my family. Words can't do justice for how thankful I am for this. Brings me to tears routinely....good tears!

* We also have had the best therapists from Children's Therapy Center (CTC) for Teagan (physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy). In January, Teagan will get new therapists at CTC as she has aged out of their birth to three program.  I never knew how connected I would become to these therapists as I was a tearful hot mess as we had to say goodbye to them. They have provided so much support and are some of the most caring and helpful human beings.

*I was able to help other cancer parents over the holiday season through the non profit we created in Teagan's name. Visiting these parents going through this cancer journey helped me realize I am part of a new cancer family. This family is filled with amazing human beings who will do anything to help save their most precious babies. The hope, love, and connection I have seen through this and along this journey is something I will never forget. The human created barriers that often effect human connections such as socioeconomic status, race, religion, education, etc. are broken down through these cancer journeys. This experience has helped me to see and find what matters most in life and it has turned me into a more loving person.  This is one of the things I am most thankful for through this journey.

I want to thank everyone again for all their support. I am always wishing that I could find a way to thank everyone for all their support but am overwhelmed by this thought given we have received so much love and support. My hope through Sweet Tea Cancer Connections is that I can give back to this world in a way that can spread my thankfulness and support by paying it forward through helping others.

Our family hopes you all have a happy and healthy holiday season! Thank you again for all your prayers, love, support, and caring hearts!

Love,
The Fettigs

STCC Update November 12, 2017

I want to update you that we are continuing to give "purpose to the pain" through working on creating a mobile app to help connect pediatric cancer families. I am amazed by all the people who are assisting me with this and I can't tell you how therapeutic this process continues to be.  We currently have two UX designers working on the design and flow.  Our prototype is expected to be completed in January 2018. We are currently seeking out app back-end developers to help it come to fruition as well as funding sources. If you want to keep up with our progress feel free to stop back by this website periodically and also follow us at our  Sweet Tea Facebook Page.

Treatment Side Effects-November 2017

Teagan had been making great gains since finishing radiation at the end of July and we were very happy and pleased with her progress. The last two weeks, however, we had mounting concerns as her balance was progressively getting worse. She had been able to sit upright and was learning to walk again on her special walker.  But, now was falling over sitting and could not walk in her walker by herself anymore. I had been emailing our Neuro Oncology Nurse Practitioner who is amazing with my concerns. So, today we went into Seattle Children’s Hospital with concerns we had with Teagan’s balance and her eyes turning in. We saw Neurosurgery in outpatient that morning to check her shunt to make sure it was working and not causing the balance issues. They took a CT scan and it showed her ventricles in her head were the same size, which did not indicate a shunt problem. The Neuro Nurse Practitioner confirmed her ventricles didn’t show any change, but given that Teagan has a recalled shunt, she still urged us to replace the shunt. We asked to do a shunt o’ gram this week to try and gather more info on whether the shunt was or was not working and then left the hospital around 12pm to take Teagan home.

While driving home we got a call from oncology. They asked us to come back through ER as they saw some concerning new spots on the CT scan. They wanted us to go into ER where we would need to wait 6 hours with Teagan without eating to do a full MRI scan at 6pm. Full MRI scans require Teagan go under anesthesia, which is why she could not eat. At around 10pm we got results of MRI back which showed some new spots of “enhancement” which they thought were radiation necrosis, but could not rule out it being evidence of disease. We were told we need to wait until Wednesday for the Brain Tumor Team to review her scan as they would make this decision and tell us next steps. We arrived home Friday night from the ER at 11pm with a large amount of steroids to give Teagan until Wednesday when we would see the doctors again.

11/4/2017-The next morning, Saturday, we had made plans with the Roc Solid Foundation for Teagan, Judd, and their friends to take a limo ride to breakfast and visit the Kids Museum.  During the time we were away from home Roc Solid, Weinersnitzel, and No Name Bikers’ volunteers, built Teagan and Judd a new play set in our yard!  It was a prefect distraction from reality for the day and we were so grateful for this generous gift from the foundation. It was a perfect day; however the steroids were taking their toll on Teagan at times and leaving her in fits of “roid rage”.
Radiation Necrosis

11/8/2017-Today we learned the bad news from the Brain Tumor Team that they believe Teagan is suffering from radiation necrosis. This is all relative good news, in a sense, since they are 95% sure it is not new evidence of disease. This was our biggest concern. Unfortunately, radiation necrosis is not exactly good news either.  So, what is radiation necrosis? I remember this was something they told us was very rare in the radiation intake.  I honestly hate hearing something is "very rare" anymore, as this doesn't hold much meaning to us anymore. A Google search can help one better understand. Cancer Compass tell us the following......

“When brain tumors are treated with radiation therapy, there is always a risk of radiation-induced necrosis of healthy brain tissue. Insidious and potentially fatal, radiation necrosis of the brain may develop months or even years after irradiation. This poorly understood side effect can occur even when the most stringent measures are taken to avoid exposing healthy tissue to harmful levels of radiation. In most cases, radiation necrosis of the brain occurs at random, without known genetic or other predisposing risk factors. The only treatment options typically available for radiation necrosis of the brain are surgery to remove dead tissue and use of the steroid dexamethasone to provide limited symptom control. But clinicians have not found a way to stop the progression of necrosis, despite having tested a range of therapies including anticoagulants, hyperbaric oxygen, and high-dose anti-inflammatory regimens.  

However, recent studies at M. D. Anderson have shown that the monoclonal antibody bevacizumab (Avastin) may be able to stop radiation necrosis of the brain and allow some of the damage to be reversed. Victor A. Levin, M.D., a professor in the Department of Neuro-Oncology and the senior researcher on the studies, said the findings suggest that radiation necrosis of the brain can be successfully managed—and perhaps even prevented—with bevacizumab or similar drugs.”

Our Team told us that radiation necrosis could get worse, but hopefully it will not for Teagan. We, and they, don’t know how this will play out so we will just have to wait and see. The most dangerous thing about her radiation necrosis is that is located immediately next to her brain stem.  They have asked us to watch her very closely for her skipping breaths and /or trying to catch her breath or difficulty swallowing. These are symptoms related to the brain stem and if she was experiencing these, we would need to bring her to ER immediately as they could be life threating.

Tomorrow afternoon we will start bevacizumab (also known as Avastin) which is the immunotherapy drug mentioned above. She will receive this drug every two weeks for a total of 4 times through an outpatient iv procedure at Seattle Children's. The first time it will be 90 minutes, the second session 60 minutes, and the last two sessions 30 minutes long. She could get better or worse as we go, given no one knows what or how her necrosis will play out. We are hoping this immunotherapy will stop the necrosis and allow the damage to be reversed. Our Radiologist said we can hope that over the next 9 months to a year, we see her regain her progress back to where she was prior to this.

How do we process more bad news?

This will take some time to digest, the same way it took time for us to accept the reality of hearing our daughter had brain cancer. Before, our biggest concern was her cancer coming back, knowing that cancer is a disease that can be fatal.  Now we have a side effect of her proton radiation that could be life threatening.   It is late and the last 5 days of waiting have been mentally and physically exhausting.  It is easy thus to begin down the “why us”, “why Teagan”, train of thought again. This thought of why honestly is not worth entertaining. It doesn't change anything, and it doesn't add to the quality of our life right now. I was once told at the beginning of this journey that the only way through this is going through it. There are no short cuts, no tricks, you just have to face reality and be gentle with yourself along the way. So simple and true, yet the biggest challenge in my life I have ever faced.

I keep coming back at the end of the day to hope. I always would search out quotes during treatment, during the endless hours in a hospital room looking for inspiration. One quote that comes to mind is, "If you keep hope alive, it will keep you alive".  We plan to be hopeful and surround Teagan with our hopeful energy while continuing down the path to recovery, right by her side the entire way. We have no control over what the future brings for her, but we will never give up hope and we will be by her side, always.  Another one of my favorite hope quotes is by Liz Chase— “Hope is not pretending that troubles don’t exist. It is the trust that they will not last forever, that hurts will be healed, and difficulties overcome. It is faith that a source of strength and renewal lies within to lead us through the dark into the sunshine.” ☀️❤️

Run for Hope-September 24, 2017

The Run for Hope took place today at Seward Park. This was an organized 5k run or 3k walk in Seattle to raise money for Seattle Children's Hospital brain tumor research. We created our team name, Teagan Tough, from our friend Troy Nehring who coined the term with her birthday picture which was taken one day before her diagnosis of brain cancer. We can’t thank you all enough for coming out and donating to the Run of Hope!  Over $500,000 was raised to fund research for cures for childhood brain tumors at Seattle Children’s.