Patty McNeal's Page

On January 2, 2009, Tim and I began living every parent's nightmare. We had just got home from our trip to Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH), where Megan had a biopsy of the tumor in her left inner thigh. Dr. Weber called and broke the news that our 13year old daughter, Megan, had cancer but she was not sure of the type. This was the acknowledgement of what Tim and I had feared since Megan discovered the lump in her thigh on December 17, 2008. The next day her pediatrician said to wait a couple of weeks, which was reasonable since Megan thought she may have injured her leg at pitching lessons for fast-pitch softball. One week later on Christmas Day Megan complained of pain in her thigh and it was very obvious that the lump was larger. So after seeing the doctor again and an MRI, which showed both benign and malignant characteristics, December 31, 3008, Megan was referred to Dr. Kristy Weber, an orthopedic surgeon at JHH.
January 6, 2009 Megan had a CT scan and a bone scan and our initial appointment with Dr. David Loeb, her pediatric oncologist. There were so many questions we had and most of them he could not answer; the reason was the pathology report was not in. The only thing we knew was it was either Synovial or Extraosseous Ewing’s Sarcoma and the treatment was different for both. However, the results for the CT scan and Bone scan were in and the second blow in less than 2 weeks came; there was a 6mm spot in the left lower lobe of her lung. January 9, 2009 Dr. Buxbaum called and said the diagnosis was Extraosseous Ewing’s Sarcoma.
January 13, 2009, Megan had her first surgery. She had a thoracotomy (to remove the spot in her lung), had an infusaport placed and had a bone marrow biopsy. Good news came from the surgery. The spot in her lung was not cancer, the bone marrow was clear of cancer cells and we were assured that there was no metastasis. During this hospitalization Megan started the first cycle of chemotherapy.
April 28, 2009, after 6 cycles of chemo, Megan had surgery to remove the orange-sized tumor from her leg. Dr. Weber also removed one of the hamstring muscles. Tim did talk with Dr. Weber on May 6th and she said the margins removed were clear. The next step is the follow up visit with Dr. Weber on May 11th, then May 13th she has an appt. with Dr. Loeb and hopefully we start the next of another 8 cycles of chemotherapy.