It’s Getting Better Every Day

Once your family experiences childhood cancer, it’s always there.  When you wake up in the morning, you think about it.  When you have down time at work, you think about it.  When the phone rings, and it’s Megan, I always have that instant moment of fear that something is wrong.  When everyone goes to bed and I’m watching late night television, a commercial comes on about cancer and there it is again.  When I go to bed, the last thing I think about is cancer.  If cancer’s presence is that powerful for me, just imagine how it is for Megan.  I can’t begin to imagine the stress that being a childhood cancer survivor has on her everyday life.  However, somehow she has learned to actually draw strength from her plight and she now proudly wears her childhood cancer survivor badge with honor.  In many ways, I think Megan is much more at peace with her situation than those around her, because her belief in her ability to win this battle has never wavered.  I try to draw my own courage from her strength, but sometimes I need a weekend like this one where I’m surrounded by family to remind me how lucky our family really is.

Megan started the week in exciting fashion as she and her good friend Katelyn flew to visit Mary Beth and Ron Marino in Ft. Myers Beach, Florida.  I used to work with Mary Beth, and we became close professional friends, so we have stayed in touch ever since.  When Kenzi was a junior in high school, she and a friend of hers went to stay with Mary Beth for spring break.  Since Megan was sick off and on throughout high school, she never got to go.  However, since she has been feeling better, Mary Beth invited her out for a quick four day visit and Megan jumped at the opportunity.  She and Katelyn had an awesome time as Mary Beth is the best hostess ever!!!  We could never thank the Marino’s enough for letting Megan come out and forget about everything for a few days.  Here are a few pictures of their adventure.  As you can see, I think Megan’s favorite part of the trip was Mary Beth’s cat! 🙂

Kenzi came home from college on Friday evening so we could spend Easter weekend together.  There is just something uplifting about having our entire family together…even if it is just for a couple of days.  Megan had to work on Friday from noon until 4:00 p.m., so she got home just about exactly as Kenzi pulled in the driveway.  It was so nice to enjoy a home cooked family meal on Friday and just catch up with one another.  Of course, Sparky was sure happy to see Kenzi 🙂

Kenzi also brought her hedgehog home for Megan to play with 🙂

On Saturday, Kenzi had made reservations for all of us to go to TopGolf in Naperville.  None of us had been there before, so we really didn’t know what to expect, but we had a blast!  Kenzi and Megan had not swung a golf club in about 10 years, and although I used to play frequently, once Megan got sick, I decided to put the golf clubs in the basement for the sake of time with my family.  Kenzi’s boyfriend, Nick, came with us as well, and we all just laughed and had the best time.  Here are a few pictures of our golf adventure.

On Saturday evening, Grandpa and Grandma Bugg drove up to our house because we were hosting an Easter lunch for our family on Sunday.  It was fun to catch up with them, and on Sunday, Uncle Todd, Gina, and Cousin Danny also came over for our Easter feast.  It was awesome to be surrounded by family and enjoy the holiday together.

I almost forgot…on Easter Sunday morning, Deb put together Easter baskets for the girls and then we had our traditional Easter egg hunt in the house.  No matter how old the girls get, we always have so much fun on Easter morning.

It doesn’t seem like that long ago that we were spending our Easter Sundays either in the hospital, or preparing to head to the hospital on the following Monday morning.  As Megan traverses further and further down the road of recovery, it seems like a little more normalcy is creeping into our lives with each passing day.  On Monday, I need to make Megan’s next appointment with her oncologists, which should be in about two weeks.  From there, we will learn when her next set of scans will be scheduled.  However, until that time, we will continue to follow Megan’s lead and live each day to the fullest.  Instead of wondering why childhood cancer had to infect our family, we will instead focus on everything our family has to be thankful for.  It’s amazing what a weekend together with family will do for one’s outlook on life.

Until next week…