Last night Morgan got to celebrate her birthday with her friends...about 20 of her friends stopped by to have a party. Her boyfriend Cody came up to visit from St. George and our neighbors Cami Hansen and Julie Toone made her an awesome birthday cake! They played lots of fun music out on the deck while kids danced and jumped on the tramp. Morgan sat and watched most of it, but you could tell it lifted her spirits quite a bit. She joined in on the "Ice Cream & Cake" dance though. :)
It has become more and more obvious that Friday was her "bad day." She wasn't really nauseous but extremely tired and slept most of the day. Today, Morgan seems to be a little bit more like her usual self, and that feels really good! She is planning to go to school this week as long as she can handle it. We need to figure out all of her options for school though. She could stay in school and just try to make everything up as she goes, sign up for home & hospital which would allow her to stay home but stay enrolled in the classes she is in right now, sign up to take packets instead of going to classes at all, or we could sign her up for internet high school. So many decisions to make!
This week she has two appointments that we know of. She will be having her blood drawn on Tuesday to check her red and white blood counts as well as to check her blood toxicity levels. Wednesday we are going to the Huntsman Cancer Institute for genetic counseling. The doctors already did a DNA test looking for the BRCA1 & BRCA2 gene mutations which is an inherited gene for being more susceptible to breast cancer. Her tests came back negative so I was a little confused as to why we are getting more tests.
I talked to Huntsman and was told that it is still possible she has the BRCA mutation, but that it may be located on a different chromosome than the usual one for breast cancer. They can compare these test results to other young kids who have unusual cancers and see if she could have some genetic condition or syndrome. This would help explain why she had a tumor at age 1 on her adrenal gland and breast cancer at 15. I recently looked the 1996 pathology report from PCMC regarding that tumor and it stated that it wasn't necessarily an adenoma (benign) or a carcinoma (malignant). It was categorized as a neoplasm, which means it could be one or the other. This is the first I have heard that. Those of you who don't know or remember THAT story....well, let's just save it for another day!
Once Huntsman knows what it is, they can screen for it, and possibly could have a medicine to help some underlying condition. I have been doing the research on the Triple Negative Cancer and found that it wasn't really diagnosed as its own type of cancer until just in the last six to ten years. I have to wonder if maybe her adrenal tumor was also a Triple Negative Cancer and some random cell hung around and found its way to her breast. I could be totally wrong, but how else would the same girl have such unexplainable, <1%>
Lots of people have been asking me what they can do for us....it is hard to just ask for help when it isn't the little specific things that we need. Just keep praying and supporting as you have. A financial miracle could help! :) I am sure there are foundations or grants available to help with medical expenses. I just don't have the time to search out those avenues of help. If anyone has some information or knows someone who can help us in this area, please contact me. My email is janapendleton@hotmail.com. Thanks again for all you do!
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