What's been going on with the Mc Hugh's

Sorry, I haven't updated our blog lately. It's been busy around here. Let me fill in you in on the happenings for the Mc Hugh's.

One day we went up to the Kennicott Muesum to get a closer look at what Matt works on all day. It was neat to see how the mine has grown over the last 100 years and where it's going to be in the next 100 years. Also all the things they get out of that mine is amazing. The tire in the picture is what is on the trucks out at the mine. Amazing!!! Sean & Jayson attended Cub Scout Day Camp. Rain and all. Sean wasn't very happy since it was his second year and he didn't get to learn anything new.

Our school does a skating party at the end of reading week. Megan learned how to skate all by herself.

Megan graduated from Kindergarten barely. Matt and I can't believe she is going up.




















Megan turned 6 on June 12th. Look at that cake. No I didn't make it.


Destiny had a chance to go on a Pioneer Trek with our church. When she was told that she needed to wear a pioneer dress she said that she wanted to make one. Well that landed on mom's shoulders. I was nervious because I don't know how to sew. She picked out the pattern she wanted. Thats when I got more nervious it wasn't a simple dress. It took all most 2 monthes to work on it. I didn't get help from a friend to get all the pieces sewed together. I am very proud of myself that I took this on. However now I can't say I don't know how to sew any more. I'm wanting to make me some skirts for church now. Destiny's trek was for only one day. What she told us that it was hard and hot and she was tired. Thats all we got from her. Well that brings us to date. We have learned more about Megan but it will be hard to explain on the blog. Lets just say our life just got harder and we are in for a lot of learning. Hope you all are enjoying you summer. Love us!

Test Results

The last post I mentioned that we had to see a new physh doctor to determine if Megan had a concussion. Matt and I was told it would be a couple of months. Well it only took a couple of weeks. We meet with the doctor on May 1st at that time they told us that they were going to test to her to see if she had a concussion or not. That happened on May 9th, that was a very long day. They started at 9 am, took a lunch break at 12 for an hour and continued until 3 pm. It wiped Matt and I out not Megan. Well we just got those results on Thursday. Megan did have a concussion. They are saying that when she fell her brain hit the front of her skull and bounced back and hit the back of her skull. It will take up to 2 years for her brain to heal completely. He is also saying that she has a form of PMS. Yes, I said PMS but, it is in her brain. Its hard to type what this means. Her brain is giving off different electrical currents causing unnecessary emotions and making her unable to concentrate on the task at hand. We might have to put her on medication to help her with this Matt and I haven't decided what to do about that yet. It also seems that Megan will now have learning disabilities which we all ready noticed some symptons at school and at home, which now has been confirmed. When sharing this with my mom she pointed out that We are very lucky that this is the only thing that we have to deal with, since it could have been much worse. So now we are going to deal with her simple challenges. Matt says we will take care of the difficult first and the impossible will take a little longer. So that is where we are at right now. Her next MRI is July 22nd. Again thank you for your prayers and support. Love US!

The Weight Has Been Lifted Off

Ok! Megan had her MRI yesterday 4/22/09. We got some good news. Her tumor hasn't grown at all! It is the same size has it was in the beginning. Her cyst hasn't changed ether. It looks like she was born with it. We are going to have some other test done because of some things that aren't making since to us and the doctor. There is a good chance she had a concution (?) when she fell which are causing some short term memory loss and other things. That test won't be done for another 3-4 months due trying to get into the specialist. Matt and I drilled the doctor with a lot of questions we had or I should say I did. Matt said I was a little hard on him oh well it's my baby. Here are some of the questions and answers. The longer we wait to do brain surgery the better for her. She will be developed mentally and physically if we can wait. If we have to do surgery it will be done a week to a month when we decide. Again if we have to do surgery he will have to go through the back of her head and split the brain in 2 going left to right or up to down (I can't remember the terms for the brain at the moment) to get to the tumor. We comfirmed the the cyst and tumor is kissing the brainstem. The doctor did tell us some of the risk of doing her surgery if and when it happens. I like to be prepared so I asked a lot of the questions regarding that. I want to know what we will have to go through. At this moment I can't remember a lot. When Matt gets home I will have him read this and add to it and fix my spelling since I can spell. One thing I do want to say is that Matt and I feel really good that things are working out for us and Megan isn't in harms way right now and we are breathing better. Also we also like to say thank you for all the prays and concerns we have been getting. THANK YOU! Also these pics are from when Megan was waking up from the MRI. That was hard! She didn't come out the way she did last time. It was like she was high on drugs. Matt and I didn't like it at all. She wasn't her self. Again THANK YOU!

GOOD NEWS!!!!!

Just got off the phone with the doctor. The spinal tap test came back negitive. The solid mass isn't cancers. He said that it could just be an over grown portion of her brain we may never know. We are for sure going to do another MRI at the end of March and keep an eye on it. There is still the chance of it moving or growing. Also the cyst can also move and grow so we need to watch that also. Again THANK YOU all for your Prayers.

Valentines & Spinal Tap

For those of you who didn't see Destiny's Valentine Box from last year here is a picture, sorry it is sideways. The picture below is Destiny's Valentine Box for this year. Yes it is a three tier cake. On the top Kristie & Destiny cut a hole in the middle of the first two layers for the valentines. They started working on this a couple of weeks before it was due and they still needed to finish it the night before. Destiny won over all in her class at school for her box.


NOW Megan! Friday, February 13th we headed out at 7 am for her spinal tap at 9 am. We got there and the doctor and nurses were concerned that we might not be able to do the procedure since she was sick and her asthma is acting up. They checked her lungs and her left lung had some fluid in it but it was a just a little bit and they would watch it while she was asleep. Matt was able to go in the back with her while they put her to sleep. He said it was quick and wierd to see her eyes roll in the back of her head. The procedure only took 30min, they took 3 syringes full of spinal fluid. That was wierd to see for me. The reason they took so much so they can do multiple tests. After the doctor was done we had to stay for another 2 hours and have her lay flat on her back. They said since they took so much if she got up her brain would drop, since our brains float in the spinal fluid. It took some time for her to come back to herself. She still needed to lay down for 24 hours after we got home. Matt and I think that was the hardest thing to go through, we had to practically sit on her. The doctor said that we will have the results by Friday, February 20th. As soon as I get them I will post the results. Now I know you are wondering about the blood results so here it is they came back negitive. Meaning that according to them the tumor isn't active. So far it looks like the tumor is benign. The doctor says it looks like we will be doing another MRI in 6 weeks. To answer some of your questions. There was never a bump on the outside of her head, and we haven't had to shave her head yet Darrell. Matt and I would like to thank you for all of your prayers.

More Tests!!!! :(

I am so sorry that I haven't updated our blog. Since it has been a couple of months since the last post I will take some time and let you all know what has been going on. In December Megan saw a Neurologist. That was a joke and a waste of time. They just kept telling us that the cyst was nothing and normal and not to worry about it. I still had them send the CT scans to the Radiologist to see what he thought. From that it was suggested to get an MRI done to get a better picture of the cyst. Megan was able to get in on December 26th. That was an all day event. We had to wait to get the results from that until the first of the year since the Neurologist was out of town. We got the call saying that there was a cyst for sure but, also a solid mass. Now we need to find out what that mass is so I needed to schedule blood work to be done and an appt. with a Neuro Surgeon to get his oppion on the case. It took some time to get the orders faxed to the hospital for the blood work. We got that done on January 19th. I talked to our family doctor on Tuesday the 23rd and he said that it was negitive. Meaning from that test she doesnt have cancer. That brings us to today. We met with the Neuro Surgeon today. It is for sure that she has a tumor but, the questions is it benign or not. He order more blood work today and a urine sample. They took 6 tubes of blood. My poor baby! She was so brave. He also order a spinal tap. Now the reason for all of this is to rule out other types of cancers. The blood work will rule out certain cancers and if the counts are low the spinal tap will confirm cancer or not. Because the tumor is in the brain there is a good chance the blood isn't asborbing the cancer cells where as the spinal fluid will give us better results. After the results come back from both of these test then we will discuss what road we need to go down. I hope this makes sense. I will try to be on top of this more as we go through each step.

***The picture above was taken before the fall. Before church she was playing with my camera.***

Careers!

This last week at the kids school was Spirit Week. Each day had a different theme. Monday they had to dress up like their favorite superhero or their real life hero. Tuesday was believe in your country and had to wear red, white, and blue. Thursday was my favorite it was believe you can succeed they had dress up in what they want to be when they grow up. This was fun to find out what the kids wanted to be when they grow up. Megan got to go to school on Thursday so we had to get her something to wear. She wants to be Hannah Montana when she gets older, Jayson wants to be a professional football player but, since we don't have all the equipment for that he went has a basketball player, he didn't care he loves all sports. Sean wants to be a Scout Master, I think he was just being lazy and didn't want to find something when he could just wear his Cub Scout Uniform. Now for Destiny! She has always wanted to be a Fashion Designer. We took scrap fabric and pinned it to her pants, put ribbon around her neck. She also got to wear my 2" heel boots. Matt was worried about her costume not sure if it would turn out. She really did looked like the fashion designers on some of the shows she watches. Of course they might change their minds in a year.