Thanks Doug.  I was with her when she died.  She had asked, how it was to die...She said that she thought it would be slowly going to sleep and God, coming down to her and sweeping her off to heaven.  I told  her that was what I thought too...

Kathleen...Meg has a daughter named Kathleen.  She just spent New Years with us.  Meg was a beautiful person that touched the lives of Many folks ..she fought hard and inspired many folks. We have fountain named for her at ther church in Greensboro. 
Meg's Fountain..it is beautiful.

Live and Love as hard as you can.

I dont know what it is that tells us something is wrong with our bodies I mean seriously wrong with our bodies but Im glad I paid attention to that feeling.

On Mothers Day this year (May 13, 2007), during a quiet portion of the afternoon, I told my husband Joe that I had some discomfort in my armpit, as if my glands were swollen. I had been feeling this for a couple weeks, and had been checking for lumps in my armpit, but really couldnt find anything. He suggested, and I agreed, that I should make an appointment with my doctor the next day.

The next day, I woke up still feeling the swollen glands in my armpits. The morning went as normal&Joe went to work&I got the kids on their buses, and then I went inside to get my shower and to get ready for work. When I took off my nightshirt I found my right breast to be very flushed like it had a fever! I called Joe immediately. I called my gynecologist next to schedule an appointment.

That afternoon at the doctors office, Dr. Laurie Cox felt that the redness of my breast could be due to cellulites. Wanting to be most proactive, she put me on an antibiotic and referred me to Southeastern Radiology for a mammogram and ultrasound.

The next few months proved to be very frustrating and very full of doctors appointments.

May 17 Mammogram and ultrasound. Confirmed that there was thickening of the right breast. No lumps found. Could neither confirm nor decline the possibility of Inflammatory Breast Cancer. Referral to a breast surgeon.

May 21 Appointment with the breast surgeon, Dr. Marterre. Took one look at me and said that this was NOT Inflammatory Breast Cancer. I asked him to do a biopsy anyway. He did the biopsy and also changed my antibiotic. Put me on Cipro and Flagyl.

May 23 Biopsy returns NO cancer! I did test positive for mastitis infection of the breast. I am to continue with the antibiotics.

May 31 Follow up visit with Dr. Marterre. You should have seen his face when he saw that the redness in my breast was not cleared up! It was if he had been slapped! The shock was all too obvious. My breast was a little more red and swollen today. He changed my antibiotic regimen again and put Keflex with the Cipro. He was seriously baffled couldnt figure out why the antibiotics didnt clear up the infection.

June 4 I woke up feeling like the tissue at the base of my right breast was a little thicker. I called Dr. Marterre. They scheduled another ultrasound for me.

June 6 Lymph nodes are tender Ultrasound of breast today. Still red and slightly swollen.

June 12 June 6 ultrasound found no significant difference in the breast. Dr. Marterre is still baffled by the redness. He thinks I have a very serious infection of the breast referring me to an Infectious Disease doctor (Dr. Campbell) in Greensboro. Dr. Campbell asked Dr. Marterre to change my antibiotic to Doxycycline. Staph infection??

June 15 Appointment with Dr. Campbell (Infectious Disease). He listened to the history and did an examination. Didnt seem to be very hopeful that he could help. Thought that if this was a staph infection that is was very strange manifestation of the disease. He also took a blood sample. Dr. Campbell consulted with his peers, called me that afternoon and scheduled an appointment with Dr. Young Breast Surgeon the next business day.

June 18 Appointment with Dr. Young. He felt that I did not have breast cancer. Had seen a reddening on a woman before which had cleared up before they found the cause. He kept me on the Doxycycline and sent me for an MRI just to make sure&more importantly, they are l

　This is Meg's Story...June 13, 1966 - June 16, 2012ooking for a deeper clog which might be causing the redness.

June 27 MRI today. Im still concerned with the lymph nodes and soreness in my armpit. Technician said we would see anything wrong in the upper arm as well.

June 29 spoke with Dr. Youngs office. MRI was clear and the blood work taken by Dr. Campbell was clear. No infection of any kind showed up.

July 10 follow up visit with Dr. Campbell. All tests were clear giving me over to Dr. Young for future discoveries. Told to stop taking antibiotics they obviously were not effective.

July 11 Dr. Young I told him my lymph nodes were still sore and he said that a biopsy of the lymph nodes was the next step.

July 12 Dr. Brown took an Ultrasound guided biopsy of the right lymph nodes in my armpit. As she was doing the procedure, I was looking at the screen. I could see that they were different from earlier ultrasounds. They seemed to have growths in them. I really felt that we had found something just anything to discover what was wrong would be wonderful!

July 13 Ok, I have cancer. Dr. Brown found it in the lymph node samples and feels that it came from the breast. Very lengthy meeting but good. Appointment with Dr. Young on Monday to discuss options.

July 16 Dr. Young cancer is in the lymphatic system&series of tests to follow&

July 20 Bone Scan results were normal!

July 24 PET Scan Showed many hot spots above my right breast in the lymphatic system.

July 24 CT Scan results were normal.

July 25 Echocardiogram results were normal.

July 25 Dr. Magrinat (Medical Oncologist) We learned today that the cancer is Stage 3C. Invasive, but not past the point of no return. We will most likely start with Chemotherapy, then move to surgery, then radiation. The cancer did not take hold in the breast, simply originated in the breast. As the cancer was being filtered from my breast it really took hold in the lymphatic system. Dr. Magrinat said he really wouldnt call this Inflammatory Breast Cancer, but rather Occult Primary

He doesnt seem to be one for labeling the cancer this or that. Hes more interested in treating it and getting rid of it.

We are doing Chemotherapy first because the cancer is so wide spread in the lymphatic system. They would rather do surgery on a smaller portion (wanting to avoid common problems resulting from taking too many lymph nodes lymphoma), so they are going to try to knock it down with chemo first, then do surgery, then get the rest of it with radiation. The cancer is triple negative for the hormone receptors. This means that they will be giving me a general chemo drug one that kills many cancers.

Chemo once every three weeks for 18 weeks 6 sessions in all. I asked why not more frequently, and Magrinat said I would need the weeks in between to recover.

We also talked to him about a second opinion for the treatment. We feel the diagnosis is correct&but we would like to get another opinion on the treatment. Joe and I and our families had been thinking about this prior to the meeting. MD Anderson in Houston, TX does wonderful work with Inflammatory Breast Cancer. We also discussed going to Duke. Magrinat welcomed a second opinion and said they would help us get these appointments in any way they could.

Over the next few days we were on the phone to the hospitals a lot. More appointments and we had to make a decision about MD Anderson vs. Duke for a second opinion. We finally decided on Duke. MD Anderson is on the cutting edge for Inflammatory Breast Cancer, but that isnt exactly what I have. Dr. Magrinat has a great relationship with Duke and we felt that they might be able to give Magrinat their opinion on treatment&and we could still have treatment in Greensboro. With MD Anderson we wanted to go only for a second opinion and they wanted us to commit to being treated there. Neither one of us wanted to go back and forth to Texas if we could get the same care here. Too disruptive for the family as a whole.

July 27 Ultrasound to look at the hot spot found on my ovary. Everything looked very normal. Nothing to worry about.

July 30 Blood test to see if cancer is in my blood system. Came back negative!

July 30 Appointment with Dr. Bertrand. Gamma Imaging test and ultrasound to see if we can see the cancer in the breast. The PET Scan showed us where to look. She did a biopsy at the base of the breast on the outside (just where a bra catches you) and felt that she got a good sample of the cancer were hoping! She also placed a titanium clip in the spot so we could refer back to the same spot later. It still only showed up as a cloud. Dr. Bertrand said that this cloud would not have caught her attention. It just didnt look like anything to worry about.

July 31 Dr. Justin Wu Radiation Oncologist. Feels that we will most likely do radiation for 7 weeks, one short session (10 minutes) 5 days a week, after the surgery. Much will depend on how well I do with the Chemo and how much is left after the surgery.

August 2 Chemo school - lots of information on how to do this, what to expect even whats best to wear. We took a tour of the Chemo room. I was very uncomfortable. I felt like we were walking in on patients and invading their privacy. Very odd.

August 2 Bertrands office. She took pictures of the breast now that the marker was in place.

August 7 Port surgery with Dr. Tim Davis Dr. Peter Young was on vacation for two weeks and we didnt want to wait. Surgery and recovery went well.

August 8 Meeting with Dr. Kimberly Blackwell, Duke University Medical Center. Very long appointment that really didnt add anything new. During the appointment Dr. Magrinat called. He had the results from Bertrands biopsy. I am HER2 positive! This means that they can give me very specific drugs for MY type of cancer. This is VERY good news!

Dr. Blackwell wanted me to schedule an MRI with them. The have a breast specific coil for the MRI and she was most certain that the cancer would show up on her MRI. We scheduled it for the next evening. She had never heard of the Gamma Imaging that Bertrand did and was very skeptical of the findings. This lowered my confidence in her.

Later that day we found out that insurance wouldnt cover the new MRI because it had been too soon after the one in Greensboro. Magrinat said it would be OK to wait. It was primarily for finding the cancer for the surgeon later. Weeks later, I did a little investigating about the breast specific coil MRI. As it turns out, this is exactly the test I had done in Greensboro, and therefore another test at Duke would be redundant. We did not elect to have a second test done. I also found out that they do Gamma Imaging at Duke and Dr. Bertrand was surprised to find out that Dr. Blackwell, at Duke, was not aware of this. Again, lowering my confidence in her even more.

August 14 First Chemo. Went very well&no immediate reactions to the drugs. We were there about 6 hours. Sure am glad they gave me a bed!

First Chemo weekend really felt awful! Very achy. Had terrible stomach cramps. In and out of bed all weekend. Did not sleep well at night. By the end of the next week I was back to normal&felt great!

The rest of the Chemo appointments went well. All my follow up appointments found me well and with proper blood counts. All in all, chemo was very uneventful. Not to say that I wasnt slightly miserable those first weekends&I simply learned how to use diet and Tylenol to my advantage.

Today we are at a new juncture. Last week I met with the genetics counselor to have testing done to determine if I am genetically pre-disposed to cancer. We hope these findings will help us determine what kind of surgery will be best taking off one breast, or both.

Just this week I had my pre-surgery tests with Dr. Bertrand. She did a Gamma Imaging test, a mammogram, and an ultrasound. She could find nothing! The breast cloud that we found as the point of origin for the cancer was no longer there. She couldnt even find an enlarged lymph node to take a picture of!

These results didnt really surprise me. The cancer was so evasive, hiding from us for months, I really didnt expect to see it after 6 treatments of chemo.

Also this week was my CT Scan and PET scan. Im expecting the CT Scan to come back looking like full resolve. This is how the CT scan looked after only two treatments. The PET Scan, however is the test that finally showed us the cancer. We took a peek at the results and can still see hot spots indicating that most likely there are still lymph nodes infected with cancer under my arm and close to my neck. These were the spots that were most concentrated originally. The hot spots do appear to have decreased significantly! Well have to wait for the doctors official report to know for sure.

Our next steps are to meet with the surgeon, have a mastectomy of some kind, followed by radiation for 7 weeks. Ill also be taking Herceptin for a year or two. Well, at least thats the plan as I know it today.

Now comes the hardest part &talking about money. I was so surprised when this grant was suggested to me. Ive always known that theres help out there from various organizations, but never in the world did I think there was one for me.