Reegan05/25/2011

~March 6th 2024~

It's been a while since we provided an update. And that was at Reegan's request.

In December, during Christmas, Reegan went to Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford for her long awaited surgery and tumor removal. I can report that all of the tumor was removed and her hip replacement was successful. The recovery was slow at first. But then Reegan pushed herself everyday and she has far exceeded the expectations of her surgical team and her physical therapy team. The pathology report from her surgery showed 94% tumor necrosis (tumor death). This tells the team that the chemotherapy Reegan has been receiving has been very effective.

Reegan started back on chemotherapy on January 11th and is currently in the middle of Cycle 4 of her chemotherapy. She only has 2.5 more cycles to go. If all goes as planned and there are no delays; Reegan will be done with chemotherapy in the middle of May 2024. Just before her 13th birthday. Reegan continues to show the most amazing amount of strength and grace during this process. She has her ups and downs. But somehow she finds happiness wherever she can.

Reegan has chosen to participate in a research study at Valley Children's Hospital. Luckily nothing further needs to be done, they just evaluate what has already been removed. While discussing this option with her and making sure that it was her decision to participate, she said "Yeah! I'll do what I can to help another child. You never know, my situation might make a difference." And this, in a nutshell, is Reegan. During a difficult experience, she's thinking of others.

~November 17th 2023~

On November 9th Reegan started week 1 of her second cycle of chemotherapy. She tolerated the chemotherapy fairly well and she was released home a day early. She was so excited to sleep at home. On November 14th we had a virtual meeting with her surgeon at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford to discuss her surgery. Reegan's surgery is scheduled for Thursday December 21st and then she will stay inpatient for 5-6 days of recovery. That means that Reegan will be spending Christmas at the hospital this year. After 3-4 weeks post surgery, we are hopeful that Reegan will have recovered enough to be approved to start her remaining cycles of chemotherapy.

~October 23rd 2023~

This past weekend Reegan made the brave decision to take charge of her journey. She had been experiencing heavy hair shedding most of the week. On Thursday October 19th, 2 weeks exactly from when she started chemotherapy, her hair started to fall out in large amounts. We shortened her hair at home on Friday and enjoyed the evening with a cute bob hairstyle. On Saturday October 21st, we met with my hair stylist for a private appointment and Reegan decided to shave her hair down. It was an emotional experience for all 3 of us, but she got through it with such grace. We spent the weekend getting used to the new Reegan. She said removing of her hair was very freeing. I think it lifted a weight off her shoulders and she was finally able to move forward from something that she was hoping wouldn't happen.

~October 16th 2023~

Reegan completed her first week of chemotherapy at Valley Children's Hospital and was discharged home on Monday October 9th. It was definitely more than her body was used to and she had exhaustion, nausea, and sometimes vomiting lasting for 6 days after chemo had ended. We are so glad she is feeling better these past several days and we are trying to get her to eat as much as possible. She will resume chemo on October 26th for 3 weeks. She will be admitted in hospital for 5 days at a time each week. We continue to hope that each treatment will be tolerable for her and that she will be able to push through the exhaustion and nausea.

~October 4th 2023~

In Spring of 2023 at 12 years old Reegan started to experience pain in her upper thigh. We assumed it was growing pains and gave over-the-counter medicine here and there since the pain came and went. By July 2023 Reegan's pain was more regular and there was a bit of a limp when she walked. As the limp became worse, she was scheduled for a doctor appointment in August 2023. The doctor ordered an x-ray and it was revealed that Reegan had a 4.3 cm bone lesion in the right femoral neck. We were obviously concerned and the doctor referred us to the nearest children's hospital, Valley Children's Hospital in Madera, CA (2 hours away). We saw orthopedics and oncology and they recommended an MRI of her hip.

After the results of the MRI were reviewed by the oncology doctor at Valley Children's we were referred to an orthopedic oncologist at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford in Palo Alto, CA (4 hours away) where they recommended and eventually performed an open biopsy on September 13th.

On Friday September 22nd, we received the diagnosis of Osteosarcoma of the right proximal femur. Our sweet girl has cancer.  Osteosarcoma is a type of bone cancer which makes up 2% of all cancers in children ages 0 to 14 years old. The proximal femur is an UNCOMMON location for Osteosarcoma. Osteosarcoma most often grows in the ends of long bones, especially the bottom of the thigh bone (femur) close to the knee and the top of the larger shin bone (tibia) close to the knee. The top of the upper arm bone (humerus) is another common place it grows.

Things moved very quickly at that point with more blood work, another CT for mapping for her future surgery and a PET Scan to check for metastasis. The PET scan came back clean showing no metastasis! YAY! On October 5th, Reegan will begin her first round of chemotherapy at Valley Children's Hospital (2 hours away). Each cycle is anticipated to be 5 weeks. After two cycles of chemotherapy, we will pause to travel to Palo Alto, CA (4 hours away) where Reegan will have surgery at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford to remove the tumor and undergo hip replacement and reconstruction. From there she will spend 1 week in-patient recovering and then another 5 weeks at home recovering. After recovering from surgery Reegan will again resume her chemotherapy for an additional 8-10 months, barring any delays. We are hopeful that chemotherapy will be complete in Summer 2024. We are all still trying to wrap our minds around what this will look like for all of us since we will be commuting 2 hours to Madera for her treatments and clinic appointments at Valley Children's Hospital.

Reegan is the youngest of three children with two older brothers. She is kind, funny, silly, sassy, and oh so brave. I will do my best to update this page as often as I can. But out of respect for Reegan's request for some privacy, we are keeping information limited in the public space.

Any and all donations are so very appreciated and will go towards travel expenses such as lodging and gasoline, food costs during travel, home health and nutritional items for Reegan's at home care, and assistance with medical bills and family bills.

**Her brothers made her a cake to cheer her up!**