MRI Results

Morgan's tumor remains stable, we are always so very grateful for such wonderful news!!  However, what should have been a quick and non eventful visit turned into one of our longer days at St. Jude.  Morgan's port decided it didn't want to work anymore so we had a day full of needle sticks and lots of nurses trying their hardest to get it working again.  A port is an implantable central line surgically placed in Morgan's chest which allows her to receive drugs or other fluids directly into the bloodstream through a large vein and is also used to take blood samples every 4 weeks.  When we first arrived at St. Jude and Morgan had her port placed we were told that most the kids there referred to their port as their "Buddy" but Morgan expressed her disapproval of this nickname immediately so the nurse told her she had to come up with a name of her own.  One night we were walking back to our room from the Hospital and we were looking up at the moon and the stars and she decided she wanted to call her port "Star".  You can watch her helping one of the nurses give "Star" a "drink" in an old video on the bottom left.  Anyway, we are awaiting to hear our options but unless it starts to miraculously work on it's own, she will require a minor surgical procedure to fix the situation on our next visit.  The needle sticks have always been Morgan's main source of anxiety and now she is absolutely terrified, it just breaks our hearts to watch.  Don't get me wrong, at this point in time, things could definitely be a whole lot worse, and we are so very thankful for the scans coming back stable!!!

On a brighter note, I now must share my celebrity sighting with you all!  We had an early morning flight home from Memphis Sunday morning.  Morgan and I were standing in an empty airport waiting for Adam so we could go through security.  We were both staring off into space, tired from our trip, when I look over at Morgan and to my complete shock see Trace Adkins staring down at her.  He continued on and walked right in front of me and I smiled and said hello and even got one in return!  I guess I should share why we like him so much and I'll try to keep it as short as possible.  Adam and I have always liked Trace Adkins, but we liked him even more, after watching him on Celebrity Apprentice a few years back.  He just seemed so genuinely nice and we were really disappointed when he didn't win the whole thing!  Then, in the spring of 2011, because we liked Trace Adkins so much, we decided to watch the new season of Celebrity Apprentice when John Rich happened to be playing for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.  Like Trace Adkins, we just immediately liked John Rich as well.  At the time, we knew nothing more about St. Jude than what we had seen on TV.  Every time they showed clips of John Rich and the families at St. Jude I would cry and wonder how any family could ever deal with their child having cancer.  John Rich ended up winning that season and raised a great deal of money for the Hospital.  About 4 months later Morgan was diagnosed with DIPG and we became one of those families that we had watched on TV.  We have come to learn that a great deal of the country music community are BIG supporters of St. Jude and that is why both Trace Adkins and John Rich will forever be ingrained in my memory and why we not only like their music, but all the charitable work they do and why it had more meaning to see Trace Adkins in person.

Sorry for the lengthy entry!!!  The fundraiser for St. Jude is April 6th so we will be sure to let you know how it goes!  Thanks for all the nice thoughts on the facebook site!

HAPPY EASTER!!!!