NOTE FROM THE MACS STAFF

Morgan's story has NOT been updated yet since she passed away on September 7th, 2000. We will update the end of her story as soon as we receive more information from her family.

--------------------------------------------

Morgan's Story
written by mom Jennifer

Morgan Brooke was born a very healthy 8lb. baby girl. She began having problems breathing in October of 1995. I immediately called the pediatrician and had an appointment that Friday. By the following Monday October 27th, Morgan was in the pediatric ICU on a ventilator and diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. We remained in the ICU for a week and from there went to the Oncology floor to start a 2 year chemotherapy treatment protocol. Morgan was quickly in remission, just 3 weeks after diagnosis. The next 2 years were spent in and out of the hospital (mostly in).

I was in nursing school at the time and managed to finish (I don't know how!!). I never left her, unless my husband was with her. He worked 2nd shift and would get off work at midnight and come to the hospital, I would wake up at 3am and go to school. Somehow we made it work. Our life became somewhat normal when Morgan's treatment was over, just monthly visits to the clinic and then bimonthly visits. We bought our first home outside of Fort Worth, I had another baby, and I started a new job working in the same pediatric ICU Morgan had once been a patient. I coached my oldest daughter's soccer team and Morgan had finally regained a lot of the energy she had lost from chemotherapy and she too was playing soccer!

Our 4 year remission and 2 year off treatment check up was November 17th,1999 and Morgan's routine lab work as well as her usual chest x-ray were all great. We could really see the light at the end of the tunnel. Christmas was wonderful, probably the best Christmas. Morgan received all her favorites from Santa: Barbie, Blues Clues and Madeline. She loves books and Disney movies, both of which she got.

The week after Christmas I started to notice some swelling in her neck. She had been treated for sinus infections off and on for about three months and I called the doctor and he said that's probably what it was again. We made an appointment for January 6th, 2000 to see him just to check things out. I had been having a bad feeling about the swelling and I think the doctor could sense my fear. He agreed that the swelling appeared to be worse than he had imagined and he thought that we should go to the Oncology clinic for some lab work and a chest x-ray.

Our worst fears were true. Morgan had relapsed and the tumor had returned. No one was more shocked then Morgan's Oncologist. We were immediately admitted to the hospital, a place we hadn't stayed in 2 years, and told that the only way Morgan could survive was a Bone Marrow Transplant. We started chemotherapy the next day after surgery. Neither of our other 2 children were a match for Morgan, but luckily we found an unrelated perfect match. Morgan has been undergoing chemotherapy twice a week, including spinal, muscle and IV injections and we just started radiation twice a day for 2 weeks in preparation for her May 31st, 2000 Bone Marrow Transplant.