Well, we didn’t get all the snow which was forecast for last night. Mark & Nancy were supposed to go out for a "personal dinner" last night, and although the weather was in their favor, Kelsey began to run a fever of 103+ which promptly interrupted the dinner and forced Mark to return home. Although a common childhood fever for Kelsey, whatever ails her could be life threatening to Megan, so, more of the seclusion and protective measures for Megan.

Mark & Nancy take Megan back to Hasbro Childrens Hospital tomorrow for the next round of chemotherapy. Megan has since lost all of her hair from the last treatment, so there shouldn’t be any noticeable remaining affects from this treatment,.... but, the latest series of treatments do seem to make her rather ill, and that is something difficult to deal with. A friend brought Megan a couple of "nifty" hats, and I’m sure they’re now being put to good use.

They’ll be in for about a week, and hopefully, the chemo won’t throw her blood counts off too much, but this seems to be one of the major impacts of the treatments now. When Megan’s counts plummet to "0", almost anything could be fatal to her, including a simple cold.

Mark has returned to work, but this has been interrupted with a recent death in his family as well as this next round of chemo. He is still not doing as well as expected,.... the pain from his surgery still bothers him. Nancy hasn’t returned to work yet, and the demands on her haven’t diminished either. It’s a balancing act at best for both of them,..... I truly don’t know how they find the time to deal with everything facing them.

In a few months, we’ll be at the 1-year mark for all of this! It might seem like time passes quickly for all of us, but for Megan and her family, each moment has been an arduous task. Minutes, hours, days, weeks, months have all seemed to disappear into some unrealistic world of medical treatments, worries and concerns. Somewhere in the midst of all of this, the Hayward family continues to deal with the day-to-day realities of being a family.

I know all of you have been very supportive of Megan. But Megan continues with her battle each and every day. Her battle continues despite whatever WE may be doing. If I might be so bold,..... wear your "Megan pin", let people ask you what it represents,.... tell them about Megan and her family. Tell them about what she has done, and what we have done to help her. Tell them about the upcoming events to support Megan. Reach out just a little bit more,....... after all, the only way any one of us will ever change the world is by "reaching out".

I know I’ve said it before somewhere on this web site, but it seems to be the driving force behind everything we are all doing for Megan:

"There is nothing more important in life than the smile in the eyes of a child!"