::A Special Page for Melanie:: Melanie and Matthew October 17, 2003, Saturday (Matthew's cheeks are puffy because he was on major steroids at the time.) ::From Journal Entry Dated October 28, 2003:: After Matthew was released from the hospital and we were on our way home, he said that he wanted to get Melanie a Beanie Baby. (He had received so many from his radiation therapists and they made him happy, so he wanted to get one for her.) He asked me what her favorite animal was and I told him that I would find out. So the next time I talked to Rebecca I asked her and I found out Melanie likes panda bears. As soon as Matthew's counts came up, we went Beanie Baby shopping and found a panda bear one at a local store. We wrapped it up and were going to mail it to her at the hospital, then we found out that she got to come home too! (This was Oct. 15th). So on the 17th, I called her house and asked if it was ok to come and give Melanie her gift from Matthew in person. Of course it was ok and so Matthew and I went up to visit. Melanie was really happy to get this from Matthew. She thought it was very sweet of Matthew. I asked Melanie if it was ok to take a picture of she and Matthew together and she readily agreed. Rebecca got out her camera too. Melanie didn't reach for a hat or anything... she just sat up by Matthew and put her arm around him and smiled a really beautiful smile. She's an amazing young lady. We are honored to know her. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::About Melanie:: On May 13, 2003, Melanie was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML). She was at drill team practice and passed out. She had not been feeling very well for a few weeks prior. Her parents took her to their doctor and they expected to hear the doctor say that Melanie had something like Mono. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Melanie's brothers were not a close enough match for her to have a bone marrow transplant. She went through 6 months of very intense chemotherapy. All of her chemo treatments were inpatient. Five weeks before this picture was taken, Melanie's central line became infected and the bacteria caused sepsis (blood poisoning). She was life-flighted to PCMC and admitted to ICU where she stayed a week. She had severe complications following this and had to stay inpatient for 5 more weeks at PCMC. Hemorrhaging of the lungs was just one of the complications, but quick action by the PCMC team saved her life again. They surgically put 3 drains into her lungs and then began giving her numerous platelet transfusions. Melanie's determination to make it through this with a smile on her face was an honor to see. When Matthew and she were inpatient at the same time in October 2003, she always had a smile for me when I would go by her room to visit her and her mom. We know Melanie and her family because they live just 1-1/2 miles from us and attend the same church as we do. I am so happy to report that she began going to school again the week before Christmas. Although she still goes out to PCMC for followup CT scans of her kidneys and her lungs, as well as to be seen by the oncology staff there, she is starting to get back to normal slowly. She is regaining her lost strength and her hair is growing back. Last week at church, I noticed a little tiny bit poking out from under the bottom of her hat! I wish I had a "before" picture of her to put on here. She is amazing and wonderful and through all this, her faith in the Lord has done nothing but strengthen. She finished her treatments at the end of November 2003 and we pray that she remains in remission FOREVER! ::UPDATE ON MELANIE--FEBRUARY 2005:: DOING GREAT!!!!! YEA! She's almost 1-1/2 years off treatment and she was able to participate on the high school's drill team. She's leading a productive and normal life again. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::Newspaper article in the Vernal Express:: Leukemia Strikes Unsuspecting Vernal Family March 20, 2004 by Maureen Spencer Express Writer Seventeen-year-old Melanie Brady is an animated, beautiful young woman involved in one of the most physically demanding activities at Uintah High School, the U-Ette's Drill Team. In her junior year of high school, Melanie has everything going for her and an involved family supporting her and cheering her on. She is also in remission from Acute Myelogenous Leukemia. Of the four types of leukemia, AML is acute, fast growing, has a fast onset, and it is felt may have a little higher cure rate. Melanie had been having pains in her legs about a year ago. Now, looking back on the experience, the family identifies other physical signs that were not normal for the dark haired girl--her easy bruising, the lump under her chin, swollen glands--an intense, prolonged headache. In May, 2003, Melanie was at a U-Ette practice when extra laps in the gym were called for. She began the run, which for her soon turned into a slow, halting walk. Her legs began hurting intensely and she was aware she was light headed and weak. "I was so tired," she remembers. Her coach approached her, noticing her blue lips and pale skin tones and asked if she would like to walk. Melanie remembers replying "yes', before collapsing into the coach's arms. For a girl who had "never been sick before', it was a heads up that something was seriously wrong. When Rebecca Brady arrived at the school to get her daughter she found her on the floor crying from the pain. They went home where Melanie went to bed and to sleep. Rebecca recalls that she made the doctor's appointment but almost postponed taking Melanie in because she was sleeping so soundly. At Dr. Allen's office a blood test was taken for mononucleosis and they returned home, being told that they could call the office in a couple of hours for the results. "He called US," father Del Brady says, recalling the conversation when their trusted doctor and friend confided, "I just hope we caught it soon enough." Melanie was showing leukemia. Immediate appointments in Provo were made, and the family traveled for the first of what would become an increasingly alarming series of treatments and complications. "Leukemia "doesn't happen to us,'" Del says wryly. As the family shares their thoughts at the beginning of the diagnosis, many things become clear. None of them really knew what a leukemia diagnosis meant. One generation ago there would have been no question about the outcome of such a diagnosis, but today's treatments and understanding of this cancer of the blood produces a significant remission and cure rate. Through the parents' eyes, even the word "oncology" on the doctor's wall had no clear meaning--an entire new vocabulary was about to join the family. They didn't know that they were traveling to the Wasatch front for four to six weeks of hospitalization, not just a test. Through Melanie's eyes, she wanted to cry but held the emotion in, waiting until she could call her friends and "let it all out." Her friends, realizing that she had cancer, raised the question beginning to well within them all, "Could you die'" Del says that nobody spelled out the medical process because they had to take each day one at a time. They couldn't say it would be one week or two weeks, because the patient and the condition, the chemicals and the response of the disease to the chemicals all had their own time tables. Melanie remembers she was afraid to ask questions at first, but as the weeks went by she found she could talk to the doctors. "I kept thinking, "Just get me better!" I want to get it over with." But speed was not to be forthcoming. A long series of chemotherapy treatments, home visits, hair loss, incredible illness and uncertainty was to follow. Del feels that his daughter became too tired to have normal emotions. As the chemo began killing the cancer and doing its job she developed mouth sores, headaches and intense nausea. Because of her age, Melanie could have been treated as an adult or a child. Her borderline age meant a difference in how the disease would be treated. The decision was made to treat her as a pediatric patient at Primary Children's Hospital. With the chemo and the killing of diseased cells comes a destruction of the body's own ability to fight infection, and this side effect is watched closely in such patients. But despite the care and protection, at the end of her chemo in September, 2003, Melanie's life would hang in a life-threatening balance from treatment to avoid infection. into septic shock. Uncontrollably weak and fevered, her skin pained as though from an intense sunburn, she was flown to Salt Lake. "I remember hearing the words "life flight," she recalls. She has a memory of waking up in a room full of large, blinking equipment and asking when they were going to take her to her room. The staff replied kindly that this was her room. She was in intensive care. They didn't mention that she was also fighting for her life in this room she would call hers for the next eight days. Morphine drips helped control pain, as she waited for this cure of the "cure." During the last part of her recovery she desperately wanted to go home. Her mother encouraged her to just think about her friends when she wanted to go home. "That's what got me through it," she says, "thinking about my friends." Friends played a key part in her recovery, sending boxes of letters and sharing the latest about school and the people she knew. Friends would travel to her hospital bedside to cheer her up. Rebecca says of her courageous daughter, "Melanie is a fighter. She took this a day at a time and never gave up. In spite of all of her suffering, she kept a positive attitude--and the goal of getting better." She made a list of things she wanted to do when she got home. Remembering the protective mask she had had to wear outside before she left the hospital, she yearned to be outside and have fun again. "But, when I did get home, it had started to be winter!" she says wrinkling her nose. She was able to begin school the second trimester of her junior year, pacing herself and her strength which is increasing on schedule. She should graduate with her class in 2005. A magazine for cancer patients opened the door to ordering a collection of hats to cover the fact that her hair was falling out. On one trip home her brother took the shears and quickly finished the job with a buzz. She wore hats, wigs and scarves at school until recently. Her hair has filled out enough to give her a hairdo once more. Three weeks ago she got rid of the wig. Melanie Brady says now she can jog again, although in ballet she can't do turns without getting a little dizzy. She wants to work on her dancing so that she can do what she did before cancer--and be able to do more. She wants to help others with cancer, and appreciates the people who would write to her with words of encouragement. Now in remission and working on recovery, she would tell others that, "This is probably the hardest thing I have ever done or will ever have to do. People should never give up." She expresses gratitude for the prayers of so many in the community. Rebecca counsels others, "Enjoy each and every day you have with your family--you don't know what tomorrow will bring." Father Del says he feels indebted to the AVMC doctors and high school faculty for their support and concern for his daughter. He also says that he doubts that the kind of support he received during Melanie's illness would have been given had the family lived in larger towns. He recalls doctors, businessmen, strangers talking to him with support. "Wherever I went, people would show their concern. I'd be walking down the street and a car would flip into a u-turn so someone could come and talk." "Cancer is a scary thing, but it doesn't mean the end of the world. There is life after cancer. The annual Relay for Life cancer fund raising drive for cancer cures will be held in Vernal June 4-5. Rebecca and Del Brady are enjoying their daughter Melanie's recovery from a sudden onset of leukemia. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::These pictures of Melanie were given to me by her mom and added here April 21, 2004:: Melanie's sophomore picture. This was a year before her diagnosis. Melanie's junior picture. She is wearing a wig. She mostly wore hats, but it was nice to have a wig for special things. Melanie and her brother Scott This picture taken in October 2003 after she was recovered from her SICU ordeal and shortly before she was discharged from the hospital. (After she was released, the picture at the top of the page with Matthew was taken.) :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Melanie's Senior Year -- 2005 We are so happy that she has been off treatment for 1-1/2 years now!! This picture was given to me by her mom in 2005 and updated here June 2005. Buttercup Graphix