Perspective is everything

Meggann Brown gained a fresh perspective on life when she was diagnosed with cancer in June 2003.

Her longtime friend Krystal Tentinger said the diagnosis opened both Meggann’s and her friends’ eyes to the valuable things in life.

Like many college students, Meggann, who was a student in journalism and mass communication, enjoyed going out with her friends to movies, dinner and the bars, playing games, hanging out at the marine bunker and watching TV shows – especially “Roseanne.” Her mother, Rhonda Brown, said she also had a special love for animals.

A girl with a broad smile, witty sense of humor and a compassion for all living things, Meggann was forced to grow up quickly after she was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia, a cancer of the white blood cells that fight infection.

As a little girl, Meggann’s walk to school took nearly half an hour as she carefully took in her surroundings – the grass, trees, flowers and animals, Rhonda said.

Although she was still undergoing treatments after her diagnosis, Meggann remained in Ames to continue her education.

“She decided she was going to get on with life,” said Kim Smith, Meggann’s professor and academic adviser. “Anybody who can battle cancer as valiantly as she did, and raise her grades while it was all going on, is someone that I think all of us ought to admire.”

But she was never able to complete her education. Meggann relapsed in May of 2005 and after several months of complications, she died on Jan. 31, at age 25.

A change of life

What began as a sore throat was a precursor to a change in lifestyle for Meggann and those who loved her when, in 2003, an ear, nose and throat doctor made the devastating diagnosis: Meggann had cancer.

Rhonda said that Meggann was alone when she heard the news, which made it worse.

After removing her tonsils, the doctor sent Meggann and her family to Iowa City, where they learned that Meggann had leukemia.

Meggann began treatment almost immediately after the diagnosis. She endured six months of chemotherapy to produce a complete remission of the cancer cells, followed by 18 months of maintenance therapy to prevent them from regrowing.

After the diagnosis, Smith, professor of journalism and mass communication, sent her Lance Armstrong’s book, “It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life,” about Armstrong’s near-death battle with testicular cancer.

When Meggann learned that Armstrong had gotten a cat named Chemo to help him through the treatments, she decided to do the same, Rhonda said. Meggann, however, named her cat Lilly, Rhonda said.

“The kitty was there almost from the beginning, and when [Meggann] couldn’t go out or she couldn’t do things because she was so ill from the chemo, her kitty was always there,” Rhonda said.

Finding inspiration in Armstrong’s book, Meggann also got a yellow Livestrong wristband and hat and received a Livestrong notebook to chronicle her journey through treatment.

Despite the upsetting news and the chemo treatments, she was able to take a trip to San Diego in August 2003 for her friend’s wedding, in which she was a bridesmaid.

Chrissy Sjoberg, the bride, said when they were picking out the gowns and tuxedos, Meggann chose a blackish-purple wig to match the purple gown.

“She was trying to be funny, because she didn’t have any hair,” Sjoberg said.

People who knew Meggann agreed that she had a good sense of humor.

“Her dry, wry sense of humor was just invaluable,” said Jennifer Heubner, fellow employee at MainStream Living.

She dressed her pets up in Halloween costumes, and her friend Sara Trammel called her a “crafty beaver,” who liked to paint, do crafts, go shopping and keep a journal. Rhonda said that even when Meggann was weak from the chemo, she enjoyed having a good time, especially laughing.

Relapse

Meggann was preparing for graduation and started an internship in May 2005, when she learned that her cancer had taken a turn for the worse.

Just a short time into the internship, her mother received a call from Meggann, who said that her hands hurt and that she was having trouble typing. Trammel, Meggann’s roommate at the time, said Meggann’s fingers had swollen.

Meggann’s boss told her to call the doctor, but Trammel said Meggann waited three days, afraid of what it could mean.

She went to a doctor on campus, but was referred to her oncologist at Mary Greeley Medical Center, who verified her fear that the cancer had returned.

Meggann’s parents came to Ames to see her, and the next morning they all went to Iowa City. The doctors at the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics told them that she would need a bone marrow transplant.

Among the 9 million people on the transplant registry, however, not one was a compatible match. Meggann had a rare protein in the DNA of her bone marrow that made it very difficult to find a donor.

Meggann’s doctor sent her to the University of Nebraska Medical Center for an autologous bone marrow transplant, in which her own stem cells were used to fight the disease. In this type of transplant, doctors remove the diseased bone marrow and clean it by killing the cancer cells before it is transplanted back into the patient.

Making Memories

Last summer, Meggann underwent chemotherapy to keep her in remission, but she also spent time with family.

She traveled to Italy with Rhonda, and while in Rome, they were amazed by the city’s beauty.

She also went to Lambeau Field with her dad for a Green Bay Packers game.

“Meggann always liked the Packers, probably because she liked Brett Favre,” her dad Miles said.

The two of them went a day before a Packers game to tour the stadium, where she got to sit at Vince Lombardi’s desk and see the atrium, which had just opened.

In the fall of 2005, Meggann was able to cheer on the Cyclones while tailgating at ISU football games with her brother and sister-in-law, Richard and Kelly Brown.

She also spent the weekends with Rhonda.

“She lived kind of close to Hobby Lobby, and one weekend we went in there and we said ‘Oh, let’s do a craft,’ so every weekend after that we would do a craft,” Rhonda said.

They made tie fleece blankets, matching totes, jewelry and stepping stones.

“It allowed her to forget about what she was going through,” Rhonda said.

More treatments

Meggann went to the University of Minnesota Medical Center in November, where doctors found that her heart functions were affected by the chemo.

“In a normal person, [that] would eventually return,” Rhonda said. “But because her illness was so acute, they didn’t have enough time for her heart function to return to normal.”

After undergoing much more powerful chemotherapy, Meggann was able to go home for Thanksgiving.

When she returned to Minneapolis the next week, she had four days of intensive radiation treatments and an umbilical cord blood transplant on Dec. 7, which doctors hoped would help produce healthy blood.

The week before Christmas, Meggann had trouble with her breathing, so she was put on a respirator. That same week, however, Meggann was ecstatic to hear that her brother and sister-in-law had a baby boy.

“That’s all she wanted, was a niece or nephew,” Trammel said. “Two years ago my sister had a baby and Meggann kind of took her as her own. She spoiled her.”

On Christmas Eve, her brother and sister-in-law came to the hospital with Carson, Meggann’s new nephew, and Meggann was excited to see him, Rhonda said.

Because she was on the respirator, she couldn’t talk, but her brother said she motioned with her head that she wanted to hold Carson and get her picture taken with him.

“I’m so glad she got to see him,” Tentinger said.

Staying Strong

Throughout nearly two-and-a-half years of chemotherapy and radiation treatments, Rhonda said Meggann remained positive.

She also said Meggann’s doctors and nurses at the clinic would acknowledge her strength, although Meggann would often reply, “How can I be strong? This is really hard.”

“She sometimes got emotional, but she knew it was something that she had to do and she just never gave up,” Rhonda said.

Her friends and family said she had always been stubborn, and she was hoping to be able to put the cancer behind her.

In the early morning of Jan. 31, however, Meggann died.

Meggann and her friends were looking forward to a trip to Las Vegas after her transplant and said they still want to go, as a tribute to Meggann.

“She was fun. She liked to laugh. She was an inspiration,” Rhonda said. “She will be greatly missed, not just by her family, but by her friends.”