Our kids would never ask for a penny but we know they will need help during this journey with Graysen and their fight against cancer.
Dad Justin is a Dallas Firefighter and Mom Megan is a High School math teacher and softball coach.
Here’s their story…in Megan’s own words
Long post for the very long journey we’re about to start
June 15, 2025 about 7:50 am, our world stopped. I do not know how else to describe the feeling you have when you get told your two year old, the joy of our lives, our energy bunny, is about to endure the battle of her life.
Saturday, June 14th, Ricki and I took Gray to Gun Barrel City ER because she has having trouble breathing, was lethargic yet with no signs of a viral infection. They took such good care of Gray and were gentle with her but were worried. Her breathing was not normal, her blood labs were not right and her chest X-Ray came back showing fluid taking up the majority of the right lung. They immediately thought pneumonia, and put her on heated high flow oxygen and careflighted us to Children’s Plano.
Sunday, June 15th.
We got to Children’s Plano around 1:15 am and they immediately started assessing Gray. Ultrasounds, Chest X-Ray, Urine Sample, Blood Samples, nose swabs to test for viral infection, another IV and eventually a CT Scan. Trying to figure out what caused the pneumonia. Ultrasound showed fluid, X-Ray now shows the ENTIRE right lung is full of fluid, but nose swabs come back all negative; so what is causing the pneumonia?
Around 4:00 am, we got a CT scan that eventually showed the doctors that this might be more than just pneumonia that was making it hard for her to breathe, essentially collapsing her right lung.
At 7:50 am we were told Graysen has a mass on her right lung and that we would talk to oncology as soon as we got transported to Dallas Children’s.
We were told Graysen has cancer. Our world stopped.
Once we got to the PICU at Children’s Dallas, more test were taken, more blood was drawn and another CT scan was taken. Confirming it all. No pneumonia, it was cancer. And all the fluid showing on her X-Ray was blood from the tumor.
On Tuesday, June 10th, I took Graysen to the Mabank Park at the pavilion. A place she loves to go when the weather is beautiful and she gets to go down the “big slide”. She was climbing up an obstacle she has climbed on time and time again, so I looked away for a minute and next thing I know I see Gray on the ground crying, not at the exit of the slide but underneath the beginning. She had fallen and she was on her belly. After hugs and assessing for wounds, she seemed fine and played more and got to go play with nana that same night. Little did we know that her accident led us to her diagnosis. Her fall made the mass in her chest to start bleeding, which then led us to find the tumor that was taking over her body. I see God in this day. God knew we needed to seek help for our sweet Gray.
June 15th around 3:30 pm, Graysen has a chest tube put in to drain the blood that was filling her lung cavity, eventually helping her breathe more comfortably. She is still on heated high flow oxygen to help her breathe but she was doing better and didn’t need as much air flow.
Monday, June 16th at 7:30 am, they took Gray back for surgery. She had a port put in for chemotherapy and they took a sample of her mass to figure out what type of cancer we are fighting. And now we wait. 3-5 day until the results come back. 3-5 days to help our little girl get as comfortable as she can be, because she doesn’t understand what is happening to her little body.
Thursday, June 19th we got told she has type 2 Pleuropulmonary Blastoma.
So what does that mean.. more scans and blood work to make sure it hasn’t spread, and we start chemo to fight this thing. God is not done and neither is Gray.
Thank you to everyone who has reached out and showered us with so much love, support, food, hugs. I cannot express the gratitude I have for our circle and community. They say it takes a village to raise a kiddo, well they weren’t wrong, because it is going to take our village to help gray fight this. She is brave. She is a fighter. She is a warrior. She is not alone in this fight. God has already shown Himself in this and we believe His presence is here and that He has his hand on her.
#GodsGotGraysen
