I first met Megan at a basketball game where her father and I were doing the radio broadcast. She was a bubbling, vivacious teenager, filled with the ambition and joyfulness of youth. There was no mountain too high, no road too winding, to keep her from life's goals.

She was a superb student, a gifted young lady, a credit to her parents. She spent her junior year of high school as an exchange student in Japan, returned home wiser in the ways of the world, aware of the differences in cultures and values, and began planning for college. But fate is fickle and deep inside her body the orderly behavior of a small group of cells had gone awry. Initially the symptoms were minimal, the signs all but invisible, but one day there was no denying the existence of a problem and the problem was serious. Cancer. Thus began Megan's long journey into the labyrinth of the medical care system. Medical care in this country is the best in the world but at the same time is surely one of the most complex and taxing experiences anyone must face.

Appointments must be scheduled, tests must be performed, consultations arranged, medication begun, and over it all hangs the need to record, track, and maintain some kind of personal control over the entire process. Megan required hospitalization for some of her treatment; she underwent surgery; chemotherapy was begun. There were side effects, some unsettling.

To the entire family, others milder, transient, handled with the proper information. Through it all Megan finished high school, dreamed of a higher calling, applied to and was accepted at excellent universities. She chose The University of Michigan and enrolled as a freshman. She was on campus when her disease showed its cruelest face. Earlier surgery and courses of chemotherapy had helped, the tumor seemed to be shrinking, but then it recurred and one more struggle was left to be waged.

In the end Megan lost but she left behind her a legacy that may yet prove to be of benefit to many others suffering from any long term illness. Early in her struggle Megan felt the need to organize her defenses, plan for the campaign she understood lay ahead. With her parents, Patt and Mary Helen, she recognized the need for a Journal, a permanent, portable record of her disease, her treatments, her multiple laboratory and diagnostic tests, her medication, possible side effects, dates, plans, results, names and phone numbers of all relevant caregivers and support personnel.

In effect, they recreated the entire medical record of Megan's long journey, organized it in logical sequence, made it useful and readily available to anyone seeing her for the first or one-hundredth time. It saved time, it avoided the need to flip through the ponderous sheaf of documents, sometimes hundreds of pages thick, papers that make up the usual hospital medical record, improved access to pertinent information and provided valuable data concerning what had been done, when it had been done and what still remained to be done.

In time her doctors, nurses and the support personnel with whom Megan dealt with on a daily basis realized that Megan's Journal had become a vital tool in her continuing care. It was all there, everything, in one place, able to be taken from one appointment to the next, from home to the hospital and back. From doctor to doctor.

Providing valuable information as to when, why, and how a procedure had been done. Capable of responding to insurance questions, producing documentation authorizing payment, answering questions as rapidly as they arose. And it was clear that Megan had left a legacy behind, a useful tool for anyone facing the peril of long term illness whether it be cancer or some other dilemma such as a failing heart, hypertension, diabetes, organ transplant, Alzheimer's, high risk pregnancy, geriatric care and on to a myriad of conditions that face Americans across the country.

Recognizing the usefulness of the original journal Patt and Mary Helen have created the new Patient Medical Journal, at present a durable plastic three inch loose leaf binder but soon to be available in a zip-up version complete with an easy carrying handle. Inside are all of the ingredients of Megan's model: a three hole punch to prepare regular sheets of paper, making them journal ready; a mesh envelope to store loose change, ID and telephone calling cards, personal items, and much more. Sturdy preprinted sheets separate the journal into compartments accommodating reports, appointment calendars, laboratory data, discharge summaries, diagnoses, treatments, side effects, and the telephone numbers of every physician or caregiver involved. A glossary of medical terms and information about potent drugs and their possible side effects is always at your fingertips. The answer is always at hand.

It's all there, it's MEGSWORK, it's her legacy to us all. If you, or someone in your family, has a chronic illness, you should look into it. The Journals are available now and more information may be obtained by contacting Megswork, P.O. Box 1214, Adrian, MI 49221 or on the website at www.megswork.com.

Megan was not a patient of mine, but the daughter of close friends. She has left them but they have kept her work alive.