Meagan: I am going to raise awareness to get help for people who have lymphedema, just
like myself and get the surgeries and the cures that we need.
COMM: Meagan Barnard has lived with lymphedema, a rare condition which has caused her right
leg to swell, for almost 10 years.
COMM: After trying to hide her condition all this time, she finally feels able to show
her leg in public. Even posting pictures of herself in swim wear online.
Meagan: I’ve had a lot of people ask me about doing more modelling and a lot of people
with lymphedema, who have reached out to me, that have been, you know, open about who they
are and doing modelling and I would love to do it more, if it will raise awareness.
Meagan: After opening up, I mean, it’s just taken this weight off my shoulders. And I
just feel so much better about my life and I feel happier.
Muna: Today was the first time I have seen Meagan’s leg and I just was extremely proud
of her. Today was the first time I have seen Meagan in a dress.
Muna: She is becoming a young, strong, role model for other girls that are probably in
the same situation she's in and she is becoming more comfortable in who she is.
COMM: But getting to this point has been a long and painful process. Meagan first noticed
signs of lymphedema when she was 15. Although she didn’t know what the condition was at
the time.
Meagan: I saw multiple doctors to get different opinions. They had said that it may have happened
during puberty and my lymph nodes didn’t grow or I could have injured it in some way
and this is a side effect of that injury.
Meagan: They haven’t been able to determine exactly what it was that caused it.
COMM: This problem with her lymph nodes means that her leg can store up to 3 litres of excess
fluid and for Meagan the diagnosis was devastating.
Meagan: It felt like my life had ended at 15. I thought that I would never be able to
do anything. I was extremely depressed.
Meagan: I would come home from school every day and cry and ask why me.
Meagan: I had walked into the school and I was wearing my large foam and ace bandages.
There was a student that had yelled from across the hall, “I didn’t know the Michelin
Man went to school here”.
Meagan: Everyone was laughing at me. If it wasn’t for the bullying, I would not have
gone about hiding it the way that I had.
Kaitlyn: We were absolutely not allowed to talk about it. Ever. And even if she would
bring it up and you would try to go a little bit, just dig a little bit, she wasn’t having
it.
Kaitlyn: She was the only one who could really talk about it.
Meagan: It was like so hard for me to say the 3 words, I have lymphedema. I just couldn’t
do that.
Meagan: I only felt normal when I felt like lymphedema wasn’t a part of my life.
COMM: By the time Meagan reached college, things weren’t getting any easier and 4
years ago she reached her lowest point.
Meagan: I would have rather not been alive than have lymphedema.
Meagan: I was crying nonstop. Every day, all day. And I had wrote a suicide letter to my
dad and had him meet me in the parking lot and told him I was done and I was just going
to end it at that point.
Kaitlyn: As her older sister knowing she was that upset for so long is devastating to me.
Kaitlyn: I absolutely wish she would have talked to me about it. I could and I would
do anything to help her.
Meagan: If there was one thing I regret about the whole thing, it’s keeping it a
secret.
Meagan: I definitely have become myself by opening up about what I'm going through.
COMM: Meagan also opened up to her boyfriend and told him about her condition 6 months
after they had started dating.
Robert: I never noticed it ‘cause she kept it very hidden. She was very careful about
closed doors, lights off. That kind of thing.
Meagan: If Robbie and I were sitting next to each other, on the couch, watching a movie
together, there would be a pillow, or you know, a thick blanket between the two of us. So
there was extra padding, so he couldn’t feel that my leg was hard.
Robert: I was very happy when she told me about her condition. It wasn’t really anything
she was ever open about with anyone other than her family. For her to tell me was very trusting.
COMM: As well as wearing compression bandages, Meagan has to use a pneumatic compression
pump for over an hour every day.
COMM: Insurance won’t pay for surgery as it's deemed cosmetic, so Meagan is trying
to raise the $44,000 to pay for the surgery herself.
Meagan: There are numerous doctors that perform surgery for lymphedema patients and they are
cured. They have zero signs or symptoms of lymphedema after the surgery and they are
free to live their normal life.
Meagan: There are other patients who undergo the surgery and the outcome isn’t that great
for them and they still have lymphedema.
Meagan: In some situations it gets worse. To me, I look at surgery as being a cure.
I look at it, it's a cure that is sitting right in front of me and it can change my
life, but because I don’t have the money or the insurance that will cover it, I can't
have that.
Meagan: Although, I may be one of the people, where it gets worse, I still want it more
than anything.
COMM: But while she waits for surgery, at least now Meagan has come to terms with her
condition.
Meagan: I feel like I'm working my way towards finding my place in the world. For the first
time, I feel like I'm finally getting closer to it.
Meagan: You know, I am going back to school and I am working full time and I am open about
my life. And I am working really hard to try and raise awareness about lymphedema.