(Kim- post surgery. Becka & her mom came around then, and after a while Tommi came to say Hi. She was pretty out of it, but it was nice to see them.)
(Yay! Kim finally gets the IV out of her wrist! And gets a cool Crayon bandaid in it's place...)Kim just woke up and is getting her first of some new transfusions. They'll be giving her more platelets in preperation for her surgery later today. Also, she is getting some morphine (her hip is hurting where the extracted bone marrow yesterday) and benadril to keep her from reacting to the other things.
Her surgeries are tentatively planned for this afternoon- once the results on the type of Leukemia come in- hopefully within a couple of hours. Then we can get the ball rolling.
I'll update this as soon as we have news.
11:30 am
We just heard from Doctor Burnette- the head doctor on Kim's case. After studying her marrow samples, it looks like she has type AML Leukimia. There are a few subcategories- we don't know which of Those she has yet, but we probably will later today.
http://www.marrow.org/PATIENT/Undrstnd_Disease_Treat/Lrn_about_Disease/AML/index.html
With AML, what she will end up doing is about five month-long treatments. She will stay in the hospital and get her chemo for about a week, then recover for a few weeks, all in all amounting to about a month-long cycle. She will be able to go home for about a week, but then will come back for another month-long cycle. As I said, they will go through the whole cycle about five times. After that, she will probably only have to go to the hospital for a day or two every month. (So we are looking at around 6 months of intense treatment, and probably another year or two of day-long monthly hospital visits.)
This is just a general idea- we don't know exactly how it will go for Kim.
In a few hours, she will probably have her surgeries- a spine tap to check and see if she has any leukimia cells in her spine, and also to inject her with her first dose of chemo there. At the same time, she will have a line put in her chest so that medicine can be directly injected into her. Fortunately she will be unconscious for all of it.
Today she is feeling pretty tired- with the saline, morphine, platelets, blood, antibiotics all coming into her system- and a fever that has been consistantly over 100 for four days now, it's getting a little tiring. But mom, dad and I are keeping her company- and her friends Charla and Melissa are here to keep her distracted. They brought her an amazing poster signed by SO many of her friends. Thank you so much everyone for the love. It really means a lot to her.
As always- I will post when we learn something new. I will add some more pictures soon. If you would like to leave a comment, but can't on individual posts because you don't have a google account (I don't know if you need one) then try the comment section on the bottom of the page- it should let anyone type in a message. We would love to hear from you.
FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE WANTING TO VISIT HER IN THE HOSPITAL: Visitors are technically allowed, but we are only supposed to have four guests in at a time (including family.) Because she will be undergoing a few procedures, and may be feeling sick from some of them, or won't be in her room at all. So, please call in advance to be sure that it is an okay time. My number is 435-890-9722. ALSO: please remember that this is a very secure section of the hospital- no plants of any kind are allowed, or laytex balloons, or Anyone who is feeling sick at all. (Her immune system is very low, and any germs could be much more harmful that usual to her.) Her room number is 4417.
NOTE ON THE SURGERY: All went well. She now has two lines coming out of her chest for medications, transfusions, and blood drawing. She also has a bit of chemo in her spine. Tests came back- no cancer cells there. She's good to go for the start of treatment tomorrow.
Her surgeries are tentatively planned for this afternoon- once the results on the type of Leukemia come in- hopefully within a couple of hours. Then we can get the ball rolling.
I'll update this as soon as we have news.
11:30 am
We just heard from Doctor Burnette- the head doctor on Kim's case. After studying her marrow samples, it looks like she has type AML Leukimia. There are a few subcategories- we don't know which of Those she has yet, but we probably will later today.
http://www.marrow.org/PATIENT/Undrstnd_Disease_Treat/Lrn_about_Disease/AML/index.html
With AML, what she will end up doing is about five month-long treatments. She will stay in the hospital and get her chemo for about a week, then recover for a few weeks, all in all amounting to about a month-long cycle. She will be able to go home for about a week, but then will come back for another month-long cycle. As I said, they will go through the whole cycle about five times. After that, she will probably only have to go to the hospital for a day or two every month. (So we are looking at around 6 months of intense treatment, and probably another year or two of day-long monthly hospital visits.)
This is just a general idea- we don't know exactly how it will go for Kim.
In a few hours, she will probably have her surgeries- a spine tap to check and see if she has any leukimia cells in her spine, and also to inject her with her first dose of chemo there. At the same time, she will have a line put in her chest so that medicine can be directly injected into her. Fortunately she will be unconscious for all of it.
Today she is feeling pretty tired- with the saline, morphine, platelets, blood, antibiotics all coming into her system- and a fever that has been consistantly over 100 for four days now, it's getting a little tiring. But mom, dad and I are keeping her company- and her friends Charla and Melissa are here to keep her distracted. They brought her an amazing poster signed by SO many of her friends. Thank you so much everyone for the love. It really means a lot to her.
As always- I will post when we learn something new. I will add some more pictures soon. If you would like to leave a comment, but can't on individual posts because you don't have a google account (I don't know if you need one) then try the comment section on the bottom of the page- it should let anyone type in a message. We would love to hear from you.
FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE WANTING TO VISIT HER IN THE HOSPITAL: Visitors are technically allowed, but we are only supposed to have four guests in at a time (including family.) Because she will be undergoing a few procedures, and may be feeling sick from some of them, or won't be in her room at all. So, please call in advance to be sure that it is an okay time. My number is 435-890-9722. ALSO: please remember that this is a very secure section of the hospital- no plants of any kind are allowed, or laytex balloons, or Anyone who is feeling sick at all. (Her immune system is very low, and any germs could be much more harmful that usual to her.) Her room number is 4417.
NOTE ON THE SURGERY: All went well. She now has two lines coming out of her chest for medications, transfusions, and blood drawing. She also has a bit of chemo in her spine. Tests came back- no cancer cells there. She's good to go for the start of treatment tomorrow.
we are sending you all so much love..... thank you so much for doing the blog, we are watching and waiting for news..... love Annette, Vii, Indy & Jax
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