Kimberly

Kim was diagnosed with AML Leukemia on July 22, 2009, just after she finished high school. She'd been feeling well, just showing a few bruises when she went to Primary Childrens Medical Center for a heart surgery to fix a relatively minor condition she's had since she was born. A blood test before the surgery showed that her blood had been completely taken over by the cancer. They admitted her that day and began treatment right away. She went through five long rounds of chemotherapy, doing relatively well, with the exception of one infection that led to a very scary stay in the Pediatric ICU. She spent almost all of that time in the hospital, with just a few breaks to go home. By the end of March 2010 she was allowed to go home for good- officially in remission! She was so excited to finally go to USU Fall semester, and got strait A's in all of her classes! Psychology, Humanities, Family Finance and ANATOMY. Not a week after finals, at a regular check up at PCMC, her blood tests showed that her cancer was back. And thus began round two- Kim's goal was to make it to a bone marrow transplant. We had found a donor, so all that was left was to get her in remission once more. After three rounds of chemotherapy, her body was no longer strong enough to keep fighting, no matter that her spirit was. She will always be with us. 7:48 pm, March 31, 2011

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Special Visitor


Today Kim had another visit from the pet volunteer group. An enormous black Newfoundland dog (Lilly) spent a good fifteen minutes getting some TLC from Kim. The whole time, her owner told me about the dog and the breed. I have a picture that I will add soon, but I was so impressed by them, that I thought I would add a couple of links to more information. It's faciniating!
http://www.akc.org/breeds/newfoundland/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newfoundland_(dog)

We are at day 5 of 10 in her chemo treatment. And though the leukemia is taking a great hit, so are her platelets, and red and white blood cells. This means that she is increasingly susceptable to tirinig, and her immune system is getting ever weaker. They are giving her a platelet transfusion in a couple of hours, and once the chemo is through they will give her as many of those and blood transfusions as she needs to get her numbers back up. It should take a week or two, and then she'll get her break to visit home.

Kim is still in high spirits, and is keeping up the good work. She's right on track, and doing amazingly well. We also just learned that it might even take a couple of months for her to finally lose her hair to the chemo. Basically... all good news! Thank you for the prayers and love!
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1 comment:

  1. Scott and Leslie HigleyJuly 29, 2009 at 4:20 PM

    Its so great to hear all the good news coming forth!! Tell Kim that she is amazing and her strength and great attitude thus far has been an amazing example. Love to Kim and the entire family, Leslie Gregory

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