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

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Up To This Point- Kim's History In A Nutshell

It was suggested to me that we start a blog dealing with everything that Kim is going through. Hopefully, you will be able to check it as often as you like, and see what recent developments have been made.
Let me start first... at the beginning.
As those of you who are close to her know, Kim is a very active and energetic girl. She's participated in Track at Logan High school for the past four years, going to State the last two. She's an honor student, and a great friend.
During her standard physical at the beginning of this year, she mentioned that she sometimes feels lightheaded when she exercizes (not that it stops her from pushing herself as hard as she can!) He had her go in for a few tests at Logan Regional Hospital, which lead to more intense testing at Primary Children's in Salt Lake.
Two problems arose. The first is something we have known about since she was born. She had three heart conditions: PDA (Paten Ductus... - a hole between two chambers of her heart that wouldn't close, ASD (Anterial septer defect- a flap between her heart and lungs that did not close properly) and Pulmonary Stenosis (an artery in her heart that was too narrow). At first doctors just wanted to wait until she was a bit older before they performed surgery on her, but by after many years of close observation, by the time she was five it was discovered that the ASD and PS healed themselves, and the PDA would most likely not effect her health, and so would not require surgery.
However, the second, and new condition, that arose this year was a nerve that would fire uncontrolled in her heart when she exerted herself, resulting in a heartbeat that was Twice the normal Elevated rate. (Getting up to around 250 bpm.)
Doctors decided that surgery at this point- to close the hole between chambers in her heart (PDA), and cauterize the nerve would be the best thing for her. Though this was decided in April, the surgery couldn't be scheduled until July.
The doctors decided that she should be alright to participate in track for the last month or so of school, so long as she was careful not to overexert herself. She was amazing- selected to go to State in the 4x4 race (not her usual 100/200, but she was great none the less.) Her brother Michael left on his mission to Orlando, Florida, Kim graduated with honors, turned 18, and proceded to enjoy her summer.
In the past couple of months, Kim has started to bruise easily, feel light headed occasionally, and feel less energetic. We thought that this was probably a result of her heart working too hard, as her blood tests from a couple of months earlier hadn't shown anything else.

No comments:

Post a Comment