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, August 12, 2009

Bald and Beautiful




Today, we shaved Kimmy's head. Her hair was getting thinner and thinner, and shedding all over the place was getting sort of annoying for her. She decided it was time. So today mom came down, and we bit the bullet. I trimmed it short with some scissors, and mom buzzed it off with a razor.

She's dealing with it alright- pretty well, actually, now that it's over. At the time she was pretty sad. It didn't help that she's had another fever come on tonight, and so has been really cold and tired. I have a few pictures from the event, but I'm going to wait until morning to add them. I need to look through them, and check with her to be sure that they're all okay. (Right now they've given her an antibiotic, some tylenol, and some benadryl, so she's out of it.)

Last night they started her on a new antibiotic, as she's been having fevers. Her blood was clear, so they were going to take her off of it- but after tonight's bad one, they're going to keep her on it a while longer, just in case. They have to give this one to her with benadryl, because she reacts to it with a hot red face and scalp. They give it to her at 2 am and 2 pm- so be warned that her afternoons are a bit dozey around here :) (for now)



I don't know if you can see this, but this is a pic of her face as the red flush/reaction to the new antibiotic, was starting to fade. It looked pretty cherry-ish in person :)
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2 comments:

  1. Scott and Leslie HigleyAugust 14, 2009 at 10:46 PM

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  2. Scott and Leslie HigleyAugust 14, 2009 at 10:48 PM

    Tell Kim she looks beautiful. :) I know loosing hair can be hard. 3 of my relatives on my mom's side have had cancer and one of them had two kinds at two different times.

    All my love,
    -Leslie Gregory

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