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

Friday, August 28, 2009

The Latest Update

One of the things that the home-health care nurses do for Kim is take blood samples every few days and send them to the hospital to test her latest blood counts. This morning Kim had her first sample at home taken. We got the results back in a phone call from Primary Children's this afternoon:
Her ANC (the important one) level is up to 200 (from under 100 in the last test. Still not out of that under-500 Danger Zone.) Her red blood cells were at 28, and platelets are at 14. Better than zero.
They also said that Kim needs to come down on Monday for her second bone marrow test. (This is the one where they poke directly into her hip and rip out a sample of marrow to see if there are any cancer cells lurking in the dark recesses of her body.)
We also have the day they want her to return to the hospital for her second round of chemo: Thursday, a week from today. That gives her a couple of extra days to bask in the non-fluorescent light of freedom.
I have just been informed by Kim that I should not try creating new posts past midnight. Apparently, I get a little weird. Sorry about that- goodnight all!
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