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

Monday, August 31, 2009

Marrow Test: What It Could Mean

Kim went down to Primary Children's for a marrow test today. They also did another blood test while she was there. They took marrow from her hip, and fluid from her spine, and also gave her a shot of chemo in her spine. The results from the tests won't be back for a couple of days, but we have the results for her latest blood test now. Though it still does not show any leukemia cells, her ANC (overall immunity) is still only at 300. She needs to be closer to 750 (normal person is 1500) before they can start chemo again (they had her scheduled to come back to PCMC Thursday for this- hoping she'd be high enough by then.)

They have two theories as to why her levels are taking so long to come up (hers are taking longer than they normally see.) 1- because she's a young adult and her body has, for the most part, stopped growing, her blood doesn't generate as quickly, or might not. Or, 2- she still has some leukemia cells in her marrow that are keeping her normal cells from growing.

So, here is what they've decided as of today: they will wait for the results of her marrow test. This will really tell us where her levels are at, and if she still has any leukemia cells. (They test the marrow because that is where new blood is formed- and also new cancer cells- in the case of a blood cancer like Kim's- so it is the best test of what's really going on in her body.)

If her marrow tests show that she actually has some leukemia cells in her system, then she'll go back Thursday to start treatment, regardless of her ANC level. If, however, her marrow shows no blasts/leukemia cells, then they'll have her stay home for another week or two to get her levels back up.

So, I guess at this point... we're hoping that she gets to stay another week! One, because that means no more leukemia, and just lazy Kim, and two, because.... we get to keep her here that much longer! Obviously, we want her to be able to get on with her treatment, so she can be done with it allthat much sooner... but, hey, if she has to stay around here, we'll just have to accept it!

Thanks to all of you who have been so careful with Kim while she's been here. Obviously, she's still in a very critical state of immunity (remember, under 500 is still the danger-zone.) But we're doing our best to take care of her!
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