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 3, 2009

Monday

Today has been Kim's last day of chemo- she has one more dose (4 am) and then she'll be off for about a month. Though she won't be receiving any new chemo, what she has had will continue to effect her over the coming weeks. Her blood count, immunity, and blast levels (leukemia cells) will keep dropping. This is part of why she has to stay here for so long. In a couple of weeks, the effects will be done, and they will test her marrow again (poke her in the hip) to see where she is at. This is how they will determine if she needs the marrow transplant, and also how they will decide her specific treatment for the next few months. (Her "roadmap") Then she just has to wait for them to get to a healthy enough level, and she can come home for a few days. Then she'll come back and start over again. (Sorry for repeating myself, but I can explain it a little differently each time I learn more about it.)
Today Kim had a little extra energy, (no visitors) and so the doctor took pity on her, and said that if she was very careful, she could go out for a walk. Yay! (She usually has to stay cooped up in her room.) She had to wear a face mask, and be careful not to touch Anything, but was able to walk through the hospital a bit. She's still having trouble with her rash and being tired... but getting out was nice.

We have the results for my blood test, to see if I am a match for donating marrow to Kim. I am not. We are still waiting to hear back on Mike's results. Once again, for more information on becoming a marrow donor, please visit www.marrow.org
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