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, December 30, 2009

It seems like a lot of things have been happening really fast for Kim this past day or so. She continued to build up the strength of her lungs, and has been getting rid of a lot of the excess fluid inside and around them. Later yesterday they removed the draining line from her side, because they weren't really getting any more fluid from it. (Don't you think 2600 CCs is enough?) And they decided that if she was still looking good, they would remove the breathing tube today, and put her back on a regular respirator. And, they decided to go for it. She's ended up handling it really well, and has been able to breathe on her own. She still has a lot of residual mucus that she's working up, and she still has to be on a constant oxygen flow, but she's very glad to have that tube out of her throat.
They still have the feeding tube going down into her intestines, but they've removed the suction line that ran to her stomach (the one that she coughed up a couple of days ago.) They probably would have left it in longer, but it stopped working, so they decided to just take it out. Since then, she's thrown up a few times a day... definitely not fun, but she's allowed to be on a clear-liquid diet. As soon as her stomach starts behaving, they will probably take her off the feeding tube as well.
Because she is still coming off of the sedatives, and working other drugs through her system, she's been pretty loopy again today, and really tired. They did get her out of the bed once, for physical therapy, but for the most part she's been sleepy all day. But, it's fun to be able to talk to her, a little bit. She's partially not used to being able to talk again, and partially doesn't like to because it kind of hurts her. Her vocal cords are still recovering, and she sounds pretty froggy. When her oncology doctor, Dr. Barnette, came to visit her again today, he told her that she should switch to filtered cigarettes. ;)
So, even though it's been a really rough day for Kim, it's been a day of lots of changes, that we can hopefully keep for the better. Her fever is still down, her swelling has gone down, and her color is getting better. I'm so glad, and I can't wait to see her continue to improve. Some of you might even hear from her in the next day or two, who knows? Hopefully it won't be too much longer before we can move back up to the ICS- and use cell phones! Anyway, thank you all- and lets keep praying for Kim's recovery!

3 comments:

  1. Wonderful news...although tough day for Kim. If she can relate, tell her we still love her and are most seriously there in spirit.
    Don and Lois Rawlinson

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  2. We are so thrilled things are improving! How are Kim's blood counts? Are they coming back up? Tell her she continues to be in our prayers. I know the reason she is pulling through is because she is strong in body and spirit. Thanks again for updating the blog! Carol

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  3. Woohoo!! We are glad to hear about the improvements, no matter how small or difficult they may seem. We continue to pray for all of you!
    The Nolans

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