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, January 3, 2011

You know what they say about excuses- they're like feet: they all stink!

But anyway, this past week Kim has really been struggling with nausea. It hit her hard just a day or two after she finished her last dose of chemo. They are especially anxious for her to maintain her weight because of how hard the marrow transplant is on a persons body. Hopefully, it won't last much longer. It's already hard for her to eat, as her tastebuds are chemo- fried.

Yesterday Kim started to shed a bit more than usual, and today is officially the beginning of the end for her hair. We were hoping to do something crazy to it before shaving it, so hopefully we'll have something fun to show soon.

Right now we are still waiting for Kim's counts to bottom out. Her ANC/ immunity is at zero, but her blasts (cancer cells) are still dropping. If she does well, then she might get to home home for the last few days of recovery, before going back to see how much cancer is still in her bone marrow. Most likely, there will still be some, and she will do a second, similar round of chemo and recovery. If, or when, her cancer count is at zero (remission) she will start her bone marrow transplant.

Kim is okay to have visitors, if they are healthy and over 14. She doesn't always feel up for it, so please check with us first, and try to keep visits shorter than longer. I sound so strict! But she really does love distractions when she's feeling well enough to be bored :)

Special thanks to friends whose Christmas presents got to Kim this weekend! Books, a sweatshirt, DVDs, and a PillowPet were all great ideas! Also, a picture of the great posters so many of you signed will be coming up soon.

Special thanks also to Uncle Mic and Aunt Leslie for the fun game!

And of course, thanks you all as always for the love, thoughts and prayers!
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1 comment:

  1. Michelle... that's MEJanuary 4, 2011 at 11:24 AM

    scary! get better soon! if you are interested i know of someone who is going through almost the same thing! you can check out her blog if you're bored. its : http://steelestrong.blogspot.com/
    Good luck and you are an amazing example to me :) keep strong!

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