Kaitlin Update

I finally have a minute to sit, so I thought it would be a good time to post an update on Kaitlin.

Her chemo treatments are done in different stages. The first was called induction. During induction they kill everything, including some of her healthy cells. Induction was very hard on her and left her with little to no immune system, that's why she caught the H1N1 virus and was in the hospital for so long.

The next stage is maintenance. Basically they are still treating the leukemia while letting the healthy cells rebuild themselves. She has done very well with this part of treatment. She has been healthy and except for her bald head you would never guess she was sick. We go in every 10 days for out patient chemo and they draw some blood to check her counts. If everything looks good they give her the chemo, increasing the amount each time as long as her counts can handle it. Once her counts begin to drop they stop increasing the dose and stay at the level she is at. Kaitlin's counts never dropped!

She is done with this maintenance part and gets a two week chemo break! Her birthday is next week and we are going to have a huge party for her while she's feeling good. We have a lot to do in the next two weeks because she starts another intense stage on the 16th of November. She will be sick most of the winter, including Thanksgiving and Christmas. We wont be able to take her anywhere because her counts will "bottom out" again. After this next hard round of chemo the next year and a half will be maintenance(if all goes well).

Her doctors are calling her a "miracle child", they didn't think we'd be celebrating her 5th birthday. I keep reminding myself that God is in control and I need to rely on Him to get us through the winter, and the rest of her treatments.

Kaitlin

Kaitlin is doing great!!! I'm typing with one hand while nursing Samuel, and Kaitlin is sitting next to us trying to type! So, I'll explain more about her treatment later when the little princess is sleeping and daddy has this little boy!

introducing........

Remember this picture?
Here is what that little foot looks like now!

Samuel Justus was born October 15th at 7:17 pm weighing 9lbs 5oz and 21 inches long!

Samuel means "God hears and answers my prayers". Life is beautiful, God is good.

If you've never visited Generation Cedar, now would be a good time to check it out. I know I've been gone a while and an update is way over due, but I felt led to post a link to this.

For a quick update, Katie is doing great and I am ready to have this baby any day!

Princess Katie

I have set up a caring bridge site for Kaitlin here. This will be the place to go for updates on her progress.

Thank you for all the prayers!

Feet First

I'm sorry I haven't posted an update, it has been a crazy week. Friday Kaitlin had a bone marrow test and within a couple of hours our whole world was turned upside down. She has Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia, or ALL. She started chemotherapy Monday and was in the hospital until yesterday afternoon. We are home today, but she will need to go back in tomorrow for a blood transfusion and possibly stay the night. From what I understand this first 6 months will be the most difficult on her.

When the doctor came back to the room to tell us the results on Friday I could hear him talking, but I couldn't comprehend what he was saying. It was when he said that her hair would begin to fall out in 3-4 weeks that I felt like I couldn't breathe. We had two choices, lock ourselves in our home and be too depressed to move forward or jump in feet first and trust God to not let us drown.

My husband suggested that we have a fun family day weekend before she started chemo Monday. So, we went to the local water park and the zoo. Everyone had a great time! It was nice to just have fun together and not spend the whole weekend worrying about what was going to happen next.

Kaitlin handled her first round of chemo well. She had surgery Tuesday to have a port(central line) put in so that she wont need a new I.V. every week when she has treatments. Her site is still a little tender, but the surgery went well also.

I'll update as I can. Thank you all for your prayers and kind words.

Update

Thank you for all the prayers, we are very grateful for them. The blood work Kaitlin had still shows that she may have leukemia, so tomorrow she is going to have a marrow test to find out for sure.

People who have down syndrome are at a high risk for developing leukemia. We knew that, but every year when she gets her lab work done she passes with flying colors. I guess we just put it out of our minds that it was a possibility.

So, we'll know tomorrow one way or the other.