Kathleen's Fight With Leukemia

About Kathleen

Kathleen was born on 1/31/97 weighing in at 10lbs. 6ozs. She was a beautiful, alert, healthy baby who brought immense joy to every life she touched. Her paternal Grandmother, Mom Mom Jackie, suffered through lung cancer during the first 4 years of Kathleen's life and Kathleen, along with all the other grandchildren, made her last years with us very happy ones. She had a knack for making people laugh and went to great lengths to accomplish this.

Our Ultimate Test

On 7/31/02, after being sick for over 2 months, Kathleen was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. When people tell you it's like being hit with a sledgehammer, it's the understatement of all time. It is like a wrecking ball swinging through your life smashing everything you believe and hold dear. The immediate tasks include treatment plans and the sheer logistics of going about your life with this huge overwhelming force controlling every decision you make. Now, nothing in your life is easy.Treatment started right away and our doctor, Susan Travis along with her sidekick Oncology Socialworker Joan Rolsky, outlined everything and guided us through the first horrible days. We initially spent 20 days at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia(CHOP). Since then, we've spent another 4 weeks over the past year there, 1 week with pancreantitis, 1 week with low bloodcounts(on Christmas no less), and 2 weeks recently with a nearly fatal stomach infection. Through it all, Kathleen has remained brave, strong, and funny as hell. She gives no quarter to this intrusion to her childhood and still loves to make everyone laugh.

Today, Tomorrow, and Beyond

As of now, 8/16/03, Kathleen is in the maintenance phase of her chemotherapy. We are finally seeing a hopeful end to our journey. We still face 18 months of treatment but, her prognosis for a complete recovery is excellent. She is looking forward to starting her 1st full year of school. (It would have been her second year had it not been for the horrible treatment we received at the hands of the Collingswood School District.) She is happy, energetic, and almost back to her old self. Her days are filled with learning and playing with her friends and her beloved brother Michael. We, as a family, are looking forward to buying our first home, hopefully in the near future. The toll that this disease has taken on every aspect of our lives is incalculable. The help from our family, friends, and co-workers has made this past year much easier. Having a place to escape to and people to talk to is vital and Pop Pop and Grandmom provided that as they always have. We also can never repay the love, support, and prayers that Iris Epps has shown towards our family. Through the darkest of days she has been the light that has reassured us and for this we will ALWAYS be in her debt.
8/31/03
We suffered a slight setback this week as Kathleen's counts fell and the doctors have noticed that her liver function is abnormal. They're concerned but, they've seen this before with other patients at this stage of the treatment. For now, they've stopped all her chemo and they're keeping a close eye on her. They also suspect a viral infection but they're also confident it'll pass.
9/10/03
Kathleen started school on tues.(9/8/3) and really enjoys her new class, teacher, and friends. We've had to shorten her days in class but, she is getting back into the routine quickly. Dr. Travis believes that her recent setback was caused by her body becoming toxic to the chemo drugs. Her counts are startimg to climb back up and they'll probably restart the treatment at half strength shortly.
12/1/03 Sorry it's been so long, but time is in short supply and it flies by. Kathleen is doing pretty well, all things considered. She spent 3 days at CHOP the weekend before Thanksgiving due to a viral infection, but she's fine now and almost back to her old self. She's being homeschooled now because we're trying to limit her exposure to illness and her schoolwork is going well. We spent Thanksgiving at Jackie's father's house and it was very laid back and enjoyable. We went to Longwood Gardens this past Sunday(11/30)and we had a great time! Kathleen and Michael especially enjoyed the light show at the water fountains. Kathleen's back on 50% chemo and so far she seems to be tolerating it well. She has a Dr. visit this Friday (12/5) and we'll find out more then.
4/26/04 Again, we're sorry for the delay in the updates and we'll try to stay current. Kathleen is doing great! The hospital called today with her latest bloodwork results and they're sky-high!(Which is good!) We recently switched our doctors from CHOP to the DuPont Institute in Delaware and our visits are down to once a month. We felt it was in Kathleen's best interest to make a change and after a great deal of thought, we did just that. Her new doctor is Dr. Frantz and he and the staff made us feel very welcome and Kathleen, very comfortable. They haven't given us the official word, but Kathleen will most likely finish her treatments this September. I'll now try to recap our last 5 months. Christmas went well despite a little medical setback. Kathleen had a condition, C-Diff, which resulted in us having to practically isolate her from everyone for a few weeks. This was not especially easy considering the season, but she handled it well. Our holiday was made more special by Kitchen Associates here in Collingswood. They "adopted" our family, arranged through the Emmanuel Cancer Society, and provided so many perfect gifts for our children that we hardly had to do any shopping. We also received a HUGE food basket from Builders Supply with enough food to feed an army. Christmas day was GREAT!!! Having Kathleen home,unlike last year, and healthy was our only wish and it came true! Late in January we received some exciting news fom The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Back in October they asked our family to take part in a video promoting the Team in Training progam. They wanted a patient's point of view on cancer, so they videotaped and interviewed our family at Knight's Park. The Producer made no promises, as they had also taped other families, but when the final version was done, Kathleen was the only patient used in the video. She was thrilled and it gave her confidence a much needed boost. On February 16th she received an award from the Leukemia Society for help with the video. The award was given at their luncheon at Tavistock CC and Kathleen loved every bit of it! They are also using some still photos, shot during the video shoot, on the national Light The Night campaign. Her beautiful face is on posters, booklets, and websites across the country. It's quite an honor and we as a family feel that we should do all we can to help find a cure for this terrible disease. Kathleen had her Make A Wish trip from 4/6 to 4/18 in Forida. We spent 6 days at Disney and 7 days at Vero Beach. We were all a little overwhelmed at Disneyworld, but we had a great time anyway! We also spent a week at our friend Trish Burke's house and it was a blast! We cannot say enough about the great people at Make-A-Wish and Give Kids the World! Their only purpose is to make these children feel good for a few days and they do a great job of it! When we returned home from our trip, Kathleen's tutor had a fundraiser all set up for 6/26 at Oh'Haras in Gloucester City, NJ. Before this happened though, Kathleen suffered another bout of pancreitis and was hospitalized for 8 days starting on 5/11. It was a bit of a setback, but compared to all the others, it paled! The weeks preceding the benefit were very busy and it all paid off in the end. By all accounts, it was a great time and the start of something we hope to continue for years to come! Today, 8/9/04, we got the news we've been waiting for....Kathleen's last day of chemo will be 9/27! We're all very excited as well as anxious. Kathleen, as the poster child for Light The Night, will be active in 3 of the walks in this area. She'll be at Wildwood, NJ on 9/18, DuPont Hospital on 9/24, and Camden Waterfront on 10/2. The Camden walk will be a big one for us as we are forming "Team Kathleen" and we're going for a BIG turnout! If you're interested, please call!

My Favorite Links

My Favorite Products

Download AOL Instant Messenger