I am sitting down to my computer for the second time today to share everything that happened on Wednesday. It was a really long day, but we didnt care when we received the news that the scans looked fabulous as Anisa would say! Wednesday started out with labs and Katelyn was not looking forward to her dressing change as she always does on Wednesdays!! Today was different, Dr. Coulter, with a little help from Anisa, decided that if her scans came back clear that Katelyn could get her line out!!! Oh the happy dance started...jumping jacks, booty shakes, you name it we saw it!! Getting her central line out means NO MORE DRESSING CHANGES...which if you have had the pleasure at doing these or assisting with this, you take your life in your own hands!! :) I was once afraid that Katelyn was going to kick McKaylas pregnant tummy!! There are a few things that Katelyn had to agree to in order to get her line out. Katelyn is on a monthly infusion of pentamidine, so she had to agree to go back on Bactrim for the next 3 months. This is an oral med and she doesnt like taking anything really, but she said she would do it if she could get her line out and she also mentioned that she was 4 when she didnt like taking Bactrim, so now that she is 5 it will be different!! We will see tomorrow!! The reason they took her off Bactrim way back was because the doctors thought it was suppressing her counts and that is why they were always so low in the beginning. After drinking the oral contrast and some entertainment from Dr. Coulter, Katelyn was off to her scan. It was a quick one and we met dad and Kyla upstairs at the Ronald McDonald Magic Show. After the show was over, we headed back up to clinic to wait for the results. As you all know the scans came back clear, even on their new CT machine! YAY...tears of joy and happiness filled the room! Next up was getting her line out. Anisa put emela cream on the site to get it numb. We went upstairs to have a surgeon take it out, but it was crazy how easy it came out. A little shot to deaden the area more, a short tug and that baby was OUT!!! I was under the impression that she would have to have a surgery to take it out, but I was wrong! To be honest, our emotions have been all over the place the last couple days, so we just wanted to let it soak in. Its hard not to ask ourselves, are we really done forever??!! We can only hope and pray that every 3 months those scans will always be clear! One question that Katelyn had for Dr. Coulter was when could she get her ears pierced. She has to wait 6 months until she can get her ears pierced. It seems like 3-6 months is kind of the norm before you can start doing certain things again. Her ANC was 1500 on Wednesday, not stellar, but it is slowly recovering. Katelyns current condition is that she is in remission. She is off treatment now and we can hopefully get back to somewhat of a normal life. We know that down the road in a few years we will be able to say Katelyn is cancer free,but for now she is in remission. We really cant put into words how we are feeling right now. A huge weight has definitely been lifted off our shoulders, but every 3 months we will always get scanxiety. Next Friday will mark 1 year since our first visit with Dr. Bowdino, the neurosurgeon, that resected the first tumor on her tailbone. This was supposed to be a routine procedure and it turned it to something much much worse. We can only be thankful that we could see the tumor, otherwise we have never known that she had cancer in her little body. She was never sick or showed any signs of this. We thank God everyday for the timing of this and that we caught it when we did! 2013 was quite a challenging year with Kamry and Keely joining our family and 2014 has proved to be an even more challenging year. We could have never done this without the help and support from our family and friends. When Katelyn first started treatment, both of us would go and leave the other 3 girls with their grandparents. During radiation, we lived in Omaha with family during the week. The prayers from everyone here on this page and from some people we dont even know have helped get us through this year. I cant say that I am going to miss the daily heparin flush, giving shots, taking baths with Glad Press and Seal, endless trips to Omaha, sleeping in hospital rooms, eating cafeteria food (which I actually thought was good), constantly checking for fevers, uncomfortable ambulance rides to Omaha, and the list goes on and on!! What I will miss is the friendships I have made at Childrens with the nurses, families and anyone else whose paths crossed with ours. You really become a family with all of the caregivers and other families battling this ugly disease. I hate to say it, but I am sad that I will not get to see these people as often anymore, but please understand that this has been our life for the past year. We will go visit whenever we are there for scans, but we wont be staying over night anymore!! We will also still keep in touch with all of the fighters and their families whom we have met on this journey. I dont think our journey will ever be completely over, but for now we can get back to what life was like before a cancer diagnosis. Since the math teacher has just written a small novel, I suppose she should either publish this or just go to bed! :) Thank you for being there for us this past year...I know we say thank you in every post, but really do THANK YOU for everything that each and every one of you have done for our family. Meals, gas cards, donations, house cleaning, babysitting, benefits, a smile or a hug, emails, texts, sporting a Team Katelyn shirt or bracelet, prayers and many many other things that I know I am forgetting. Please continue to pray for our family as we get back to a little bit of normalcy at our house and also for all of the children who are fighting for their lives right now. If I could ask for one thing for Christmas it would be to find a cure for all cancer!!! Thank you for reading this and good night!!!
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 06:11:20 +0000
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