A TON of info

Ok first of all I am sorry for not updating you all on Kaitlyn. It has been a whirlwind and she is still in the hospital.

That said I'll explain why she is still there first and then I have some encouraging information.

The thing with chemotherapy is that it blasts the rapidly growing cells in your body, they can't pinpoint cancer cells, but they can narrow it down to only those cells that rapidly multiply (cancer cells generally multiply faster than "normal" cells). Because of this method a lot of "normal" cells get caught in the line of fire. When Kaitlyn came into CHOC she reached a white blood cell count (white cells are responsible for fighting off infection etc..) of around 56,000 (95% of those were bad cells). A normal person has between 4,500-10,000 white cells. Through the chemo process her whites has dropped to around 300 or 0.3k, it is good because the chemo has been killing the bad guys, but a by product is that the body has no way of fighting off anything.

The reason we went into the hospital on Sat was because her fever was spiking. The fever is generally the only outward sign that she might have infection (which the body can not fight in this state) so ultimately they have to preventive treat her as if she had infection as soon as they see the fever, because if they wait the risk is to high. The hospital has a policy that you can not be released for 48hrs after the last fever spike (because infection etc.. can hide in the test results for up to that 48 hr time frame) . Up to this point she has not had a fever for about 24hrs. Unfortunately they will have to keep her a little longer than that rule because she received an antibiotic on Sunday that needs to be monitored in the hospital for a min of 7 days. In regards to infection/fever, they have run TON's of tests on the blood, stool, urine etc.. and they even did a CT scan yesterday (she didn't cry one time thanks to my awesome wife Heather!!) ALL of those tests have come back negative, not showing ANY abnormality!!! Praise and Thanks to GOD for those...

Ok HERE is the MEAT of the story

As I mentioned in previous post(s), with childhood ALL Leukemia, it is usually under 5% in the bone marrow by day 29. The treatment plan of chemo etc is 2.5-3yrs regardless of how soon she responds. If a child has less than 5% blastocysts (bad cells) in the bone marrow by day 15, they are candidates rapid responders, (basically a sign that the chemo is really resonating with her system).

The day 15 bone marrow results came back yesterday (on Maddie's b-day) and they could not find 1 cancer cell in the entire bone marrow sample!!!! so basically she is 0% @ day 15, and if she passes 2 other tests at day 29 she is in the rapid responder group.!!

although they consider the <5% to be "remission"... in childhood Leukemia, the HUGE part isn't getting them in remission, but the entire cleanup process.. so we have won a large battle, but we are still fighting a HUGE war!.. The reason this is such a long process and they do not really use the remission as a goal/milestone, is because of relapse.. If a child relapses the chances of recovery/2nd remission are MUCH lower than the original. So we are basically (after day 29) entering a 2.5-3 year process of chemo that will clean her system out entirely.. Of all the cells in her body, if they leave just one tiny tiny tiny remnant of a cell, it can cause an entire relapse.

OK I typed that in about 5 mins and don't have time to proof it, so I apologize if I rambled, but basically we have won some major battles but we are still smack dab in the middle of the war..

Thanks to all of you for your prayers thoughts and comments on this blog.. They are priceless to us and we treasure them immensely.

Through this whole process, God is good!! He is not safe, but he is good, not because of our results or Kaitlyn's progress, but just for the fact that he is good and he is there. Regardless of where this journey leads and ends, God will be there. He will be the same for good or bad news, He will be just as loving, caring, and mighty if she is healed or not. Our finite understanding of his entire plan, limits our understanding of Him, but we believe in him and all that he has done and will do, for Kaitlyn, us and everyone. Our love for him is not dependant on her progress or positive/negative results.. but we praise Him for every battle we win in his name.

Sincerely
~Daddy