Back in the hospital

Today Kaitlyn woke up with a fever of 101.5 so we called her doctor and he told us to head to the ER for her to get checked out. They took her temperature upon arrival and found it to be 97.3 (within normal range). Both Mike and I didn't believe the reading because she looked and felt so hot. Her cheeks were bright red and she was very hot to the touch. We asked the nurse to re-take her temperature with the disposable thermometers that we had been using at home and sure enough, it read the same as ours at home - 101.5. Within an hour, they informed us that we were going to be admitted. They started her on antibiotic immediately and we were in our room on the 5th floor by 1:30pm (only 3 hours after getting to the ER). They told us that we would be at the hospital for a minimum of 48 hours, if all goes well. So, we are looking at Thursday if all goes well...sigh. We saw Kaitlyn's doctor around 3:30pm and he said that her white cell count was in the toilet, but that was to be expected around this time (2 weeks after receiving Doxorubicin (one of her chemo meds). But, now that she has "bottomed out", we should see those numbers start to climb and return to normal. The good news is that he also told us that her Red Cell and Platelet counts were "miraculous". Because we caught her leukemia so early, she had a lot of "reserves" left in her bone marrow and he said her numbers are excellent and that he doesn't anticipate her needing another blood transfusion through the induction phase of her treatment. More good news - I asked her doctor if we should still be concerned about uric acid in her urine and he said no. When I asked why, he said, "because 99% of the Leukemia is gone from her body." When I asked him how he knew that, he basically gave me a "because I know" type of answer. But he said that it's the .01% that is left in her body that can be the tricky part. When I asked him point blank if he thought that it would be difficult to get rid of that .01% in her, he implied that Kaitlyn has not given us any indication that it will be hard to get rid of. Nor does he anticipate her needing any type of bone marrow or stem cell transplants, which is incredible news. He is basing that off of how well she has responded to her induction treatment. Now, of course he can't guarantee that we won't have any setbacks, but it means a lot that he said as much as he did. Dr. Keuker does NOT beat around the bush and he really is a "tell it like it is" type of guy. So for him to give us that much positive information was tremendous.

On another note, she was due for another lumbar puncture and bone marrow biopsy this Thursday in the clinic and her doctor decided to move them to tomorrow while she is in the hospital. So, with that, we should get the results from the bone marrow biopsy by Friday and we are very hopeful that we will hear that Kaitlyn has made it into remission successfully.

Please pray for Katie to keep fighting strong. We truly appreciate the love and support you have all provided to us.

Much love,
Amy, Mike & Kaitlyn