Six Months Off Treatment

I find it hard to believe that it has already been six months since Kaitlyn ended treatment.

Kaitlyn is doing extremely well and life is returning to "normal". She is a very active five year old these days - school, gymnastics, softball, swim lessons scheduled for the summer and we are talking about Girl Scouts in the fall when she starts Kindergarten. My life has gotten very busy all of a sudden with Katie's activities and I have to admit...I love it!!! This is how it is supposed to be and I love to see her involved with activities in the "outside world", meaning outside our house...lol.

She now exhibits a very strong will and is very stubborn when there is something that she wants or doesn't want. This behavior is something new that has shown up since she has ended treatment and I can't help but wonder if she was too sick before to show this side of herself earlier. The Terrible Two's, were terrible, but not in the way they should have been and the Horrible Three's, were not so bad either. But now, she has this fight in her that is driving Mike & I nuts, but when I step back and think about it, I feel blessed that she feels well enough to stand up for herself and express her wants and needs...even if they do contradict our wants and needs most of the time :-)

Now that Kaitlyn's treatments are over, I feel myself trying to process it all and asking myself, "What the hell just happened?" Almost as if a fog is being lifted from my life. I am trying to process so many different emotions...joy, sadness, wonder, fear, awe...

Mostly, I feel blessed to have a healthy little girl. But, I am still very fearful that the beast will come back or that we will start to see some of the late effects of some of the drugs that Kaitlyn took to get rid of the Leukemia. The list is quite extensive. Click HERE if you are curious.

My life is forever changed and I can no longer hear of someone being diagnosed with cancer without crying for that person and their family. This is a cruel disease and it spares no one.

Kaitlyn was so young at diagnosis (2 ½) that she will likely not remember most of her treatment, for that I am grateful. But we have learned so much from this experience that we never want to forget. So many AMAZING people were so kind and supportive to us through everything and we are now trying to pay the goodness forward. As a family, we are trying to create awareness and raise money to help fight this horrible disease so that some day it will no longer exist and people won't live in fear of the words, "You have cancer" or being told that your mother, father, sister, brother, grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle, friend or child has cancer. It is my personal mission as Kaitlyn's mom to make sure that she NEVER forgets how courageous she had to be or how many people she has inspired at such a young age. It is my job to let her know how blessed she is and that she should NEVER take her health or her life for granted.

As we move further away from life with cancer, I hope that Kaitlyn continues to be well, of course, but I hope that we never forget what it felt like to be "that family". I hope that we can share our story and offer some hope to others who may have just heard the news that their child has cancer. I hope that someday Kaitlyn can tell her grandchildren that she had cancer when she was a child and she survived and they have to ask "what's cancer" because it has been eradicated.

We pray everyday for those who continue to fight this disease and for those whose loved ones have passed on.