Three Year Diagnosiversary

Three years ago - August 29, 2008 was the worst day of my life. The day Katie was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. To this day, I can’t think about it without crying. This was just the start of a very long two years of chemotherapy treatment. Over the course of her treatment, (2 years old to 4), she went through more than most of us ever will endure in a whole lifetime… hospitalizations, surgeries, bone marrow biopsies, lumbar punctures, blood transfusions, chemotherapy administrations, blood draws, multiple shots every week...etc. The list goes on and on.

No one is ever prepared to hear that his or her child has a life-threatening illness. At first, it just seems too horrible to believe. But as the days move along, you have to accept what is happening and trust that the doctors are going to do everything that they can to save your child’s life. But the treatment alone is another nightmare that your child has to endure and all you can do is stand by and watch. Or worse, restrain your child as she is having a large needle plunged into her hip or spine. In our case, our two-year-old daughter had no idea why Mommy and Daddy were letting these people do such horrible things to her…why they were in fact holding her down as she screamed for them to stop. She didn’t understand that these horrible things were saving her life.

The past 2 years, we have planned something "fun" to do on this day. I guess it's my way of covering up the fact that it was such a horrendous day in 2008. But, I didn't plan anything fun because I thought her first day of school would be celebration enough. Then when school was cancelled, I was pretty disappointed that I had nothing fun planned for Katie to do on the day of her diagnosiversary...but a friend pointed out how wonderful it is to just have a "normal" day. The kid on the couch watching TV and the mom working her butt off to get "it" all done. That realization really meant a lot to me because it is so true. A "normal" boring day with no medicine and no stress (other than work). She couldn't have been more right. We are blessed to have a normal, boring day on this 3 year diagnosiversary.

From Mike.......................
3 years ago today we were inducted into "the secret society" of childhood cancer. We have seen the struggles & the pain first hand. We are thankful for all the people that have helped us on our journey at UMASS &WHY ME. We are thankful for friends & family who also supported us through the last three years. I am incredibly thankful for having such a great wife who was so organized with medicine and became the best nurse for Kaitlyn! I am also thankful for the little girl that grew up so quickly during this. She showed us how strong and brave she is. LOVE YOU KAITLYN!!!!! Today I look to the future. I hope and pray that no other child ever has to experience this disease.