Mike was happy to tell Katie's story and I was happy to stand by his side. He spoke for a bit and then we showed a video about Katie's journey and the tears were flowing throughout the room. It is not easy for me to watch this video every time Mike speaks, but I love to look down and see my healthy little girl looking back at me. We know how lucky we are that she beat her cancer and is still alive and well enough to enjoy such events as Bella's Ball.
Mike's Speech..........................
Hi everyone, my name is Mike Randell, this is my wife, Amy, and our daughter, Kaitlyn.
Before I get started, I would just like to thank The Capaldi’s for putting on such a great event year after year! The band, the dj, the staff at The Manor restaurant, Why Me and all of you. Thank you.
I am honored to be asked to speak to you today about my daughter’s story. It’s hard to put everything into a short speech, so I put together a video that I will show at the end so that you get a more well rounded view of her journey.
Her “leukemia” story starts in the summer of 2008. She was a normal 2 & ½ year old kid on a shopping trip to Target with her mom. My very observant wife went to brush Kaitlyn’s hair back behind her ear and she felt a lump. Upon returning home, Amy ‘Googled’ swollen lymph nodes and leukemia came up in almost everything she read. It scared us enough to make a doctor’s appointment.
The appointment settled our fears when the pediatrician told us that it was “probably” just Mono and that we should come back in 4-5 weeks if the lymph nodes were still swollen.
As you could probably guess, the 4 weeks went by and we were back at the doctor’s office. Amy mentioned about what she read on the internet and again, the doctor tried to calm our fears by saying that “it couldn’t possibly be leukemia because Kaitlyn looked too healthy” but this time, they ran the blood tests.
The next day, we received the news that Kaitlyn’s blood showed suspicious cells and she would need to go in for a bone marrow biopsy the next morning. This left us feeling anxious and devastated. We called family to tell them the news, but no one wanted to believe what was happening.
On August 29, 2008 – we went to the UMass oncology clinic where she had a bone marrow biopsy to confirm that she did, in fact, have leukemia - Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia to be exact. We were in absolute disbelief and horror. To have your world shaken to the absolute core and be told that your daughter has something life threatening is a parents worse nightmare. Everything stops. EVERYTHING JUST STOPS.
Kaitlyn was admitted to the hospital immediately and started treatment the next day. She was inpatient for the first couple of weeks as we tried to cope with what we were up against.
As a dad and husband, I felt helpless. My baby girl had something that I could not protect her from. I couldn’t take away her pain. I couldn’t look in to my wife’s eyes and truthfully tell her everything was going to be OK because I didn’t know that for sure. There were plenty of tears that day and for the following weeks, but I kept telling myself that I had to be strong for my wife and daughter. Little did we know that our daughter would show us the definition of strength over the next two years.
During the course of Kaitlyn’s two year treatment, she had to endure more than most of us ever have. She received several different chemotherapy drugs, four surgeries, weekly outpatient clinic visits, way too many lumbar punctures to count and several inpatient hospital stays. At one point she was on ten different at home medicines. In my mind, my wife earned her nursing degree keeping all her medicines on schedule.
Also during the course of Kaitlyn’s treatment, she received love, friendship, joy and fun through our involvement with the Why Me foundation. We cannot express in words the gratitude that we feel for this organization and it’s people. From coffee & donuts in the clinic, to puppet shows in her hospital room, cook-outs, Halloween parties, Christmas parties, Easter egg hunts, Parent 2 parent meetings, Family dinner nights, a place to stay when we needed it…the list goes on and on. Sherry’s House is truly a magical place. It’s a place where these kids can go and just be kids if only for a few hours. We, as parents, can go and talk with other parents about what is happening and they understand exactly where we are coming from. Their involvement in our journey…and in our lives…is irreplaceable.
Kaitlyn went through her treatment with minimal side effects and ended her treatment on October 15, 2010 - taking her last oral chemotherapy pill in Walt Disney World! That day, Disney truly was the happiest place on Earth, for us anyway.
Today, Kaitlyn is doing incredibly well as you will see later tonight when she gets dancing with her friends on the dance floor.
In this short video of Kaitlyn’s journey... I offer you four words that Why Me gave to us.
HOPE---
FAITH---
LOVE ---
STRENGTH----
But most of all what I hope you see in this video are the smiles… the smiles of a kid just trying to be a kid, despite the circumstances. These smiles were provided by Why Me.
Every year, one of our favorite UMass nurses, Marilyn, comes and dances the night away with the girls. I wish more of the hospital staff would come and see how healthy and vibrant some of their patients are today... especially these three - Delilah, Kailiah and Kaitlyn.
Delilah, Kailiah and Kaitlyn with one of their favorite staff members at Sherry's House - Danielle. We love you Danielle!!!
The girls were the star attraction - they looked beautiful and healthy. They also represented the spirit of the Why Me Foundation. Before the dancing really even got started, they went up to the DJ and asked him to play the YMCA - they weren't wasting any time in getting this party started!!!
Katie didn't want to leave the ball. At the end of the night, she was the last little girl still standing and we were trying to get her off the dance floor when we were told that we couldn't leave yet. The band finished up whatever song they were singing and then they called Katie up to be center of attention and sang happy birthday to her. We were curious how they knew her birthday was coming up and they said - "she told us!"...lol...that's my girl!!! She deserves all the love and attention that can be bestowed on her :-)
We finally left the ball at about 12:30am! I had brought Katie's jammies with us and quick changed her in the car before heading home because I knew she would fall asleep in the car on the way home and she did. We all had a great night and it was for a great cause!! Thank you to Ralph & Kim Capaldi for running this event every year to support such a wonderful organization. For, without them, I think our journey through Katie's disease would have been a lot tougher. They always kept a smile on her face and continue to do so today. We are forever greatful!
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