Caring for Kristina

This website was created to help support Kristina Koga-Kim and her family of 4 as she fights her diagnosis of 2 cancers. Kristina is the mother of a 2 1/2 year old daughter Zoey and a 3 1/2 month newborn son Caleb. On Thursday May 30th Kristina wasn’t feeling well at home. She was having extreme nerve pain in the shoulder, chest pressure while lying down and pain around the back. It felt like her ribs may have been broken. When she arrived at the hospital they ran an x-ray and found a pleural effusion - fluid in the sac surrounding her lungs. She was immediately rushed to the E.R. where they conducted thorecentesis, a procedure where a needle is stuck into her back in order to drain the pool of fluid. 1.5 liters of fluid was drained! The hospital conducted a CT scan as a follow-up measure only to discover 8 more liters of fluid and a collapsed left lung. In addition, a mass was discovered on her chest. If benign, they would go back and cut it out - seemed easy enough. After multiple scans and tests she was diagnosed with T-Cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma - a very rare and aggressive cancer that could grow by 100% each day. Cancer hospitals might see this type of cancer once every 10 years, if that. As if the story couldn't get any worse, they also confirmed through the biopsy that she had a second type of cancer: Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia which is typically found in the bloodstream, bone marrow and brain. The world-class doctors and staff at the Kenneth Norris Jr. Comprehensive Cancer Center at USC have been working around the clock in order to help Kristina fight for her life. She misses her children deeply and wishes she could see all of her beloved friends and family members. However, the doctors say it’s going to be a long treatment process! She will not be going home for at least a month and the chemo plan is an 8 month program. We are hoping this page will help raise money for the family so they don’t have to worry about finances, child care, meals, etc... and can just help Kristina fight and heal