Kaylie Is Kicking Cancer!

October 13th Kaylie was admitted for observation following a high fever, swelling in her right elbow, & intense pain. The doctor diagnosed her with Lyme, found no infection in her elbow, & started her on a course of antibiotics.  October 30-Novemember 3rd Kaylie started running a fever again, even though she was on antibiotics for the Lyme. Her right elbow swelling went down & her left started swelling. She received a referral to AFCH rheumatology. We met with Dr. Smith on November 6th. The doctor did not think it was arthritis and ordered a lot of labs & a few x-rays.  When the results started coming in they were abnormal. November 7th she was admitted to AFCH to get answers. Her bloodwork continued to come in abnormal & she had neutropenia (low level of neutrophils which meant she couldn't fight infections). The doctors ordered a bone marrow biopsy.  November 8th we got a diagnosis. It was leukemia. Our lives just completely changed. The doctor and a fellow began to explain abnormal cells, chemotherapy, lumbar punctures, PICC, and Port. I signed consent forms and they were doing a test on her heart and sedating her again. From the time of the diagnosis to the start of treatment was only a few hours. We stayed at AFCH for a week & have been home a week.  I will be her primary caretaker through this 1st part of the journey. She has a lot of treatments & procedures coming up. We travel to Madison for this. I have very little job protection in place & unfortunately bills do not stop just because your life has flipped upside down.  The funds will be used for living expenses, bills, travel expenses, food, and items Kaylie wants or needs to make her journey easier. Thank you! The donations we have received & the meal train I have set up have helped so much the last few weeks. It has given me a little less to worry about & more time to focus on Kaylie.