Kristin "Kourageous" Katich

School has begun and I find myself busier than ever. Kristin started getting busy last week with "student body business." She helped with freshman orientation and made 29 various "I love Freshman" shirts for the rest of the student council members. It took her all day , but they were great! She also helped greet the faculty at a breakfast. Ms. Cox told me when Kristin was introduced, the entire faculty applauded. thank you Galena. Darren,and Alex Hames went for a quick trip to wakeboard at Boca and took her and some friends along. She could not get in the water, but it was a great way to finish off the week. The first day of school came and she was up early getting ready. As she and the boys left for the day, I said a prayer that she would find the strength she needed emotionally and physically to get through the day. This day was met with much anxiety, but the doubt and fear appears to have abated for the moment. yes, prayers are answered! Health wise

First "big" catch of the day. Kristin and fellow Keaton Raphael Kids. Also pictured is Lizzie Dalton (center), director of Keaton Raphael Memorial, and Angie, Child life Specialist Renown. The entire group of participants. We fish, therefore we are! Our family was invited to participate in "Reel Kids" by the Keaton Raphael Memorial. The day began early in Markleeville, Ca.(yes, we did sleep in a bit, but still made it with time to spare) We met other local families participating and then headed up to a beautiful preserve tucked away in the Sierras. There, we were tutored in the ancient art of Fly Fishing by the most generous, kind, and likeable anglers one would ever met. Each participant then was paired up with their own personal coach and then made their way to the river to find their "spot." I opted to carry my camera instead of a rod as I was excited to capture the momen

Talk about "Manic Monday!" The day began driving to Renown for labs and hopefully beginning interim maintenance 2. I say hopefully because as of the last lab report Kristin's ANC too low. It needs to be <750. Once we were there they immediately did labs to check her ANC so we would know whether we could proceed with chemo or have to wait. After a few hours and a movie later (Super Star...sooooo funny!) It was a go, barely. Since she was NPO, fasting and nothing by mouth, it was a long and miserable wait since there were other patients ahead of us. Around 2:45 she went in for the LP with intrathecal methotrexate. She was also given vincristine and more methotrexate via her broviac cath. That is a lot of chemo. She must of gotten a little extra of "something" because when she woke up she was very loopy. Today we went back for more. Three giant shots of PEG in her thighs and then two hours of observation to make sure she did not stop breathing. PEG can have some

I have learned early on that when I get phone calls from a 510 area code that Oakland is wanting to "discuss a plan." There is always a "plan" for when things do not go exactly as expected which in reality is the norm in this business. We did labs on Friday in hopes that Kristin's counts would have recovered from the evil ARA-C and Cytoxan. Although she is finally on a slow upswing with her counts, they have not quite arrived at the point where we can definitively move forward into Interim Maintenance 2 on Monday. rats! But, I have high hopes that the weekend will give her time to recover so that there will not be any delays in proceeding forward. In all honesty it is really a minor blip in the scheme of things and there are much worse things that can happen. The latest labs show (I got some numbers wrong on the last report, as the anc count was not that high) ANC 486, WBC 1.8, PLATELETS 387, HGB 9.9. All counts are looking good except the ANC, it must be <7

yes... better! After being down for quite a while, Kristin's counts are finally recovering. ANC 960, HGB 9.9, PLATELETS 122, WBC 1600. These are great compared to what we had been experiencing. Although she is still very tired , she can finally get out of the house and do some things with friends... This was the hardest part of the down time for her and really for the last eight months. She has felt disconnected from everything. Understandably, many kids do not know how to talk or approach her, yes it can be intimidating. I wonder if I would have had the courage to do so at that age. In reality all these children really crave is to be treated and feel; as Kristin says, " treat me like a normal kid!" This has been very difficult in so many aspects. 17 is a tough time developmentally to be going through all of this. Doctors and nurses alike have commented that everything from chemo, down time, side effects and emotional impact are more difficult, complicated and challeng