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June 4, 2005 -- Katie's been running fevers of 102.1 to 104.9 for the past several days. The first day with the fever (Tuesday, May 31st), she had no symptoms other than back and leg pain. I called her oncologist and she told us that since Katie is off-treatment and no longer has a port, we can contact her pediatrician. I was able to take Katie to the pediatrician right away. He said that sometimes other symptoms don't present themselves until 12 hours after the onset of the fever. We were to go home and call if she had any other symptoms with a fever. If the fevers continued without any other symptoms, they would do a CBC to rule out relapse. John and I were relieved when she started coughing and sneezing on Wednesday. The fevers continued but were slowly going down. She still had back and leg pain, and now headaches. I called the pediatrician on Wednesday and he said to continue giving her Tylenol to reduce the fevers and ease her discomfort. We were to wait and see how she does as the days go on. This morning (Saturday, June 4) she was complaining of an ear ache. John took her to the pediatrician who found that she has a left ear infection and pneumonia in her right lung. She's on antibiotics and has a follow-up appointment next week. Hopefully, she'll be bouncing back to good health very soon. Katie is being treated like a normal child now, not an oncology patient. It feels VERY strange to be going to a pediatrician again. Fortunately, this group is a Children's Hospital of Philadelphia group and they will consult with the oncologists at CHOP as needed. Katie graduated from preschool on May 27th and started a 9-day camp at her preschool on May 31st. She got to go to camp the first day and hasn't been able to return since she's been sick. Katie is pretty upset because all of her friends are there, and she's worried she won't get to see them again. Hopefully her pediatrician will say it's OK for her to go for the last couple of days of camp this week. We'll have to plan lots of play dates with her friends this summer. Our neighborhood will be having it's annual community garage sale on June 11. Katie will be holding an "Alex's Lemonade Stand" to benefit pediatric cancer research (as long as she's not sick). Whoever wants to help is welcome! The lemonade stand will be open from 8am to 1pm. Hope to see you there. PRAYERS FOR ISABEL Please continue to pray for Katie's friend Isabel who has relapsed ALL. She has just completed a week of high dose chemo. Her ANC is at 0 (which means she has no immunity) and she is in isolation. We pray that she quickly goes into remission, stays in remission, and that all goes well with her bone marrow transplant. We continue to be thankful for each and every day, and for the ever present support you have all shown for Katie and our family. |
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