Journal

Tuesday, November 18, 2008 9:42 AM CST

I have been meaning to update Katie’s page for months. I just haven’t set it as a priority and have been on Medical burnout. I guess I am frustrated with the not know answers for Katie and sometimes I feel that I don’t even want to take her to the doctors, as I am just sick of it all.
These last several months have been interesting as far as Katie’s health goes. She is overall doing very well. Her labs have been all over the place. She started this summer with platelets dropping and becoming low. They did a Bone Marrow Aspiration to check for relapse. Her bone Marrow showed some cells but not enough to say it is a relapse and not enough to treat yet. Than she had some other testing done, she had MRI of neck and spine. The cervical showed slight rotatory scoliosis of the proximal-most thoracic spine, likely there are T2 through T4 anomalous vertebral body elements.
The rest of the cervical spine looked great. Her Spine MRI showed Stable appearance of scoliosis. She has convex right scoliosis at T6-7. She has compensatory curve to the left at the cervicothoracic junction as well as the thoracolumbar junction. She has post surgical change at the L3 level. Persistent punctuate fluid in the cord substance at the T7-T8 level, stable in appearance.
Her Echocardiogram of her heart reports Technically difficult study. Her estimated ejection fraction is grater than 60o that is good. I don’t know if we will repeat this test as there is a lot of blanks on the results.
Her recent labs show basically normal with an exception of increased basophils cells. I did research on them and usually you have an increase during an allergic reaction or anaphylactic shock or when She has always had 0.0 of these cells. She has had 0.4 as her high. Her level now is 4.5 my research showed this definition.

Basophils

The purpose of basophils is not completely understood. Basophils are phagocytes and contain heparin, histamines, and serotonin. Tissue basophils are also called "mast cells." Similar to blood basophils, they produce and store heparin, histamine, and serotonin. Basophil counts are used to analyze allergic reactions. An alteration in bone marrow function such as leukemia or Hodgkin's disease may cause an increase in basophils. Corticosteroid drugs, allergic reactions, and acute infections may cause the body's small basophil numbers to decrease
Katie’s urine continues to get infections. She just had repeat labs done, which shows no infection but she continues to have white blood cells in her urine. The doctor would like an ultrasound of her Kidneys but I have not made that appointment yet. So I will be following up with that.

Katie is still going to physical therapy every week. She has had a large increase in leg length discrepancy and I need to get her new shoes with an 1 ½ inch lift on the left. We will get two pairs, but it will have to probably be in Jan.

Katie has had significant weight gain of about 30 lbs in the last few months. We are not sure what is causing this sudden increase in weight. Maybe its hormones, maybe she overeating, she has the doctors and us stumped as why there is such rapid weight gain.

Katie will be seeing Dr.Houlkum for her legs and Dr. Browning for her back in orthopedics on the 4th of December.

As far as Katie goes she is a true medical mystery and we live day by day. Right now she has been having these symptoms Throat pain, headaches, back pain and leg pain. She has off and on pain in her right wrist. She complains frequently especially at night and crys a lot in the evening with these pains. Just tonight she told me she has chest pains and I told her to take Tylenol and lay down. I hate that I have to basically ignore her pain as nobody really knows what to do when she is having it. Her hear rate elevates and she gets short of breath.

Katie is doing well in school when she is there. The teachers and other students love her. We had to buy her a musical instrument for band class and she is now learning the bells. They are going to go to 6th grade camp, and Katie would like to go. They talked about sending an aid to camp for her.

Other Hann family News and other significant things going on at our household. No order just a lot of info that we should share so you can pray or praise with us.

In August we changed the boys school so they could play High school football. They both made the team and are enjoying playing ball. They also enjoy there grades at public high school. The boys are both straight A students, and I am very proud of them.


Ashley my oldest daughter has had a lot of changes in her life this past year. She has finally got her self settled in Boreggo Springs and has a full time job at an hotel. She is working hard and making new friends. I miss her and enjoy the time I do get to spend with her.

My sister Kim was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. They thought it wasn’t that big of deal and only removed half of it and than found out it was a rare type of cancer and it had spread so she had to have the other half removed. She ended up with a staff infection and her throat almost closed off and she was inpatient for a while. She had to be on IV antibiotics at home and has just had oral radiation and had to be isolated from her family for a few days.

My sister Kristi has graduated from In His Steps. She spent 6 months in treatment and is now sober, She is doing great now and has learned a lot being in treatment for six months and we enjoy seeing the new Kristi.

My Mom had several falls with in a two week period.She is doing better now and is more stable on her feet.



Makayla is still occasionally having bad days with her bipolar/ ADHD. . She is impulsive and sometimes just reacts. We have had her in numerous classes including emotion fitness and anger management. She is working hard at school and is a good student.

Madison was ill in September and was placed in the hospital cranialataxia it was very scary and she couldn’t walk. Thankfully she made a full recovery.

Brandon, Sarah, Madison, Makayla, Rebecca, Thomas all have been playing soccer and are on soccer teams. Sarah, Madison and Makayla just won there Division and have play off to represent San Diego for play offs. They are also going to be on an all stars team and are excited.

Katie, Sarah, Madison, Makayla, Rebecca are all still involved in Girl Scouts. We have weekly meetings. We will gear up for cooke sales in Jan.

Friend News-
Gregory Giller relapsed and is now in treatment again.

Alexis a teen from clinic succumbed to her cancer. We were sad of her passing.

Kiki has been fighting since 2004 and desperately needed a Bone Marrow Transplant. They could not find a match. His cancer is back and he is now on hospice and has been given 3 weeks to live. Please pray for him and his family.

Baby Johnathan has just passed away on Nov. 20th. Please pray for his family during this hard time.

There are a lot of kids not doing so well right now, please pray for all the children that are sick.

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Katie Rose is at home!

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