It Does Happen to Us
By Wendy Cameron
Kaitlyn Lee Cameron was born a healthy little girl on March 8, 2004. She was normal in every way up until Sept. 7, 2005.
We attended her older brother, Tyler’s, soccer game, and she played around like a normal 1-year-old. We then went home and put her to bed. Every time we tried to lay her down to sleep, Katie would scream. We spent all night holding her in our arms. We thought she just had an ear infection since she wouldn’t lie down, and she would wobble back and forth when we tried to stand her up.
We immediately tried to make a doctor’s appointment for her the following day. Her regular doctor was not in, so we saw Dr. Gartner at the Grand Island Clinic. He never met our daughter before that appointment.
Dr. Gartner looked her over and thought she might be a little dehydrated. He ordered blood work to be safe, and the results of the blood work came back normal. He sent us to St. Francis Medical Center for admittance for dehydration, and he ordered a CT scan. We went to St. Francis and had a CT done, and then they hooked her up to an IV to get hydrated. A few hours later, Dr. Gartner came in, shut the door and told us he had the results of the CT scan.
Katie had a tumor in her stomach the size of two adult fists that was wrapping around her organs. We were completely in shock, and everything happened so fast after that. They immediately told us to pack because we were going by ambulance to Children’s Hospital in Omaha, where they had children’s oncologists. We left an hour later.
In the meantime, Katie was deteriorating mentally, and no one knew why. After the long ambulance trip to Children’s Hospital in Omaha, we were admitted to a room on the fifth floor and told that the oncologist on call, Dr. Thompson, would be coming in to view her CT, which was taken at St. Francis.
She came in at 1 a.m. that night and reviewed the CT. The next morning, Katie’s eyes started to deviate to one side, and she continued to deteriorate mentally. We were then immediately sent to ICU and were told they would be doing several tests on her. They also needed to do a bone marrow biopsy to find out what kind of cancer Katie had.
After several surgeries and tests, it was confirmed that Katie had suffered a massive stroke. To this day, no one really knows why. Her brain was swelling at a fast pace, and the neurosurgeon placed a tube in Katie’s head to drain the fluid. She was pretty much unresponsive at that point.
The doctor later came in with the results from the bone marrow biopsy and said that Katie had acute myeloid leukemia (AML), which is mainly an adult cancer. This cancer is 90 percent environmental and 10 percent genetic. We really didn’t know what to think at that point. She had a good chance to achieve remission with this cancer, but with the high reoccurrence rate, it would probably come back.
We were told she would undergo six months of very intense chemotherapy.
In the meantime, she was still very ill and her vitals were very unstable. We couldn’t really hold her because the drain in her head had to be level or else it would drain too fast or not enough, which could kill her. We prayed nonstop by her bedside through the night.
A couple of days later, with no improvement in her condition, the doctors wanted to have a meeting with us to discuss Katie. At the meeting were her oncologist, neurologist, neurosurgeon and the ICU doctors. They basically asked us what we wanted for Katie as far as life support and if we wanted to sign a DNR (do not resuscitate) in case she got to that point.
I think it finally hit us at that point that we might actually lose our daughter. That was the hardest decision we have ever had to make.
Over the next couple of days, Katie’s condition started to improve and her vitals started to stabilize. We were able to hold her again. After a long time in ICU, Katie was able to move back up to the fifth floor to continue her chemo treatments. Because of the stroke, she could not see, walk, talk, move, eat, drink or do anything by herself. She slowly began to gain her eyesight back, but she developed a cross eye and lazy eye on the left side. She also had major palsy from the stroke on the left side of her face.
After months of physical therapy in the hospital and learning how to do everything over again, she regained everything back, except for the palsy in the face. Her left eye doesn’t close all the way, and it doesn’t tear. She had to have a permanent shunt placed in her head to drain the extra fluid. The neurosurgeon said there is only about a 5 percent chance that we could ever have it removed, so it’s basically with her for life.
Along with recovering from the stroke, Katie also endured many side effects from the chemo. She had several central line infections because of her low counts and several other infections. We spent six months in the hospital, and both my husband and I stayed in Katie’s room with her the entire time.
Tyler, our 5-year-old son, had just started school. He went to stay with my parents, who also live in Grand Island, so he could continue with school. It was very hard on him, and he missed us all terribly, but thanks to Grandma and Grandpa, he got through it. We got to see him most every weekend.
Katie finished her last round on chemo on Feb. 1, 2006, and we were released from Children’s Hospital for good on Feb. 21, 2006. We hadn’t been home in over six months, and when we finally arrived home with our little girl, she didn’t remember her home. We adjusted and got back to life as normal as we possibly could. She achieved remission after the first round of chemo and has been in remission ever since. We go for checkups every month to Omaha, and they do blood work to make sure the cancer has not come back. She is now a normal, active little 3-year-old girl, and besides the palsy in her face, you would never know what she endured over the last couple of years.
As for her parents, we could not have done any of this without the love and support of our family and friends. They were there for us through the entire time. They prayed with us, cried with us, hoped with us and struggled with us. They were our rock, and we are so thankful to have such wonderful people in our lives.
Also, my husband’s employer, the city of Grand Island wastewater treatment plant, was very supportive. Numerous city employees donated their vacation time, so my husband could stay with Katie in Omaha as long as possible. He was able to stay the entire time with a paycheck. We are so grateful to everyone at the city who donated time for him.
This experience has taught us all so much, and we have learned to appreciate the little things in life. Treasure your kids and never say, “It won’t happen to me,” because we have found out — it does happen to us.
UPDATE MARCH 1, 2009:
Wendy’s daughter, Kaitlyn Lee Cameron, suffered a stroke after doctors had found a tumor in her abdomen — all when she was 18 months old.
“Kaitlyn is now almost 5 years old and has been in remission from her cancer since February 2006. I hope, by telling our story, it will help raise awareness for childhood cancer so that one day we can find a cure. We thank everyone for their continued prayers and support for our little girl. We are truly blessed to have her in our lives.”
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