Gold Star Banquet

We attended the Foundation for Lincoln Public Schools Gold Star Banquet tonight where Kerstin was one of many honorees. Kerstin's principal (shown on the left) nominated her for the award and wrote this on the nomination application: "Bravery is defined as extreme courage in the face of difficulty. Rousseau kindergartener Kerstin Leaf deserves a gold star for demonstrating such bravery. This bright-eyed five year old has shown fierce determination in her battle with leukemia. Despite her illness, Kerstin has been able to keep up on her kindergarten schoolwork, has passed all assessments with flying colors, and is back with her friends and classmates at Rousseau School. She has taught us all what it's like to live courageously." Kerstin received a medal and a certificate.

Also pictured is one of the outstanding para-professionals at Rousseau who was also honored at the banquet.

May Day

Kerstin, McKinsey, and Annie spent a rainy Sunday making May Day baskets. It was all worth it when the girls got to deliver the goodies this evening. They were ready for a speedy get-a-way on their scooters. They did get caught once, but not kissed! Ha!

Books and Beyond

Kerstin woke up this morning and declared that nothing was hurting! She felt just "perfect"! Praise God! We are so glad to have our joyful child back! She missed an awards assembly on Friday, so Mrs. Braun, the principal, came in to her class today to present her and another friend with their medals. Rousseau has this great program called Books and Beyond where the students read books and write them down. For the kindergarteners they have to record 15 books per sheet. Any student that filled at least 5 sheets in the 6 week period got a medal, a certificate, and a new book. Kerstin was thrilled to get her "first medal ever"!

Rough 24 Hours

The past 24 hours have been pretty rough. Starting Thursday Kerstin was complaining of a headache and some general body aches. The Tylenol and Motrin was taking the edge off, but not getting rid of the pain. Yesterday morning Kerstin was in a lot of pain. She finally got exhausted enough to sleep for a while in the afternoon, but that was just a temporary reprieve for her. By bed time last night she was writhing in pain from head to toe. This is the most uncomfortable we have ever seen her. It was bad enough that she would even hold her breath to give her just a few seconds of relief. So, after a late night phone conversation with the on-call doctor and a trip to one of the 24 hour pharmacies in town, we have some stronger pain medicine which as of this morning seems to be helping. Kerstin is still experiencing some arm pain, but she is feeling good enough to get up and move around without complete misery.

Life is full of peaks and valleys, and we are obviously going through one of our valleys right now. Even with all the pain we have never heard Kerstin say, "Why me?" Since the beginning of this journey we have tried to teach her that life is not fair and God has a special purpose for all of us. Kerstin knows that she is not alone on this journey and there are many other children on the same path. With the help and support of these other "cancer kids", family, and friends, she has adopted our "take it head on" attitude and takes every day in stride knowing that we do what we have to do to make forward progress.

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers, and please keep all of the other "cancer kids" lifted up as well.

New Scooter

Kerstin has been saving her money for something special. Yesterday she found it: a new scooter.

Today she had her doctor's appointment with Dr. G. Labs were good: ANC up to 2412. This is her ATRA week and she didn't get a headache until yesterday. Today she woke up with neck/back/arm/leg pain. We are hoping it is just from all the scooter riding yesterday. Dr. G is still concerned about the headaches and may become concerned about the whole body aches if the scooter riding theory doesn't hold up. Everything else checked out ok.

We hope everyone else has had a good week. The weekend is just around the corner :)

Sister's Web Site

Kerstin's sister, McKinsey, has started her own web site now. The link is over on the left titled "McKinsey's Corner".

ATRA Sunday

Today is day one of ATRA week. We are hoping a consistent dose of phenergan will help prevent (or reduce) the headaches that Kerstin experiences during her ATRA weeks. We are also scheduled to see Dr. G in Lincoln on Thursday for counts and a checkup.

The last couple of days have been great for playing outside and the girls made the most of them. We even had an spur of the moment picnic yesterday in the park. (Sorry, no pictures.) We hope you all had a great weekend. Abby and Hanna, hang in there.

Good Wednesday

Kerstin's headaches have finally gone away. Unfortunately she starts the ATRA again on Sunday and we fear the headaches will return. She is scheduled to see Dr. G next Thursday. Hopefully he will be able to do something about the headaches after seeing her mid-ATRA week. Until then we will try to enjoy the nice (windy) weather.

Easter Sunday

Kerstin and her sister got their Easter dresses on and went Easter egg hunting this morning. Kerstin's ATRA week is over, but she is still having some bad headaches. We continue to "experiment" with her medications to find a good combination to reduce the side effects. Other than that, her appetite is very good and her hair continues to grow back.

We hope you all enjoyed a blessed Easter. Take care and God bless. 

Wiped Out!

After the egg hunt this morning, we walked home and the girls HAD to sort through all the goodies. Kerstin was complaining of a headache and stomach ache. I (Annie) gave her some Phenergan and an ice pack and then went to fix lunch. By the time lunch was ready, Kerstin was crashed on the living room. I moved her to her bed (she didn't even open her eyes), and she took an hour and a half nap. When she woke up, she was feeling much better. The rest of the day she felt pretty good. She came down with another headache this evening, but felt better after taking some Tylenol. The last few days have seemed like a series of ups and downs, although not as bad as two weeks ago.

Thanks so much for checking on us! Happy Easter to you all!

Egg Hunt

Our wonderful neighborhood association holds an Easter egg hunt each year. This year Annie and the girls even got to help clean up the park and hide the treats beforehand. There were many wonderful goodies to be found. Kerstin even found a numbered egg that meant she won a HUGE Easter basket. McKinsey won a cute butterfly. There were only a few raindrops before the hunt began, otherwise it was a beautiful morning! 

Feeling Better

Kerstin's runny nose has seemed to clear up. She went back to school yesterday, but experienced several headaches during the day. They don't seem to be as severe as she has experienced, but it would still be nice not to have them at all. The kids have the day off from school (Good Friday) and it looks like the weather is going to be great. I have a feeling we will be spending a lot of time outside today.

We hope you all have a great Easter weekend.

Runny Nose

Kerstin stayed home from school today because of a runny nose. No fever, or headache, or stomach ache, just a lot of green stuff coming out. So far, her new ATRA dose seems to be working without giving her some of the problems she has been having in the past few weeks. It's always a bummer to have a head cold with such nice weather.

Spring Cleaning

Kerstin and McKinsey and I (Annie) spent the rest of the afternoon today working outside. The weather was beautiful! The girls decided it was time to clean out the play house. They swept and mopped and filled 2 bags of trash. They also rearranged the play house and had me move in their portable chalkboard. The play house has not been transformed into a one room school! What fun! Kerstin felt great all day! We pray that this will continue all week long! Have a blessed week!

Bowling

Kerstin, McKinsey and Annie were able to spend a few hours this afternoon bowling with the Lincoln Candlelighters. This group is for families of children with cancer or other serious diseases. We haven't been able to get to a monthly meeting since December, so it was nice to be able to go today and have a fun time!

A Day in Omaha

We were able to spend the day in Omaha today as a family. We ate lunch with some great friends at our favorite Omaha pizza place, Zios! Then we headed over to Children's Hospital with a wagon full of gifts for the 6th floor playroom. Kerstin and McKinsey asked their friends to donate a gift to the hospital at their recent birthday party. Stacy, the child life specialist, was thrilled with all the goodies for the patients.

We were also able to meet up with some other Omaha chums for some kid playtime and adult chit chat.

We finished off the day with a family card party in Lincoln. What a great day of socializing! We are blessed to have such wonderful friends!

Thanks so much for checking on us. Keep Kerstin in your prayers this week as she has to take her Atra meds again. We are hoping that a change in dosage will help the nausea. We do have some new nausea medicine as a back-up plan. God's blessings to you!

No Cavities

Kerstin had her 6 month dental check up this morning, and she remains a part of the "no cavity club".

Headache update: Kerstin's headaches finally went away over the weekend. We are hoping next week when she goes back on the ATRA, the reduced dose will help keep the headaches away.

Thanks for checking in, and we hope you all have a good week.

Doctor's Appointment

Kerstin had her scheduled doctor's appointment yesterday at St. E's in Lincoln. As a bonus, we also ran in to Lauren and her dad there as well. Kerstin's counts are holding steady at 1318. Our biggest concern are the increased headaches she has been having. After some discussion, we have decided that she will skip the rest of the ATRA for this week, and when her next ATRA week comes we are going to reduce the dose. The Zofran has worked great on the nausea, but the headaches it gives her are terrible. An alternate medication we talked about is Anzemet. According to the literature it appears to have about the same incident of headaches as the Zofran. If anyone has any experience with the Anzemet, we would love to hear from you. In the mean time if we need something for the nausea, we'll go with the Phenergan. On the bright side, Kerstin's headaches have begun to fade since she stopped taking the Zofran and ATRA.

We hope everyone has a great weekend. Take care and thank you for the prayers.

Feeling crummy again

Just wanted to give a quick update. Kerstin is on her "tough" medication week. She has had a headache since Monday that just won't go away. She has even asked for Tylenol, which we have been giving her, but it doesn't seem to help. Yesterday she slept in until 9:30 and then took naps at 11:15 and after school. She didn't sleep well last night (maybe too much naps???), continuing to complain of a headache. This morning she still had a headache, so I didn't give her any morning meds. She barely ate anything and even threw up this morning. She also said that things were kind of blurry. When she laid on the floor while we were playing Barbies, I knew that she just wasn't feeling well. She ended up sleeping for a couple of hours this afternoon which seemed to help a little bit.

Jeff is working today, but Annie was able to stay home with Kerstin and even called the clinic. Dr. G recommended skipping some of her meds today and making sure she gets lots of rest. We have an appointment to see him at St. E's in the morning (it was our previously scheduled appointment anyway). He plans to give her a check up including looking at her eyes. Thanks for checking on us and for your continued prayers. We know that days like today are just little bumps in the road. Thanks also for your prayers for our friends Abby, Hannah, Mary, Elissa, and many others.

RSS Feed

Now you can follow Kerstin using an RSS feed. To find out more, click on the "Helping Kerstin" link on the left side of this site. Next, click on the "RSS Feed" link on the left side. That will take you to a page with more information. Thanks.