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Welcome to Katelyn Benson's website! This has been created to keep family and friends up to date with the latest news regarding our brave daughter.

At the age of three, Katelyn was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma Stage 4, a rare childhood cancer for which there is no cure. She was diagnosed on Monday 16th May 2005 and since then has undergone 8 rounds of chemotherapy, a 5 hour tumour resection surgery, further high-dose chemotherapy followed by a stem cell transplant, radiotherapy and 6 rounds of Accutane (Retinoic Acid). In September 2006, we discovered that Katie had relapsed and so the battle begins again.

Despite the devastating prognosis, we have great faith that our precious daughter will be granted her miracle cure. Thank you for joining us on our rollercoaster journey. Words cannot express the uplifting joy we feel to know we have such a wonderful "team" standing behind us every step of the way. We thank each and every one of you for the endless love, support and prayers.

We are praying for a miracle!!

Children with cancer are like candles in the wind who accept the possibility that they are in danger of being extinguished by a gust of wind from nowhere; and yet, as they flicker and dance to remain alive, their brilliance challenges the darkness and dazzle those of us who watch their light.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

I promised to update more regularly

Bloods counts have taken a plummet. Katie received platelets today at the outpatient clinic. Her potassium levels were low, so she received a potassium infusion too. Neutrophils are down to zero and we are just waiting for her to spike a temperature. She did appear to be running a very low grade temp but an hour later (and another hour later) it was still reading as normal. Katie is feeling pretty rough so she's getting lots of attention and paracetamol. We are vigilant with the doseage this time. No more getting weight conversions confused (it affects the dose being administered).

I really hope some of this made sense. I am so tired, I can barely keep my eyes open. If I owe you an email or a phone call, I promise I'll get round to doing it over the weekend!

Posted by Nicole on Thursday, January 18, 2007