These updates may also be out of order but I will do my best to get all of the info in that I can.
Since being admitted a week ago Kendall has gone from ER, to PICU, to the oncology/hematology floor.
As you know she started having symptoms of fever, diarrhea, being tired, loss of appetite which her brought her into the hospital ER. From ER she was transferred to PICU( pediatric intensive care unit). She stayed on that unit for a few days and then was transferred to the hematology/oncology floor. The reason for this was because every viral test that was done came back negative and they wanted to start a treatment because all of her symptoms were more in line with PTLD which is Post Transplant lymphoproliferative disorder( if you google it look at a site such as the Mayo clinic website). for the more accurate explanations of what this means.
She had a CT Scan and a PET scan which showed that the lymph nodes were inflamed and spreading in multiple areas of her body. Based on her symptoms and the fact that she was negative for all respiratory infections, it was agreed upon with the doctors that she has PTLD which is a type of lymphoma that you can get after an organ transplant. Now that her own immune system has been so suppressed she is having difficulty fighting off this EBV virus.
She got a Picc line IV and a lymph node biopsy. from her neck on Wednesday.
In the meantime the doctors decided to start her on a medication called Rituxan even before the full biopsy results came back. They initially started it on Wednesday and after 1 1/2 hours she had a reaction from it: temp 104, breathing fast, HR 140s. They stopped the infusion until they could come up with a different plan.
On Thanksgiving Day the Rituxan was restarted and infuse slower and she was able to receive the full dose.
She hasn’t had an appetite and hasn’t eaten much at all in the past 3-4 days so they started giving her nutrition through her IV.
The EBV levels have been going up so the plan is to start chemotherapy once a week at the infusion center at U of M Motts children’s hospital. She will have PET scans over the next few weeks/months to determine when therapy can be discontinued.
Whenever it is safe for her to come home, she will come home with the PICC line so that she won’t get poked everytime she goes to the hospital.
Everyday we continue to pray, trust, and believe that everything will work out and the facts can change!!
God will work it out and we will see yet another miraculous victory that Kendall has come through.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
#TeamKendall
#BeKendallStrong