October 22, 2011

Well Maggie Lillis from the Las Vegas Review Journal, The View, wrote a great article on Kassidy and all the great support we have gotten from all you and the upcoming events last Monday.  Check it out!

Here is the link so you can read it:

http://www.lvrj.com/view/kassidy-s-army-comes-to-aid-of-teen-diagnosed-with-tumor-132034163.html

So great to have an army behind us to help us through such a hard time.  We could not do this without all of you.  Vegas people have big hearts! Those of you that time and time again show up to support, we love you!

This Tuesday, Ryan and I had the appointment with the psychologist to go over Kassidy's tests results.  They went over some of the things that they feel the tumor has affected like her cognitive & processing skills.  They made suggestions of things we will need to change in her 504 plan for teachers to implement to help her make it through school better.  Ryan and I took it a bit hard since we don't know if these skills will ever come back.  We just don't know.  When I spoke to my aunt she reminded me of the importance it is to look at that Kass is functioning pretty well and she's able to do many things still, that we need to focus on that.  It's just hard to watch her deteriorate in some areas.

Thursday we were able to meet with all her teachers but one.  Andrea from Nevada Childhood Cancer was there for support and to let the teachers understand the psychologists suggestions for the 504 plan.  All her teachers were accommodating with the changes, but we have chosen to take Kass out of anatomy & physiology honors, she's just too far behind.  We most likely will move her to another science class.

Also that afternoon I got a call from Steinberg telling me that insurance has denied the PET Scan, that our doctor has to call the director of our insurance to appeal it.  UGh!!!! So the fight is on.

Friday, was endoscopy day.  I had to take her off treatment the night before around 11:00pm, so she missed 3 doses of her treatment since she could't eat or drink anything 8 hours before her procedure.  She woke not feeling well at all since when she's off treatment she feels odd.  We arrived at Summerlin Hospital around 8:30 and she was taken back around 9:30, the procedure only took 30 minutes.

Dr Rhee came to speak to me and showed me pictures of Kassidy's esophagus, stomach lining and bottom of her stomach.  First, the esophagus showed signs of some kind of allergy, the stomach lining showed signs of gastritis areas where it looked like raw meat, poor kid, from the dang steroids, and the kicker, her stomach was practically full.  He asked me when was the last time she had eaten and I told him 6pm the night before.  He noticed that her stomach is not pushing the food through like it should so her food is staying in her stomach for a long time.  He said he even had to suck out some to be able to see with the scope.  He would like to do another test that test how long it really takes for her food to move through, hopefully we will have more answers then.  No wonder lately, she hasn't been too hungry and has even threw up once immediately after eating, but not feeling dizzy like in the past.  Almost feeling better after.  I'm hoping that the tumor hasn't affected that area of nerves, since her brain stem control the non thinking abilities of the body it could be a possibility.

Kass in recovery after her endoscopy, did great just a bit groggy.

Today, was garage sale day.  My neighbor Cindy decided to take it over for me since we haven't had time to breathe lately.  She did a great job and we had an amazing amount of volunteers and a great turnout. We even had Channel 5 news show up and did an interview on Ryan & Kassidy, keep an eye out for it on the 10 oclock news tonight.

Channel 5 news interviewing Kass