Dancing Through The Rain 2012

The last month of this year, WOW! January started out with a bang with Karly's laser surgery which took about 4 months to recover. By the end of that semester, her classes were caught up, and she got A's in both. This was amazing since she had wanted to drop it all about midway through her healing process, but she once again persevered through it all. Summer was a blast with Tracy and I celebrating our 30-yr. anniversary with a cruise to the Caribbean. It was a special time for us. We took the girls to Niagara Falls, Boston, Massachusetts, and Portland, Maine. We had a blast exploring new places and eating awesome seafood. East Coast is the only place Karly can eat seafood...and Oh how she enjoyed that. We had a Bunning family reunion at Cedar Lake which was super fun with the siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, and Grandma. Played soccer, volleyball, swam, kayaked, played Signs, link tag, had a fire, roasted wieners and marshmallows. Both boys were able to attend with us which is becoming more of a rarity, but cherish each moment we get. After Karly's emergency situation in Sept/Oct, she has been fairly stable. She remained on an IV antibiotic and antifungal for about 5 weeks. Once again, she got behind in her classes and is still trying to catch up, but by the end of the semester, she will have made it again. The longer she is off the antibiotic, the more she tends to feel poorly. Pray for endurance, strength, and healing. Hopefully, she will be able to rest a lot of the Christmas break. She still travels to NIH every 3 weeks alone. She finally met a DOCK8 female about Kelsey's age. I am hoping this will be a relationship that is helpful to her. This gal is going through a bone marrow transplant right now. Her brother was successfully transplanted in Feb. 2012 with stem cells and living a much better life. The website is coming along slowly which is okay with me. Pray with me that it all comes into place in His timing. I have been enjoying a more regular season with the younger girls(ages 11 & 13). This has been a very rewarding and peaceful time for me. Tracy still is teaching music in the elementary and singing on the Worship Team at church. He works out faithfully at the Y, and completed the Hilly Hundred again this year. All in all things have been more what one would call normal, although, nothing really seems normal. I think about Kelsey everyday. I try to remember not to get stuck in self-pity for only when that happens does things turn sorrowful. She is in Heaven, happy, dancing and praising the Lord! She has no regrets, only perfection. One day we shall have it too. Merry Christmas to All and God Bless Each and Every One of You!
Love,
Mom

Karly's Dance Through The Rain

The last week was on the scary side. Just to follow up about her scans, they passed inspection. Praise God! Her WBC and CRP counts have come back down. CRP is not quite down far enough yet, but was moving in the right direction. Karly hadn't been feeling very well since about Sept.20....probably fighting off a virus. She traveled to NIH on Thursday, Sept.27 with her scans on Sept.28. It seemed as though her neck was a little thick when Tracy left her at the airport. The ENT doc said her esophagus looked thickened. She began experiencing an increased swelling in her lymph nodes on Saturday morning. The swelling just kept slowly increasing, next came pain in her teeth, then pain in the throat, and her entire neck was sore to just touch the skin. By 4:30am Sunday morning she looked like she had the mumps. She texted a photo to her nurse case manager who sent it to her doctor. She talked with her doctor Sunday morning, and Aunt Debbie and Deana drove her quickly to NIH. She was admitted and seen by a doctor on her team. IV antibiotics were started and pain meds. Her pain level was 9/10 which she has only had a couple times in her life. Karly was living in another dimension because of the medication, Versed. I am actually glad that she cannot remember this. The swelling was increasing at an accelerated rate. Her doctor came in and took one look and sent her to the ICU. She didn't have a neck, the pain was intense; she could barely move her head, and couldn't open her mouth. A hefty dose of steroid was administered and given 2 hours to work. After seeing no positive reduction in the swelling, the team was very concerned they were losing her airway. The CT showed her glands were the size of plums pushing on both sides of the trachea closing it. Through much anxiety and fear, we were gently persuaded that she needed to be intubated. This was the first time we had been back in ICU and facing intubation. Her family and I talked with Karly on the phone and felt she was handling it very bravely, and she understood the situation. We were very grateful that the doc that performed it was very familiar with us, Kelsey, and our anxieties. He "handled" me and my questions very well. I teased that everyone must have decided to draw sticks, and he got the short one. Anyway, he called me right after the procedure, it had gone well, she was sedated for the night, and that we had made the right decision to intubate...it was very narrow. I was on a flight the next day. I talked with her nurse case manager first thing as he walked thru the doors to work Monday morning. He went to see her right away and found her awake and holding her phone. He immediately called me and told me how she was doing. I was so relieved that she could be awake and not fighting it. I got to the hospital in the afternoon, and it was a happy time to see each other. My sister and Deana did so well taking care of her, speaking with the doctors, and advocating for her. The swelling started coming down, ENT looked again, and decided that the airway was looking good for the tube to come out on Tuesday. She handled that very well also. She was able to speak right away. It hurt, but nothing like it had been. The pain and swelling were moving in the correct direction.  Later Tuesday evening/Wednesday is really when Karly came back into reality. She had to pass a swallow study in order to able to eat again. She went for that on Wednesday. She passed, however, Karly has a steady history of getting larger pills and food stuck. What was really good was that FINALLY that happened during the study. The pill stayed stuck for quite awhile, but what was most disturbing was that her parotids were swelling again at that point. They got her back to ICU for observation. The swelling didn't progress, but took another day to start going back down. Since she had passed the study, she was able to eat...just not much...her stomach didn't want very much and it hurt her glands. We were finally discharged from ICU on Thursday to a regular room. Another first, the floor she likes was full; she was put on the adult floor. It is a change...definitely prefer the other floor and nurses. The swelling has continued to go down. The steroid continues to be reduced. All good things. Another first for the nurses and doctors here was this story. Early the morning she was moving to her new floor, she had stepped on her already bad IV. It was pulled and another was started below that one. They ran medication thru it in ICU before we left. After we got to her floor, she was started on another IV med. After a bit Karly says that she is wet. I look over and at first think she is sweating(she had a heat pack on the new IV) After looking closer I see her IV med trickling out the hole of the previous IV. She was leaking the IV med into her gown and robe. We called in a nurse, she put pressure on it. It didn't stop. She called in another nurse, she didn't know. Finally in comes a doctor who decided to just move up the PICC line placement. She made it happen very quickly. The nurses had said that had heard this could happen, but had never seen it. How odd! Another disturbing event, that perturbed me mostly and frustrated her, was that her Bactrim was discontinued in ICU. I had even asked the ICU fellow that question directly, "When are you going to give her Bactrim that she was desensitized to?" His comment was that it would stay in her body a few doses." But the problem was it had already been 2 days. When her primary doctor heard of this, she wasn't pleased. An allergy consult was required. It was determined that in the current situation with what Karly had just been through, they had to desensitize her again. It was a 4 day process. What we chose to see as good was that since we had no diagnosis and didn't know what the swelling would do coming off the steroid, being here to observe was safer for her. It has all worked out. We have a flight to come home on Monday with home health in place for the IV meds. I can only think that these happen to us for God's greater plan. I just keep trying to find this plan and jump in. He definitely keeps things swiftly moving around us, but so grateful for all of it.
Love, Mom

Still Dancing In The Rain

The last month has been fairly stable, however, her WBC and CRP have elevated over the last 2 months without any explanation. Since she doesn't feel any worse, we will just be waiting on her scans on Sept.28. She saw the facial plastic surgeon Monday, and the surgery for both her eyes and mouth/chin region will be on October 25. She is not looking forward to this as most procedures like this just don't go well  for her. She also doesn't heal very quickly. She is praying that this one will be easy and get the desired effects. Please pray with us as the Spirit leads. She was in the ER Tuesday evening after some beef got stuck in her esophagus. This is not a new thing, but usually she is able to get it out with a lot of hacking and dry-heaving. This time it wouldn't move. After 30 minutes of trying, her doctor from NIH told us to go to the ER. Nothing would pass, not even her spit. After 2 hours of waiting in the ER, the meat went down. She didn't end up seeing anyone in the ER which is a sad thing. I hope that emergencies don't have to wait that long. Anyway, we ended up leaving without seeing anyone. At least we were in a place that could have helped up(I hope)if she aspirated which is why we went in the first place. One funny thing was that she was put in the exact room she was in about 3 years earlier when she first had the symptoms of cancer. Kelsey was with us in the ER at that time. The guy that came in was asking what was wrong with her; we told him and he didn't know the disease. Instead of asking us what it was he said, "Oh is that when the esophagus has got that twisty thing," and he proceeds to show us with his hands. Just like 3 years earlier, we were laughing, then joking about what Kelsey would have been doing. It really makes us laugh out loud. Prov. 17:22 says a cheerful heart is good medicine. Well it certainly worked. The treatment for retrieval was not at all on Karly's list of things she wanted to do that night. Praise God, she didn't have to! Earlier in the day she had some pills lodged in the same ledge, but they went down within a couple hours also. Within the last few weeks, we have determined she is allergic to beef. This allergy is a little different than her others. When she eats a food that she is allergic to, she immediately swells in the lips, tongue, and throat. With this one, she swells about 2 1/2 hours later; it is only her lips. She is keeping up with her 2 classes and enjoying some college life with a huge worship service for college folks and Bible study. Ball Bearings is doing a follow-up story on her because Kelsey's story made such an impact on campus. We enjoyed speaking with our interviewers and sharing where we are in life. God has been so faithful to us, and we are so grateful.

The boys have been very blessed in their jobs. Trent was sent to a training seminar out-of-state last week. He learned information that will help him in his job, and it showed him that he is eager to learn more. Tyler leaves Sunday for an out-of-state conference which he is looking forward to. We had a great family reunion in August which Tyler and Trent were able to attend.

Tyler has been slowly working on developing my website for DOCK8. It is up, but not in a functioning mode just yet. I am getting more excited about it. I have met 3 more families in the last month that have DOCK8 children. I hope that my dream to meet all of these families is realized one day. Pray with us that God will bless this endeavor, and it will bring Him glory.

School is going well for everyone. We have started the usual activities around here...dance and soccer. The weather has been mostly beautiful for the games, and we love hanging out with friends and family under the bright blue sky.

Probably the biggest battle we have is in the control of our mind. Everyday is a battle to find our hope. Some days it is easy to find it: others more difficult. Everyday we must make a mental effort to believe we have hope and a future. Everyday we have to dismiss the petty things and choose to do the things that give us peace...a holy peace. We thank God for His promises to us!

Love,
Mom

We've had a great summer, but different. Tyler started working as an "all grown up child" in May. He lives in Illinois, but thankfully he isn't more than a 4 hr. drive away. He is "living the dream" and doing it wonderfully.  Trent started working at a job he is so suited for....fixing and troubleshooting anything in a Die Cast business. He working at least 50 hours/wk. We missed vacationing with our boys this summer which was a big change for us. We praise God for His faithfulness in so many ways. Tracy and I celebrated 30 years of marriage with a cruise in July to Key West, Cayman Islands, & Cozumel. We had an awesome time! Then we took the girls to Niagara Falls, Boston, MA, and Portland, Maine. One exciting thing for Karly was eating seafood. Maybe someone can figure out why she can eat fresh seafood, but not frozen seafood. One explanation we got was that the older the seafood is the more enzymes there are in it. Anyway, since this was how it was for Kelsey, we thought maybe Karly would be the same way. She hasn't been able to eat seafood since cancer. She went armed with her Epi-pen and Benadryl to the restaurant. They willingly brought her one shrimp to try. She named it Mumford the first. She successfully ate Mumford, then went on to eat a plate full of shrimp. Since that went well, she tried tilapia, haddock, lobster, and crab. All went successfully. Since about the only meat she can eat is chicken and pork, this was a fantastic experience for her. We enjoyed walking the Freedom Trail in Boston, seeing the Minutemen National Park, and walking by the water. In Portland, we were on the waterfront, so we enjoyed walking the quaint shops, eating Gelato, finding the lighthouses, and hanging at the beach. Karly was able to get some sand art in at Crescent Beach....any guesses to what she made....yes, the Titanic. Summers go by so quickly...next week she starts 2 classes at the Community College, and Tracy starts teaching school again.

Medically, she still is going to NIH every 3 weeks to receive her IVIG and exams from the Dr., & the derm and ENT clinics. It is pretty routine by now. Her Hypertonic nebulizers are probably doing the trick for her lungs, but we won't know until after her October scans. Her eyesight has worsened some and the molluscum is causing some infection because it has blocked her tear ducts in both eyes. It is also causing her eyelids to be bulky and swollen. We saw an Oculoplastic surgeon this week in Indiana. He will be trying to put in stints to open her tear ducts or creating a new tear ducts. He will also de-bulk her eyelids. She will be seeing a facial plastic surgeon in Sept. to see if he can successfully remove it around her mouth and chin areas. If so, they will be sharing the OR to get this done in October. She is scared, but oh, so ready to have some relief. Her chest, abdomen, and pelvic CT's will be done in October. This is her cancer check-up and GI scan to see if the steroid treatment has worked with the thickening they found in April. Praying that these will prove to be negative in every way.

As she approaches the school year, the travel to NIH, the surgery, and her every day dealings with this disease, she needs prayer to sustain her emotionally, physically, and spiritually. We thank you for carrying this burden with us.

Love,
Mom

Still Dancing Through The Rain

Another three months have passed. Karly had the biopsies in May. The stomach one didn't show cancer, but very bad eosinophilic disease. The GI doctor wasn't exactly convinced that this was all that was happening, but because the cells weren't showing cancerous, he decided to treat with a steroid for 6 weeks, then get another CT to check. If the CT showed worsening, another deeper biopsy would be performed. The CT on July 2 didn't show worsening, but didn't get better either. At this point, she will continue to stay on the steroid for another undetermined amount of time, then get another CT. Her symptoms of pain in the abdominal/stomach region did get a bit better. Her band-like headaches have gotten worse again and the sharp occipital headache has returned. She was treated for the latter at the last appointment. Her molluscum is raging out of control on her body especially her face. The Interferon she was taking for this was causing havoc with her blood counts, her emotions, and making her extremely tired. As of mid-June, she was not able to increase the dose of interferon to a therapeutic level after being on it for several months, so this treatment was stopped. The CT in July also showed something in her lung that could be pneumonia or mucous(fluid) hanging out. She has been trying to cough this out by using a hypertonic nebulizer. She is coughing stuff out, but cannot say it has helped her. She may continue on this for awhile. She has gone to NIH twice by herself. Once you reach 18, they no longer bring a guardian out. Now if there is something traumatic going to happen or she needs me, they will. The first trip by herself was mid-June. She did exceptionally well. She left today for the second trip by herself. The flight has been delayed twice already making this a late night for her. Pray things will work out for her and her connections with the cab driver and finding food once she arrives is not complicated. Each visit for her holds news that is not great, but to be able to leave a visit with not having a biopsy or anything that causes too much pain, she can smile about! She continues to travel to NIH every three weeks.

Karly has had many activities to keep her busy, but not all of them have held the joy she hoped they would....mostly because the interferon was interfering with her energy and emotions. She got through her senior trip to Chicago, Prom, and Senior Banquet. She has graduated from High School and registered for 2 classes in the Fall to slowly work toward her Health Support Degree and applying to Physical Therapy Assisting School. She got through SERVE week where you stay at the church, work long, hard days, in the extreme heat to serve the community we live in. She specifically worked on a wheelchair ramp for an elderly widow. It was very rewarding. She had her dance recital where she danced a senior solo, and 2 other ballet dances. She was able to spend a few days with her boyfriend and his family at a lake. Karly wants to see Boston, Massachusetts, Maine, and Niagara Falls, so guess where we are going when she returns from NIH. Life really has been good! We praise Jesus EVERYDAY! I may have said this before, but just to be able to spend time everyday with each other, friends, worship our Lord and Savior, and look for opportunities to bless others really is a joy.

I will try to do a better job of communicating. While in the midst of living at NIH and the daily turmoil, roller coaster events, and lots of time on my hands, I was able to write more frequently. While at home, I try not to focus on the disease. Not that I'm ignoring it, but just NOT focusing on it. God has way more in store for us than this disease, so we have to keep our eyes on HIM! Thanks for praying and encouraging us.
Love,
Mom

Stilll Dancing Through The Rain

A couple things have struck me through my devotional reading. The first being how our mind focuses on things. It is a choice whether we see the darkness or the light. I know I hear the negative thing and even play through my mind what this could mean, but ultimately, I turn my mind to Jesus. Thankfulness is the key for bringing the darkness into light for me. When you look around or think about all that is around you, you can find countless things to be thankful for. If I stay focused on "fixing" what is wrong then my mind whirls in the darkness of the situation. It may not come easy some times, but it is a discipline worth learning. The second thing is that we do not know the outcome of any situation, but we do know our ultimate destination. "Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory." Psalm 74:23,24 This verse became quite clear with Kelsey. Jesus had her by His hand and did take her into glory.

Karly has not been very well. I know that we aren't going to get her very well physically, not by human standards anyway. She is growing bacteria in her lungs and sinuses that we cannot get rid of. We are trying an antibiotic irrigation through her sinuses in hopes to keep her off IV antibiotics. She is already doing an antibiotic nebulizer for the same purpose. The Interferon Alpha is at such a low dose we are not seeing any reduction in the molluscum. The acid she was given doesn't seem to work at sloughing any off. Her neutrophil count is coming down from the Interferon, so really don't know if she will be able to increase the dose let alone stay on it. At the last cancer screening where they take CT's of her chest, abdomen, and pelvic regions, the stomach appears to have worsened in an area they saw last October. Therefore, the GI team will be performing an endoscopy on May 9 to look at and biopsy it.  Also, at the last visit, ENT found an abnormality on her epiglottis. If it is still present, hopefully at the same time they can get a piece of it to figure out what it is. She is very tired which is to be expected from her neutrophils dropping and the amount of disease in her sinuses and lungs. Her headaches are getting worse again. None of this news has been reassuring and has left Karly pretty worried. Please pray for her mentally stability and physical healing. The good news in all of this is that the cancer team is not worried about cancer. She has been able to keep catching up with her Ivy Tech class, go to outings with friends, attend her senior trip to Chicago last weekend, go to a retreat this weekend, prom is next weekend, finals the week after that, and a senior banquet. Life is moving on, and she is living it. Her brother's graduation from college is coming up and so is her high school graduation. She doesn't have time to be sick, so we are just putting that on the back burner.:) Everyday is a day to be thankful for. We covet your prayers always!
Love,
Mom

Still Dancing Through The Rain

I have been in a state of not knowing what to post, and since I rely on God to give me what to say, I felt like I shouldn't be writing. I don't know if there is such a thing as a quick update but since November here is what has been happening. We had a marvelous Thanksgiving and Christmas AT HOME! Karly did keep getting sicker through Nov. and Dec. Karly was sleeping a lot with very little energy. Her lungs seem to just get bogged down with bacteria then she kinda shut down. She cannot be on IV meds all the time; it is not good for your body and her body likes to get resistant, so we need to save these drugs for critical times. Also, the molluscum was causing problems with living life comfortably, so it was decided that a surgical procedure was needed to burn it off. They set this up for Jan.13 and used a plasma laser. Let us say that it was more painful than anyone anticipated, and it is still healing today. As it turned out, her lungs were pretty sick going into this procedure, and required IV bacterial and fungal drugs until last week. The drugs were also needed to cover infection risks while she was healing from the surgery. She has been off the IV drugs since last Sunday, and she already is feeling more tired and goopy. Of course, the weather has been warm, and the allergens are high which is part of the problem. Another reason is that she finally has been able to start the Interferon Alpha which should help control the growth of the molluscum, but the side effects make you feel like you have the flu and tired. Last time she tried to start this med, she went neutropenic. We have been trying to find another time to start this...a time when she feels remotely well. Just this month, we finally found it. She started it last week. Tonight is the second dose. The type of warts and molluscum associated with this disease is problematic because of the known mutations into Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Cutaneous T-cell Lymphoma. Both of these have been deadly with other Dock8 patients. This is the big reason we have been trying to eliminate as much of it as we can. In Kelsey, she had 2 areas on her body with pre-squamous cell activity. We are being optimistic, until we have reason not to be. Please pray that she will be able to take this medication continually with great response. She continues to travel to NIH every three weeks.

We were blessed on the 1-yr. anniversary of Kelsey's Dancing With The Lord! It seemed like any other day(there isn't a day that goes by where we stop thinking about her), dealing with Karly's situation, school, work, etc, but we Skyped the boys who are away at college for a couple hours just sharing life, stories, and memories. We loved the encouraging words on Facebook, flowers, and notes. One of my favorite said, "I never knew Kelsey in life, but she changed my life forever." These kinds of stories just make us feel so blessed.

While Karly was inpatient at NIH for 13 days in January, she had one of Kelsey's night nurses during her transplant. The story she told us keeps us laughing. She said she remembered one night when Kelsey asked her to get a pair of underpants from her drawer. She just grabbed a pair and handed them to her. Kelsey replied, "These are not appropriate for the situation." The nurse had handed her a lacy pair, and she thought, "Then why did you being them to the hospital?" I love the timeliness of the stories. This was important for Karly during one of the most painful times of her life. Laughter was very important. And by the way, Sara one very awesome friend, came and stayed with Karly during her nights and provided great distractions and care.

There are more stories to share. When the Lord brings them to mind, I will share them. I trust that the timeliness will be important for someone.

Karly still does not have a match, nor can I say this is what we want. What we want is for the Lord to guide us through this journey while waiting for a complete healing "on earth as it is in Heaven." If a transplant is what He wants, then He will provide what is needed. Meanwhile, we(the whole family) will Dance Through The Rain.

Love,
Mom