Catherine’s Fight Against Leukemia

On May 14th, 2020 I noticed some very strange bruises on my 4 year old daughter Catherine’s back and neck as I was giving her bed time bath. I took photos to show to her doctor. On Monday, May 18th, 2020, right before her doctors office closed, I managed to get her in. Right away, they noticed how excessive the bruising was. I figured it was anemia. So they did some blood work. We received the results the morning of May 19th. It wasn’t good. They discovered blasts which pointed towards her having leukemia. Her PCP sent us to Children’s hospital immediately for admission. By that evening we had her diagnosis as Pre-B Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. On Thursday May 21st she had a bone marrow aspirate and biopsy, spinal tap, permanent central line port placed as well as her first dose of chemo into her spinal fluid. She then had her first dose of chemo through her port that night. 

Catherine is one of our three children. She is our oldest with her brother (2.5) and then their youngest sister (4 weeks). My husband has to take a significant amount of time off work due to this as well as intermittent time off during treatment over the next few years. We will have medical bills piling up, financials to take care of, multiple appointments each week for some time as well as potential child care to watch our other two children during Catherine’s appointments. We need to install a filtration system into our furnace to reduce exposure to bacteria and viruses, so many medications she will have to take daily over the course of the next couple of years and many other expenses that we never imagined we’d have. 

I am attempting this fund raiser to not only help keep Catherine safe and healthy, but to make sure we are still able to survive with all of the new expenses that this life changing illness will bring. 

Thank you so much in advance for any donations you make. We are so grateful for all of the community support.