Kaydance Horsley's Hodgkins Lymphoma Battle

We are starting this GOFUND me for my best friend Christie and her family, they are going thru every parents nightmare and are doing it with more strength than   imagineable! 

Christie and Doran have been with Kaydance every step of the way and their jobs have been great with giving them time but as you can imagine they have used up all of their vacation time at work and there are still a lot of days they need to take off to be with Kaydance. Christie and Doran have great friends that have been there so far, but with Covid is it just hard to have too many people around. 

Luckily they do have insurance, but as we all know insurance does not cover everything, just 1 CT Scan costs them $2000 out of pocket, and there are a lot of things to help keep Kandance comfortable. I am hoping we can help them out with medical bills, household bills and extra expenses that have come up with Kaydance being diagnosed with cancer, if you are not able to give monetarily thoughts and prayers are so very appreciated. 

Here is Kaydances story of the days leading up to her diagnosis from Christie:

On September 24th I took Kaydance to the doctor for a lump in her neck and some shoulder pain. She had been having pain in her throwing arm since mid-softball season. There was no sign of sickness beside 3 swollen lymph nodes and range of motion in her arm was fine. Our doctor did a blood draw to check for anything abnormal and an X-ray to look at the shoulder. I was assuming the doctor would call later to prescribe an antibiotic and some physical therapy. Little did I know 30 minutes later I would get a call saying to come back with Doran and Kaydance....
   Kaydance is a very active 14 year old girl! She plays softball, basketball, some volleyball and strives to stay in shape. She loves to exercise and be outdoors. Her favorite pastime is fishing and hunting. Kaydance is very smart and loves school. She is a fast learner! Her favorite class is math. Kaydance is the type of girl that makes you laugh, she is the kind of girl that can talk to anyone! She is tough physically and emotionally.
   Our doctor spoke through red eyes as she told us the X-ray showed what looked like cancer. We were devastated.
The next day we went to a referred Pediatric oncologist at Sanford, to do a CT scan. It showed she had 5 spots of cancer. The areas affected were her back, her right arm, liver, lungs and spleen. At this point we still weren't sure what it was. On September 30th we did a CT lead biopsy. A surgeon extracted samples from the large mass on her back. This was when we found out that the mass in her back, had deteriorated a portion of her rib bones.
   October 5th was the day we were told it was stage 4 Hodgkins Lymphoma. It was a very scary diagnosis. The next step was to do a PET/CT scan of her whole body to see all the affected lymph nodes. We met the oncologist at the Sanford's Childrens Hospital. She told us that Kaydance would need a port-a-cath (implant) and would start a treatment plan for chemotherapy. She will have 12 sessions over the next 6 months and then do another CT scan to look for improvement. The next cycle of chemo will be determined after that. Radiation is an option if the chemotherapy isn't enough. Radiation is a last resort for adolescent girls, due to fertility problems.
   Each session of chemo takes about 4 hours. There are 4 different medications infused and then 24 hours after the treatment, gets a shot in her arm. The chemo has made her hair fall out and her taste bud's sensitive, finding things to eat is difficult. She is doing distance learning on her iPad because her immune system in non-existent. She gets hot flashes and feels a little short on breath. The treatments also make her have upper abdomen pain. After each session of chemo, I take time off to care for her. She gets pretty sick for about 4 days.
Doran and I have both been by her side through this. Her little sister Carlee, has been a big help too. Our friends and family have been amazing beyond words, but its hard to help when Covid-19 and other illnesses are spreading so rapidly. This is going to be a least a 6 month process and will be life changing for all of us. In the future there will also be some reconstruction surgeries to repair the damage the cancer has caused. Also a long road of Physical therapy to get her strength back.
Thank you for listening to our story and the support you give.