Team Keaton Miller

Hi, my name is Nannette Rippee and I am the wife of Dave’s cousin. This go fund me is dedicated to helping Keaton and his parents over the course of the next days, weeks, months and years. If you don’t know, Keaton was recently diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) Type-B. He is currently in ICU at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. He is currently undergoing chemotherapy every Friday and then doing his recovering at home.

His family continues to process and deal with his diagnosis and all the side effects that come along with it.

A little back history regarding how he found out about his diagnosis and the past couple months. Keaton has been feeling sick on and off over the last few months. His mom has taken him to the doctor several times because he has been feeling lethargic and having trouble breathing. They ran blood tests in December and everything came back normal. He previously had an MRI and heart scan to figure out the breathing issues but the results seemed normal.

Five weeks ago he was taken to the doctor again, because he was still feeling unwell and there were no answers for the condition.

On Tuesday, April 9th, Keaton was still complaining of feeling super tired, he was pale, and felt sick. So, the next day, his parents took him to the doctor once again. They ran another round of labs and tested his hemoglobin (iron) on the spot. It was a 9 and it should be a 15. So they figured it was anemia and were concerned but still didn't feel like that was the whole story. On April 12th, his mother received the horrifying call at 12:30 CST that his blood test all came back abnormal and they needed to take him to the hospital immediately.

Once he arrived at Children’s Mercy, a room was waiting for him, they tested his blood again and double-confirmed it to be Leukemia around 3:30 CST.

As far as it is currently known, he will be on a 3-year treatment plan, with the first 6 months being the most aggressive. As noted, he has started his treatment and are continuing to monitor the cell environment for a period of time and his reaction to the treatment. Unfortunately, the spinal fluid was analyzed and it looks like that there were cancer cells found. It is rated on a level 1-3 with 3 being the worst case scenario and in Keaton's case he is a level 2. This means he will need two additional rounds of chemo inserted directly into his spinal fluid.

Dave and Liz, his parents would never ask for financial help, so it is up to us to lessen the worry and concern any way we can. If you prefer to donate directly to them, please do so, if not, this is why friends have set up this page to donate.

If you can’t donate, please share the link. But, more than anything, pray for Keaton and his family! I’m sure your prayers are coveted as they go through this. Thank you!

KeatonStrong!!