It’s been awhile since Bloodlines featured Katy’s Korner and several of our donors have been asking about Katy. The following report is taken from the update Mary Hubbell sent to our blood center on 3/1/00:

Katy went to clinic yesterday for a count check, and I'm happy to say that for the second straight week, her kidney numbers were improving! The puzzling thing is, that despite the renal improvements, her red cell counts continue to decline. No sense in trying to figure it out, Katy's favorite game is "Stump the Doctors", so we'll just try to go with the flow. She is however, approaching the threshold for a red cell transfusion, so we reluctantly restarted 3x weekly Procrit injections. We're hoping that this will forestall her need for packed red cells, as well as relieve her fatigue.

We attempted to taper down her blood pressure meds with no luck this week . . . as we decreased the doses, up went the BP. So . . . the kid continues to take more BP lowering meds that my "60ish" year old Dad (sorry Dad . . . ). She is having a really tough couple of weeks at school . . . she keeps falling asleep, and sleeping sometimes more than two hours in her classroom. They have a cute little cardboard house with pillows inside that she says is "really comfy". Thank God she has a teacher that is bordering on Sainthood, and understands and accepts Katy's current limitations without enabling her to "wimp out" every chance she gets. (And boy, does she try.) It's a difficult balance, but all of life is really, isn't it?

Our plan is to continue on the Procrit for about two weeks, recheck her counts And hope that she shakes off the cough that she had lingering around for about two weeks. Her lungs sound fine, and her O2 saturations are fine, so it's probably just the tail end of a virus that is hanging on because it knows it's dealing with a weak immune system. Darn viruses....they're such opportunists.

Oh yes . . . I am getting ready to add a new picture of "Miss Katy Paleface" to her web page, so check it out soon. Also . . . I've added an extremely rare photo of myself and Katy's Dad, David . . . together! (We went out of town together for a weekend to decompress, it was great.) Click on the "Meet my Mommy" link on Katy's main page to see us all dressed up.