Hi All,

Sorry I have been completely MIA for several weeks but I am not going to lie...it's been pretty rough over here. My first round of chemo just completely turned me on my head and it is only in the last few days that I have had my wits about me. You name the side effect, I had it. It was almost 2 weeks of nausea, vomiting, sleeping, low blood pressure (as in 70/40), hours of IV fluids daily (they literally gave me a special backpack to carry them in so it is hooked up to the port in my chest at any given moment), a mouth full of ulcers and God knows what else. My body just would not retain the hydration needed to recover so it was a total mess and we just need to march on bc I want to forget it even happened. Moving forward the doctor wants me to receive chemo in his office and then strut across the street (a la the Mummers) to Pennsylvania Hospital where I will reside for a few days so he can keep track of this nonsense and try to get me on the right track as quickly as possible. He is also reducing the dose of Adriamycin/Cisplatin because it was just too much for my system. The next round starts a week from today, so keep your fingers crossed that things go smoothly and I don't feel as though I am on death's doorstep for 2 weeks.  [...]

Meine Damen und Herren, Mesdames et Messieurs, Ladies and Gentlemen...

I HAVE TEETH!![...]

Hi gang,

Old Bitty Agnes, here. (That is how I am going to refer to myself from now on while I run around without teeth). I just want to bring you lovely people up to speed.[...]

Hello dear friends and family, It's been almost a week since surgery so I thought I would pop my head in and let you know what the recent developments are. This past weekend was pretty challenging, with a lot of pain and difficulty managing it. We headed down to the ER at Penn around 9:30 am this morning and returned home at 6 pm so, needless to say, it's been a really long day. (God bless my mother. Someone get her a glass of wine, please!) It turns out that I have thrush in my throat and mouth, which is basically a fungal/yeast infection that often occurs from too many antibiotics. It's painful, but I now have some meds to help that and they have also switched me to new pain medication that will hopefully give me some serious relief in that department as well. The procedure to remove the obturator (that is the retainer-like contraption that is currently screwed into the top of my mouth to cover what has been removed until I have healed enough for the the prostheses to go in) was supposed to take place on Thursday as an outpatient procedure, but at this point they have decided to admit me on Friday and ship me off to the OR again. Given that I am still having so much pain my surgeon is thinking that I might not be physically or emotionally up to the challenge of having that done while I am awake. I am in full agreement and don't want to have any memory of that whatsoever, so I am completely fine to head back into surgery on Friday. I once again want to tell you how grateful I am for all of you. For the well wishes, soups and smoothies dropped off on the doorstep, puzzles, flowers, cards, texts, emails, prayers and love (to name a few!). I am just so deeply grateful. Love, Kate

We had a quiet Holiday but it was just what we all needed. Kaytie is continuing to heal. There is more swelling today but she is happy to be home. She is grateful and appreciate of all the text, phone calls and emails, and is getting them, but she's not able to get back to everybody right now. So Tonight we all want to say happy thanksgiving from our family to yours! We are thankful for all the love and light, thoughts and prayers, kindness and generosity that has been shown to all of us in the past month. We are very lucky.

Well Kaytie is home finally! After a long night of IV issues and unmanaged pain...the morning came and we were able to get some things straightened out. Her meds were changed and we got her nausea and pain under control. She was discharged today around 3 o'clock and made the trek back to Lansdale with my mom. She's gotten three solid hours of good sleep and a comfy bed!!!! We are all really glad to have her home and I know she'll be well cared for by Nurse Nancy Pants ;) as always thank you all so much for all the kind and generous offers. We are all hanging in. One day at a time. Every day is going to get better!

Well here's a little update for you guys. Katie is out of recovery and up in her room. She is in a little bit of pain, but the nurses are working on it. She's in and out of sleep but still hasn't lost her sense of humor. Tim asked her if she remembered anything from surgery? She opened her eyes wide and said "who are YOU?!" and smiled :) You thoughts and prayers and support are getting us all through this. We can't thank you all enough xo

This just in! Sooo our lovely Kaytie is out of surgery!!! Finally! The Dr told us everything went well and as planned. He was able to save the bone that supports her nose structure. He felt the borders looked good but will need to get the biopsy reports to know for sure ( which should take about a week) . He said she did very well.

Hi all, Kaytie is currently in surgery ( this is her sister Colleen). She was taken in about 10 am and estimated to be in surgery for about 2 hours. The 4 of us are here patiently waiting. Thank you all for all the texts and messages of support. Keep the prayers coming. I'll update as soon as she's out. Xo

Well, after much resistance I am finally setting up this site. I guess I was putting it off because creating this page makes it feel real, and I was trying to put that off for as long as possible. But here we are and I FINALLY have a treatment plan so I am ready to get the show on the road. I had hoped that would happen sooner or later, but I didn't quite realize that the show would involve me getting bone cancer! As you know, on November 5th I was officially diagnosed with osteosarcoma of the maxilla, located smack dab in the middle of my face, right above my front teeth. After a LONG review process and a meeting of the minds at both Univ. of Penn and the Mayo Clinic, my oncologist (Dr. Arthur Staddon) has decided to hold off on chemotherapy for the time being (IF necessary that can be a bit down the line) and move forward with surgery, because that needs to happen ASAP. I met with my surgeon (Dr. Greg Weinstein) at Penn this morning for a pre-op visit and surgery has been scheduled for this coming Tuesday, November 25. Luckily, I will only need to be in the hospital 1-2 nights but unfortunately I still won't be enjoying a delicious Thanksgiving dinner or jumping around when the Eagles beat the Cowboys like the rest of you. I have the option to postpone surgery until after the holiday but I am starting to experience some pain in my teeth, so it was a unanimous decision to get this taken care of sooner rather than later. I am having everything done at U Penn so I will head down to Philly on Monday and likely be there for most of December. A lot of people have been asking me about the procedure and I still don't have a complete understanding of how it will all work but it is a little more clear to me after the meeting with the surgeon this morning. He will remove the bone/gum and teeth from the very front to about 1/4 way back to the right (so approximately the space of 4-5 teeth). He will also take skin from my leg and graft it into that area to help the exposed bone heal. There will be an obturator in there for the first two weeks (which will keep the space from closing as it heals) and then I will receive a prosthesis to replace the bone and teeth which I was just fitted for last week. I'll have that for several years and then at some point, once the area is completely free of cancer for 5 years or so, we can consider possibly grafting bone from my leg into the jaw to permanently replace it. It's all pretty overwhelming and scary, but I am just trying to take it one step at a time. The plastic surgeon creating the prosthesis told me that my voice will never be back to 100% of what it is now, but both she and my surgeon are taking extremely special care to make sure that I will be able to regain as much as possible. I'm just going to think of it as singing differently, not less than what I have now. Before I sign off, I just want to thank all of you again from the very bottom of my heart for the unbelievable outpouring of support, love and generosity over the last few weeks. It has been completely overwhelming and I am brimming with gratitude. I don't think you will ever truly know how grateful I am, so I will just keep reminding you! I hope you have a beautiful and blessed Thanksgiving. Much love to all, Kaytie