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