Karly's Cancer Journey

I wanted to write up Karly's cancer story in one post, where people who are new to our blog - or, perhaps, going through a similar battle with cancer - can read about what Karly went through. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask! We're happy to share our knowledge - and thrilled that Karly continues to be cancer-free since her treatment ended in July, 2008.


Our daughter, Karly, turned 13 on November 8, 2007. One week later, she had her checkup with her pediatrician, and she had a cold, but otherwise, everything was fine. The very next day, Friday, Karly wasn't feeling well, so she stayed home from school. She had a sideache - we thought she was achey from her cold. When her pain persisted over the weekend, we went back to the doctor on Monday (feeling pretty foolish - she had JUST been there).

We love our pediatrician. She took Karly's complaint very seriously - she ordered bloodwork, an x-ray and an ultrasound. After I took Karly to the hospital for her u/s, the tech told us that Dr. B wanted us to stop by her office to go over all the results. When we got to her office, the nurse was waiting for us at the front desk. That made me nervous.

When Dr. B came in, she wasted no time explaining that Karly had a large tumor, so large they couldn't even see her left ovary. She had called Children's Hospital in Milwaukee, and they were expecting us that evening.

She had surgery the day before Thanksgiving, November 21, 2007.

That grapefruit sized tumor did turn out to be the worst case, and Karly began treatment in December.

Karly had five rounds of aggressive, in-patient chemotherapy - each time she was admitted to the hospital in Milwaukee for around 6 days.

After her second round of chemo, we did a stem cell harvest where they harvested some of Karly's healthy cells, in case she needed them back later on (she never did).

Karly in the hospital for chemo, February 2008

She also made many trips to the hospital for nosebleeds, infections, and the ever popular blood transfusions.

The first part of Karly's journey was written up here, in more detail, in THIS POST.

After completing chemotherapy in March 2008, Karly began getting set up for radiation. We did the radiation closer to home, at the hospital in Green Bay. Basically, she had a standing appointment scheduled for every week day.

In total, she had 33 days of radiation to complete. The first 21 were of her entire abdomen, the final 12 were more localized (with a higher dose) where her ovary was. Sometimes if her blood counts were low, they'd send us home, unradiated. So, it took almost two months to get all the days done.

Now that a year has passed since Karly ended treatment, she's routinely checked over by her doctors in Milwaukee, and each time she's received a clean bill of health. Her strength is back, and she returned to school mid-year after being out for almost a year.

In fall 2009, she returned to school full-time and is doing very well - except she greatly dislikes mornings, and wishes school started at noon. So, basically - she's a regular teenager, once again!

Karly on the first day of 8th grade, September 2009