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I’ve had lots of people ask me how my sister Katie is doing.

If you haven’t met Katie, or are new to this blog, I have a sister who’s spent the last 4 years kicking a very rare, fast-growing cancer–leiomyosarcoma–and now she’s fighting leukemia, too.  If you want to learn more about her, you should watch this video:

Here’s a recent picture of her family:

Aren’t they the sweetest??

It’s been nearly a year since the fundraiser–which turned out amazing (here’s the blog post about it)–and it’s been a rocky road getting the stars to align.  The doctors were insistent that she not have any new tumor growth for 6 months, and even if that happened, because the odds weren’t great, we didn’t think the insurance would cover it–and without it, the bone marrow transfusion would be over a million dollars (!!!!!!!!)

Around Thanksgiving last year, the doctors broke some bad news.

Katie’s leukemia was getting pretty bad.  She would have to have some intensive chemo for several months in the hospital.

She checked in Thanksgiving Day.

She couldn’t see her family much because if anyone of her kids brought a cough home from school or something, she might catch it and she wouldn’t have an immune system to kick it.

They all missed each other.

Katie’s not the type to lie around though.

Every morning, she’d get up and walk the halls, up and down.  She counted and realized going up and down 7 times = 1 mile.

The doctors got nervous about her wandering the halls like that, so they got her an exercise bike to put in her room.

She learned the harp.

She taught piano to her kids via skype.

She crocheted some seriously awesome sock monkey pants.

Katie was able to come home and be with her family for Christmas, and guess who got those seriously awesome sock monkey pants??

YESSSSS!!!!

They are the best thing I’ve ever owned.  I’ll post an instagram picture sometime.

A big holdup in all this was the leukemia doctor.  When he saw what cancer Katie had, he refused to approve a bone marrow transplant…he didn’t believe for a second she’d be able to fight it, and he even told her so (!!!)

And Katie was like, well my plan is to get the bone marrow transplant and kick this cancer!

And that darn doctor was like:

It was a fight for months.  That doctor couldn’t believe how well Katie was responding to all her chemo’s, and he kept dragging his feet in approving that bone marrow transplant.

My mom–you know she’s someone you don’t mess with–started praying for this doctor, and even put his name on the temple prayer roll.

(My mom has unshakeable faith.  She really is an amazing woman.)

Only a few weeks ago, this doctor had suddenly changed his tune:

And ever since then, he’s been firmly in her corner!

He was the one to pitch Katie’s case to the insurance.

…along with a lot of other doctors!

It didn’t seem like there’d be much of a hope that the insurance would cover it…Katie’s leukemia was pretty far advanced.  But I’ll be darned…we got news just 2 weeks ago that the insurance was gonna do it!!!!!*

*I have absolutely no doubt my mother’s prayers had something to do with this.

SHAMELESS MONKEY PANT DANCING

Now we just had to decide whose bone marrow it was gonna be!

I was a match…and so was my sister…and so was my other sister.  (The perks of having a big family!)

Well sister #1 is training to be Zuster Dixon in the MTC…so that’s out.  (She heads to the Netherlands in just a few weeks…we have a whole list of distant relatives there for her to convert mwahahahaah)

So then it was me, my sister, and our thumbs!

…she won.

Katie left just a few days ago for the hospital, where she’s now prepping for the bone marrow transplant.  On the morning she left, we heart attacked her lawn!

This was Katie’s face when she saw it:

It was a good moment :)

Katie has a long battle ahead of her.  Right now she’s in a hospital prepping for the transplant, and there’s have been some rocky days already.

Any prayers or thoughts you could send her way would be deeply appreciated…She’s a fighter.  You watch and see :) :)

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The post Bad to the Bone Marrow appeared first on Story Monster.

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Here is the official press release for the upcoming event. (That guy, Mark Miller, sure talks a lot, sheesh...)


The Mount Dora event series Authors in the Park continues with its Second Annual “Spring into Art” festival, Saturday, March 29 at Long and Scott’s Farm in Mount Dora, FL., event chairman Mark Miller announced today. The Authors in the Park group celebrates literacy while promoting local and independent authors from Lake County, Central Florida and beyond. (www.authorsinthepark.com)

The event, scheduled from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., will be the first time the group has held an event at Long and Scott’s Farm at 26216 County Road 448A, Mount Dora, Miller said.

“We are extremely excited, not only to be at Long and Scott’s, but because this year’s event will feature both authors and artists,” Miller said. “Long and Scott’s is known for Zellwood Sweet Corn and their fall corn maze as well as being a great supporter of their community.” (www.longandscottfarms.com)

Spring into Art will feature over twenty authors and artists. A wide variety of books will be for sale in all genres and ages, as well as exclusive artwork. Some of the paintings are slated to be sold for charity.

In addition to great books and art, representatives for Team Jay will be on hand, Miller, an author himself, said. Team Jay is a project of the Lake County Firefighters Charity to benefit young Jay, the son of a firefighter currently battling Leukemia. (www.lakefirefightercharity.org)

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Two very different posts/articles have got me thinking about these internets of ours. One of them I read via my Reader, and the other in the New York Times. Both really show how technology and the internet have changed the way we work, read, and live.

First up: I really like Kassia Krozser's response at Booksquare to yet another article on how bloggers (and publishers) are ruining the book pages in the States. This is such a tiresome debate, and Kassia explains why. (Then again, Kassia could be merely reacting, instead of carefully considering context and various points of view. Just kidding.)

Now from the New York Times: "At Harvard, a Proposal to Publish Free on Web," by Patricia Cohen. Here's the upshot: "Faculty members are scheduled to vote on a measure that would permit Harvard to distribute their scholarship online, instead of signing exclusive agreements with scholarly journals that often have tiny readerships and high subscription costs."

I think this is an exciting proposal and I hope it passes. Imagine if scholarship made it to the web. There would be more room for debate and discussion. Moreover, time to "publication" could be six months instead of six years as it often is in the Humanities. While I do see issues for scholars working with human subjects or in the biological sciences, I think online scholarship is the future in the Humanities. I'll be watching the vote with great interest.

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