Kate McRae || All We Are ♥.

HER STORY

Monday June 29th, 2009 was supposed to be a day filled with summer fun. The kids and Kate's were going to the water park to celebrate summer. However, She noticed that a slight tremor in her right hand that had developed over the past few days had notably worsened. She decided to take her to her Pediatrician, just for safe measure. A CT of Kate's head was ordered. She proceeded to Phoenix Childrens Hospital for a stat CT of her head. At 5:30 I, Holly, Kate's mom, was taken into a room alone and told Kate had a massive tumor on the left temporal lobe of her brain. The world seemed to stopped for us that day. I called her dad and through sobs told him to come to the hospital quickly. Her long journey had begun. Kate was directly admitted to the PICU. One minute thoughts of the water park the next our child is critically ill in the intensive care unit awaiting emergent brain surgery within a matter of days. Holly would have never chosen to be a part of this journey with childhood cancer, but it was chosen for Her & her family, and their sweet Kate. She is now in the Phoneix Children's Hospital undergoing treatment for this disease.

Kate underwent a craniotomy with tumor resection on July 3rd, 2009. They unfortunately were only able to remove 50% of the tumor due to it's location in the left temporal lobe of her brain and the fact that the tumor had wrapped itself around the left middle cerebral artery to her brain. Kate experienced right sided paralysis immediately following surgery along with the loss of her speech. She has since regained much of this, however her right sided weakness still continues.

After a few days of intense waiting the pathology report was in, Kate was diagnosed with a very malignant, aggressive brain tumor called a supratentorial primitive neuroectodermal tumor or sPNET. Her Family's hearts were shattered. Dreams for their little 5 year old daughter put on hold to battle this monster. Long term prognosis and outcomes weren't encouraging so Kate was put on a study that is showing a little more promising outcomes, hopefully a better chance at survival and less long term side effects. She is currently undergoing the Head Start 3 Study out of Los Angeles but doing it at Phoenix Children's Hospital. The study involves the initial brain surgery, 5 round of very intense chemotherapy with possibility of a subsequent brain surgery and then another round of chemo with a stem cell transplant. We are hoping to avoid radiation after transplant. Kate is also in physical therapy and occupational therapy and has been released from speech therapy.

Her family believes strongly in the power of pray They are asking others to join us on this journey and fervently pray for our Kate. The road is long and unbelievably hard. Kat'e's parents have 3 children, all who are intensely affected. Olivia is now 9, Kate is 6 and Will is 7. Please keep all of them in your prayers as we try to walk this journey of childhood cancer. Thank you.

As of September 29th Kate was readmitted to begin her 3rd round of chemo. She will be hospitalized for the entire round.

January of 2010 Kate finished her 5th round of chemotherapy. Her subsequent MRI showed there was still residual cancer remaining. She was then admitted on February 8th for her "consolidation" phase of chemotherapy with an autologous stem cell transplant. This equated to 1 years worth of chemotherapy in 6 days.

Due to the residual cancer prior to transplant Kate then needed to undergo brain radiation. We temporarily moved to Houton, Texas for 2 months so Kate could undergo 31 treatments of proton beam radiation to the tumor bed.

Kate finished radiation on May 24th, 2010 which finished her treatment for the Head Start 3 Study. June 29th, exactly one year from her diagnosis, Kate had her first MRI post treatment which was inconclusive. She followed it with a PET scan one month later which showed no definitive signs of cancer! 13 months of prayers. And one scan showing no cancer!

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[brandonGCHACHU]

Hope shes doing well. Beautiful little angel

[TheKingstonTube]

she is so sweet!!

[animeroks132]

beautiful video tiffany, her story is so sad and heartbreaking to hear...

[FearlessProdzX3]

this is so gorgeous Tiffany, Kate is such a hero and this video made me cry! so beautiful!

[craziibabe90]

beautiful video...<3

[kkbcs612]

this is amazing tiffany! her story is so sad :(

i hope she is doing better! amazing video though :)

[xNadzzz]

Poor Kate! I know how her family must feel (I suppose) two of my cousins have had cancer when they were younger. Anyway, I LOVE the video!

[KitKatProductionsx]

love it<3 realized i never posted my comment -.- i love this little girl, wearing my team kate tshirt tomorrow ironically enough xD great job!! love you kate!!