Six year old girl with cancer

Good morning from snowy New Hampshire!

If you are led, please pray for little Lexi. She was just diagnosed with cancer (not sure which kind...it is in her lungs and leg right now). She is currently beginning chemo under consultation with Dana Farber in Boston.

The family had no idea what was going on....just two weeks ago she woke up with a very swollen leg....the docs found a mass in her leg...very quickly the local doc sent her down to Children's Hosp in Boston. Needless to say, this is all a shock to the family.

Mom and Dad are saved, PTL.

Thank you,
Your sis in Christ,
Beth

 

Thank you!

Chemo only started yesterday. I'm very happy that my sisters have been stocking the family's freezer with food. Folks are also going to go over to clean the house, etc. There are three other children in the family...Lexi is the youngest. All the kids attend our church's Christian school.

 

Things are not going well

Lexi's prognosis apparently is not very good. The cancer has spread in her body...please pray that the family will have a good week with her next week...the family is going to try to leave this Friday for a week long vacation in Florida.

 

update

Just an update....Lexi is receiving blood transfusions in order to build her up. Next month, Lord willing, she will be undergoing surgery to replace her femur....she will be receiving a donar femur.

Thank you,
Beth

 

Surgery scheduled for today, May 13th

We got this from the prayer chain last night...

Please pray for Lexi Kittle. Her platelet count is very low. Doctors are planning on going ahead with her scheduled surgery tomorrow but there are more risks with her platelet count low. Please pray that her count comes up overnight.


This surgery will be the one to remove her femur and replace with a donor femur.

Thank you,
Beth

 

Aunt's update

Thank you all for praying...the aunt sent this email out this morning.

Good Morning Everyone,
Lexi had her surgery yesterday beginning at 7:30 AM. An amazing thing happened starting the night before. Her platelet counts were at 25 on Monday but after her transfusion they bumped up to 118. By the morning of the surgery they were 130 or so. The doctors were amazed and the nurse said she has never seen this before. So needless to say she was ready for surgery. It went off just like they expected and she did very well. The surgeon came out to talk to Brenda and Larry about 5:30PM and said Lexi did great. As of 9:30 PM she was in her room and doing well. I will let Brenda and Larry fill you in on the details when they can. But I wanted to let you know she is doing well and thank you all for praying. My Mom and I were with them during the surgery and they were at such peace through the whole time. It was such an encouraging thing for me and my Mom to see the power of God's grace and peace through such a trying day. Prayer is such an wonderful thing.
Love, Debbie(Brenda's sister)

 

Friday, May 16th

The Mom is asking for Lexi to be remembered in prayer today...Lexi will be taken off the epidural today, with an appropriate pain medication found for her.

 

An excerpt from her webpage

Lexi's Story

Alexandra (Lexi) Joyce Kittle was born on November 2, 2000 in Nashua, NH to Larry and Brenda Kittle. Lexi has two older brothers, Matthew (l5) and Zachary (13) and an older sister, Victoria (8). Lexi is a precious and adorable seven year old who loves to play with her brothers and sister, and she loves cuddle time with her parents. She loves the color purple, playing dress-up, getting her nails painted, and playing school with Victoria. Lexi also enjoys swimming, watching Hannah Montana, and spending time in Florida and New York visiting her grandparents with the whole family. Lexi is currently a first grader at South Merrimack Christian Academy where she loves her classmates and teacher and has many friends. But that innocent and idyllic life has changed dramatically.

In January 2008, Lexi with diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma, a rare, and very aggressive bone cancer found from a tumor in her thigh. Lexi is currently undergoing chemotherapy at Dana Farber in Boston to treat the tumor as well as cancer that has spread to her lungs. Lexi is a brave little girl, and she is staying strong with all the doctors, equipment, medicine, and numerous trips to the hospital. Her treatments will take a better part of a year. Lexi is currently undergoing chemotherapy for six cycles (given every two weeks). The first week she has chemo for two days and on the next cycle, 5 consecutive days of chemo!! As devastating as this protocol is, Lexi will be undergoing major surgery to remove her cancerous thigh bone just above the knee and just below the hip. She will then receive a replacement thigh bone from a donor. She will be in a body cast for two months. After that she is scheduled for eight more cycles of chemo. At the end of the chemotherapy she will have full lung radiation. It's hard to comprehend a 7 year old girl having to go through this ! Chemotherapy has been devastating on Lexi's body. It totally drains her energy, and getting her to eat and drink is very difficult. There are other side effects including nausea, vomiting, mouth sores, droopy eyelids, effects on her nerves, etc. Then seven days after treatment, her blood counts go so low that she becomes neutropenic, runs a fever, and needs blood transfusions. At that point she is unable to fight any infection; she needs to be hospitalized and treated with antibiotics until her counts rebound, taking 3 to 5 days (as treatments continue this could take even longer, potentially pushing her treatments off schedule). How is Lexi coping with all of this?? At times with anger, at times defiance, at times with sadness and tears. But her faith and strength of character carries her through this ordeal and a one point said to her parents, Larry and Brenda, "I hate my cancer, but I love my life!!"

Fighting cancer is one of the hardest things to do for a child who doesn't understand how this could happen to her. As a parent, it has to be nearly impossible to watch your child go through such harsh treatment and all the side effects that go with it. The Kittles are experiencing a world they wish they never had to know. They have a strong relationship with God and have put all their faith and trust in Him; they know that He has a plan and a purpose for their lives even under these very difficult circumstances. Thank you for all the prayers, as well as blessings of meals, presents for Lexi, and everything else that has helped make this time a bit easier. The Kittles are asking for continued prayers for total healing of Lexi, strength for the entire family, as well as wisdom for the doctors.

 

an update from the mother

We are home! We returned home about 3:30 yesterday. As Debbie told you everthing went exactly to plan. Lexi has had very little pain. The epidural after surgery worked perfectly and when they turned off the epidural the oral pain meds have been working great. Praise God! Lexi went into surgery at 7:45am and we didn't see her again until 6:45pm. As far as the surgery goes the surgeons removed a good part of her femur bone between her hip and knee. It took from 9:30 until 2:00 to remove the bone. Reconstruction of the leg consisted of replacing part of her femur bone with a donor femur bone with steel plates and rods. We are very thankful to the person and their family for donating this bone, it saved Lexi's leg. The surgeon said that they didn't need to take much muscle tissue because the tumor had like "melted away". Also in the bone, it appeared that much of the tumor looked dead (they won't know for sure how much is dead until they do all their testing on it) and she had started to grow new bone. Because of this, her bone was very dense and the pathologists had a hard time cutting into it.(they were looking to make sure they got all the tumor and good margins) The surgeon said that was a good sign for healing. The reconstruction part took another 3 hours or so and then they needed to put on the cast. The spika cast or body cast starts just below her chest and goes down the one leg. Because she has a long torso they didn't need to go over to the other leg, which is a blessing. As she recovers she will be able to use her good leg to pivot around making is easier to move her to move from place to place. So all in all, we have so much to rejoice for and to thank God for. We felt his strong presence and peace through out that very long day. We are thankful for all your prayers; we know they have made all the difference in our journey thus far. We go back to the orthopedic surgeon on the 29th and if all looks good we will be starting chemo that day. Again, thank-you for all your prayers and please keep praying. Love, Brenda and Larry