Katia Solomon

Our daughter Katia, was born in January 2000. We thought she would be a millennium baby but she was born on the 26th! We were so happy and she was just a joy for our family. We have 2 older daughters, Sharayah and Tatiana so we were all excited to have a little baby in the house.

When Katia was 3 months old, she stopped breathing for a couple minutes. We called 911 and when the paramedics arrived a few minutes later, Katia was fine. There was no sign of any problems at her next doctor visit. That scare brought all of us closer to her and we basically spoiled her (but that was okay by all of us - she was our baby).

All was fine until right before Katia's 2nd birthday. We were getting ready for church and Katia was walking into our bedroom and fell and hit her head on our bed frame. It was a VERY hard hit but it didn't seem to really swell too bad as we put ice on it. We went to church and over the next few days we were pleased that her head healed up so quickly! Her birthday was 11 days after the hit and she appeared normal.

About a week after her birthday (18 days after the fall) we noticed some swelling around her right eye. Since the fall had not caused problems we didn't associate it with the fall. We took her to the doctor and she was treated for allergies.

A few days later the eye was twice as bad. We took her back and also showed the doctor some bruising on Katia's legs. The doctor said the bruising went with her age but decided the eye needed antibiotic ointment. Again, a couple of days passed and the eye was not only swelling worse but seemed to be protruding outward so we took her back. This visit she also had more bruising and some unexplainable sores on her back. The pediatrician wanted us to see an optometrist and had no explanations for the bruising or sores. She said maybe it was bugs. I was concerned, very concerned by now. I knew Katia wasn't around bugs and her activity level didn't explain the bruising.

I called the optometrist and after being told the next appointment was a few weeks away, I took Katia to the ER. I asked them to do a CT Scan of her head because I felt something was wrong. Five hours later the ER doctor came out and said the scans were clear. I called back the optometrist and explained all this in detail to her and she agreed to see her the next day. Katia went to her office and was immediately sent to get an MRI STAT. This doctor showed urgency finally!!! She sent someone to bring the scans back to her office.

That afternoon she called saying Katia had a large mass behind her right eye and she was sending us to another specialist. We had 4 or 5 appointments a week for a few weeks. Everyone was trying to come to an agreement of what this mass was and how to treat it. Finally it was decided to do plastic surgery and remove the tumor but before that could be done, she needed an embolism to cut off the blood circulation to lessen bleeding during surgery.

After the embolism, Katia came down very sick and was diagnosed with meningitis. She was hospitalized in isolation. Three days later, we were told she had leukemia and sent to All Children's Hospital, St. Pete via ambulance.

We were told a day later, that she had the worse of the leukemias... Acute Myelogenous leukemia. Katia went through 5 months of extensive chemo, had about 7 or 8 serious infections, a LOT of pain over this time and finally finished chemo in September of 2002.

In October and November of 2002, she was hospitalized for 2 more serious infections. The last one she had caused her to stop breathing and have a temperature of 107.8º! I think back on that now and can't believe she is running around and currently remains in remission. It is a miracle! She was home for Thanksgiving and Christmas and celebrated the New Years at home. We pray she has a great year and can live a long, happy, and healthy life!

Update: March 27, 2006

How is Katia?
Things here are pretty much the same. We are going to probably change antibiotics over to an antibiotic we can do at home and see how she does over the next 24 hours. Her pain in her back and such has improved. Her morning has been going okay other than her eyes are bothering her quite a bit right now. She is trying to play Playstation though (that is the difference between kids and adults-we would just go to sleep to escape). She is playing one of the hospital's games of Chicken Little. Very cute game:)
Since her eyes are bothering her, I really can't get a picture of her with her fan so I will wait and post it when we get home and she is feeling better. She has some more crafts to paint today. She LOVES painting wooden crafts.
Today, she saw the perfect "pet" for her to have. Seeing she can't have a real dog, she wants a RoboDog or something. I didn't see the whole commercial but she likes that it can get up and down if it falls over and that you can tell it what to do:)
If all goes well today, we will hopefully be able to leave some time tomorrow. As nice as it is to get to see the different nurses and hospital staff, we have visited enough now:) I am amazed at how long we actually stayed before and neither one of us went out of our minds (well not too much). I forget how long but I just know it was over 9 months straight because I figured it was a bit longer than a full term pregnancy. Seeing that Katia got her "new blood" it was like giving birth again-just less painful for me.
Now she is over 2 years out of transplant. Although she still has problems (especially with the ongoing GVHD), we are grateful that she is doing well and especially appreciative of the care and love she receives here at All Children's Hospital.
Well, she is stuck in a bush on Chicken Little so I need to go help her escape:)

Love, Tracy