For the last month of 2023, we go back to Texas to bring you Kallie Herrick who is battling T-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia. T-ALL is more uncommon compared to B-ALL and unfortunately requires a more aggressive approach to treatment which often includes high doses of steroids. Kayla tells us the profound nature of how Kallie was diagnosed.

Kallie was your typical toddler. My mom has always watched her after my maternity leave was over. It was November, 2022, when we decided we were going to put her in “school”. I found one I liked about 2minutes from my work, and we got her all signed up. They let us know there would be a wait until August, 2023; however, we got a call in early December that they had a change so she could start the first week of January. Yay! We were all so excited, Kallie the most. So come December, maybe the first week, my mom starts telling me that when Kallie wakes up her lips are a little purple like she’s cold but she’s not cold to the touch. We also noticed her eyes were getting a little puffy, but she gets bad seasonal allergies so we started giving her zytrec daily to try to help because we noticed it had been worse once she woke up in the morning.

A little time goes on and she starts having these tiny tiny bruises but not typical ones she would get from falling or running into things. So now I’m kind of like why is this happening? Over the next week or so her eyes started getting more puffy, and I decided I should call her pediatrician, mind you she was just seen mid-October for her two-year checkup. I end up getting her in on Saturday December 17th with the on call doctor (not her usual) which I was ok with since it was a Saturday. I presented all the things that had been happening, and she let me know to try a different allergy medicine and if possible go get labs done the next week. I went and got the new allergy medicine right after that, and we started that since that is what she stated we should try it first. The swelling kept getting worse so I let her be on the different allergy medicine for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. I decided to take her back and see her doctor because that wasn’t working, thinking we may need to go see an allergist. We get to the office and get back to the room. Her doctor walks in and right away could tell that the swelling in her face was not normal. She stayed very calm during her exam and let me know she would like us to go get blood work done that day and also is going to send us for a chest X-ray because she was coughing a little.

We dropped my other daughter off with my parents as she’s only six months old at the time, and we go to the lab. Kallie did great with her first lab draw. We were nervous with her only being two, but she didn’t move. That’s the day she learned how to take deep breaths to calm herself down. I was so proud of her! After that we went over for her chest X-ray and then went to get a treat for doing so good. As we were driving home at about 5:40, I get a call from her doctor’s office. I answer, of course, after having all that done. Her doctor tells me they got the X-ray back and the radiologist told her that he sees fluid in her lungs. He’s not really concerned about that, but they found white areas in her chest area. She said she hadn’t got to see it yet but that she was going to set up all the appointments for us to go to Dell Children’s Hospital either tomorrow or Thursday so they could do some further imaging and tests. She did not say anything about cancer on the phone. I was just thinking like oh this is really bad phenomena that’s possibly turned into something else. I called my parents and let them know that I might need to have them watch Lainey while I take Kallie. As I started thinking about it more, I was freaking myself out and knew that if I seemed freaked out that my husband would really freak out.

When I got home, I calmly told him everything that had happened on the phone call (he already knew about everything else at that point). He called his mom who lives in Idaho just to talk, and she told us it sounded like cancer. Of course that’s very upsetting, so I let Josh know why don’t you go in our room and talk to your mom while I take care of the girls. About a hour goes by and I walk into our room. He’s crying, still on the phone with his mom. He ends the call with her, looks at me, and says Kallie has cancer. I looked at him and was so upset that I snapped at him and said you don’t know that!! It’s probably just pneumonia. He then said her doctor called while I was on the phone with my mom (it’s like 7:30 when she called) and said they got her blood work back and they are 99% sure she has leukemia. I just froze. He then said that we have to pack and be prepared to stay at the hospital for a while and that if I wanted to call her pediatrician back that I could at any time. He also called my parents and they were coming to get Lainey. I just broke down crying and was so scared and sad. Everytime I cry Kallie gets really freaked out and that started to happen so I tried so hard to stop to make her feel more comfortable. I was in so much shock I couldn’t hardly even think. I started packing and just hoping that she was going to be ok.

By the time we got to the hospital, the ER had already been notified we were coming. We got there about 10:30 as we live about a hour away. While in the ER, her oncologist came all the way from home to meet us even that late at night. She answered any questions we had which at the time weren’t very much. We ended up getting up to the oncology unit around 2 or 3 in the morning. The next morning they scheduled her CT first thing and the nurses tell us it’s only about 15 min so Josh decided to go with her while I got up, changed, and brushed my teeth. As I’m doing this one of the nurses comes in and tells me that Kallie had stopped breathing on the CT table, but they have her stabilized in the ER. We rush down there and my husband is white in the face with tears in his eyes. He told me that they had strapped her down on her back with her hands across her chest because they don’t want them to move. Then she started crying and her whole face just turned purple. The people taking the CT didn’t listen to him saying she’s not breathing until he had to yell out for the nurse. We get her all wedged up instead of laying flat. We held her hands above her head. Josh and I were both by her side talking her through it, deep breathing with her, and she did it.

After that we got back up to oncology and they let us know they had a play room so we took her down there but after a little bit she started coughing and so we took her back to her room. Our nurse was walking into our room at the same time and let us know they were taking us down to PICU. I was very confused. I asked why, and she said that here they have about four to five patients per nurse and down there they only have one to two. Still not sure what was going on, we get all our stuff together and go down to the PICU. When we get down there Kallie’s room starts getting all these extra things installed. Once we were settled, the on-call oncologist and the PICU doctor come in. The oncologist explains everything to us in great depth. Leukemia is cancer of the blood so there are no stages, and it usually doesn’t have masses/tumors. Well Kallie’s did. She had a large mass crushing her airway and the main artery that delivered blood from her brain back to her heart. Her trachea was opened less than 1mm so when they laid her flat for the CT and compressed her arms against her chest the mass closed her air way so she couldn’t get oxygen. They needed to shrink this mass with a strong steroid as she could not have surgery because her airway couldn’t support sedation. The PICU doctor then stepped in and told us that if she does stop breathing they didn’t have much they could do as they can’t intubate because her airway is so compromised and that the next course of action would be to put large rods in her thighs to circulate her blood through a machine to put oxygen in it but that her legs were too little for that. We had to have her sit straight up 24/7 for 3 days until the mass had shrunk enough for her airway not to collapse. By Christmas morning, it had shrunk enough, and we moved back to oncology which was a blessing even though we had already decorated her room because we couldn’t have visitors. In the PICU only my husband and I were allowed. I couldn’t even bring in Lainey. I had to go out in the waiting room to see her. All of our family came down and saw us which made Kallie so happy. We stayed about a week in oncology before going home.

She started her first round of treatment which was HORRIBLE. She had a PIC because of the steriods she had to be on and couldn’t place a port until she was done completely. The first round she had a steroid everyday. She stoped walking completely, ate a full meal at least every two hours even through the night, got so swollen her poor tummy looked pregnant, had horrible roid rage from the steroids, and only wanted me. If I left her side on the couch she would just scream and scream. Once the first phase was over she had her PIC removed and her port placed. Yayyy! She could finally have a normal bath! She started loosing her hair pretty bad in the first and second phase. It was always getting in her mouth or on her food so we decided to cut it off. Since it was her first haircut I wanted her to have a fun experience, but she couldn’t be around a lot of kids. I called one of local kids shops, and they blocked off a time to do it so no other kids were there. I cried the whole time, but Kallie was so brave and did so good. She looks so cute with no hair it honestly looked better than all the stringy hair she had left. I think she enjoyed not having hair for the summer, too. She’s grown to be a nurse and doctor favorite. Her NP made her an official Dell Children’s work badge that has all the fun stuff. After she gets accessed she goes with her nurse, Marisa, to turn in her labs, and then goes to work in the nurses station.

Her doctor has prolonged her intense chemo treatment by adding two additional phases/rounds due to the cancer cells they have found in her spinal fluid and around her brain. She informed me these are harder to penetrate, and this added about 4months more before she can start maintenance. We are currently in the 5th phase out of 6! Her last phase was all inpatient. For 2 months we were in the hospital every other week, and after the first weeks addition we had to return a couple days later because her poor diaper rash was so bad her skin was just fluffing off and her mucositis was all through her GIi tract from her mouth to her butt. We had wound specialist with us for about a week, and Kallie had to be put on a morphine drip. So scary!

Through all of this I really have struggled which is hard for me because I usually can handle things really well. This has been so different. On top of all the worry, sadness, and trying to keep my baby alive I also felt so much guilt because I had a six month old who I was still trying to bond with but it wasn’t happening because I was always at the hospital or clinic. I mean I still feel it to this day. I am very lucky to have my mom who probably loves my girls more than me, lol. She has helped me in so many ways. She always had Lainey when we were in the hospital or clinic and on the days we have to go in the clinic she kept Lainey overnight so I wasn’t trying to get two kids ready first thing in the morning. My mother-in-law has been down here multiple times for weeks on end to help, but it’s also hard for her as she has a daughter still in high school. I had to stop working because of all the care Kallie requires now, but I have the best doctor as a boss as she just lets me come in if I want to or can and then tells me to take as much time as I need. I have maybe worked 2 full weeks scattered over the past nine months. I was having a lot of guilt for work as well because we are a private small office. I let the doctor know that if she needed to hire someone else and let me go I would totally understand as I’m crying because this is one of the best places I have worked and I didn’t want to let it go but I know that’s what was right for her. She told me not to even think about that in a time like this, she supports me 100%, the office is better with me, that she doesn’t want to loose me, and that she will hire someone to help with the responsibilities I had but that whenever I’m ready I will have a place there to come back even if I drop in for a day here or there (which is what I’ve had to do). I am also very greatful that my husband got a promotion at work in February after Kallie was diagnosed because it made it a lot more feesable for me to not work and take care of Kallie. I do feel like this is hard on him though and know that while he deserves this job promotion more than anyone it’s timing was shitty to say the least. Being overwhelmed with everything with Kallie and then to add all this responsibility was a lot for him. He does it and wouldn’t have it any other way. We are currently trying to decide what to fo for Kallie’s birthday as y’all know it’s so hard to plan anything. She loves the beach so we’re trying to decide if we should make a trip there or have a party at the house. We worry about germs, and she will be on the tail end of three weeks straight of chemo so her counts will most likely be in the dumps. She’s in physical therapy once a week right now. She was just on a steroid again and has gone backwards with her progress so if she stays the same or gets worse they are talking about moving her to two days a week. We still have such a long journey ahead and the thought of relapse always runs through my head and probably will forever :(

Kallie’s family has signed up for MealTrain if you would like to help. In January, 2024, Kallie started her maintenance phase. Other than during the week of her steroid, she has been doing very well. There has been some nerve pain associated with her treatment, but she is in physical therapy which will hopefully help.