Kate

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About two months ago, through a prayer request from our Church, I learned the story of Kate McRae. My entire heart goes out to Kate and her family and she will be in my prayers every night.

Kate and her family found out several months ago that she has a large brain tumor. Holly (her mom) and Aaron (her dad) had been noticing through the last few months that Kate was not herself. They had taken her to the doctor and nothing was found. They took her in again on Monday June 29th for tremors that started in her right hand. They then proceeded to Phoenix Children’s Hospital for a stat CT of her head. At 5:30 that evening, Holly was taken into a room alone and told Kate had a massive tumor on the basil ganglia portion of her brain. As Holly stated on their website “I called her dad and our journey has begun. One we never would have chose to be a part of, but was chosen for us, and our sweet Kate.”
Here is what Kate’s mom said about her updates back in July:
“The good news is nothing has spread to her spine. The bad news is the location of the tumor. They think it has been a slower growing tumor; however in its growth it has wrapped itself around the major blood vessels that feed the brain. So the tumor is not completely operable. This was devastating. The surgeon said to attempt to remove the entire tumor (about the size of an egg) would be far too risky. She would have an extremely high risk of paralysis or a stroke. So this Friday they will be performing brain surgery to remove as much of the tumor as they feel is safe. They will then biopsy some of the tumor to determine what they are even dealing with. The surgeon believes it is malignant, but not all of it. After they have a definitive diagnosis, early next week, they will set a further treatment plan. This could include more brain surgery, chemo and radiation. Overwhelming, in all aspects.
Today Kate will be getting a PET scan, so please pray that it will be telling. Second, please pray for Dr DeMoss. He is Kate’s neurosurgeon, and supposedly one of the best in the country.. Please cover him in prayer, for wisdom, guidance, direction, and a steady hand. Please pray for Kate for peace, calm and a fighting spirit as this is just the beginning of a very long road. Pray that the tumor will have even more clear margins than appeared on the MRI. Pray that they will be able to remove most of the tumor, if not miraculously all of it. Pray that nothing, absolutely nothing else will be touched and that there will be no negative side effects from the surgery. Pray that whatever the course of treatment, she will end up tumor and cancer free! Pray that God will choose to miraculously intervene for Kate. Pray for Olivia and Will that we will be sensitive to their needs and be able to process it correctly with them. Please just cover her in your prayers”.

Since this post, Kate came through surgery and is now undergoing chemo. Holly posts on Kate’s CaringBridge website almost daily to keep everyone informed of Kate’s condition. These recent posts have been the hardest for me to read. I am embarrassingly naive. I have not experienced the horrifying effects and tolls cancer and its treatment takes on someone and their family. There is no way ANYTHING can prepare a person or a family to go through what Kate, her mom, dad and siblings are going through now. Their life is put on hold for this evil disease. Through reading Holly’s posts, their days consist of ER visits, fevers, throwing up, meds, scans, tubes, blood transfusions, clinical visits, stomach pains, low white blood cell count due to chemo and constant fear of the flu, disease, etc. I get exhausted even reading it; what an amazing, strong 5 year old to be living it! If anyone can give you motivation today it should be Kate. She didn’t ask for this and she is fighting it. I think that proves that all of us can fight through another 8 hours at work, that long meeting this afternoon with our boss, the endless homework for grad school. We know nothing of what pain, worry, anxiety feels like until we have walked in the shoes today of this little girl.

Right now Kate needs our prayers more than ever as tomorrow is a big day for her and her family. As Holly stated in her post today:
“Of course we are asking for your continued dedication in praying for the MRI, kidney function test and hearing evaluation on Wednesday. The MRI tells us if the tumor has shrunk at all from the treatments. The kidney function and hearing evaluation are to determine any detrimental side effects from the chemo. We are praying for amazing results...”

Please help me in praying for Kate McRae and her family so that they can get through this time and that God will chose Kate to be a living example of his power.
If you would like to keep up with her progress, visit Kate’s Caringbridge site here: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mcraekate/journal