"Kate's Crew" is to show support and awareness for our 2-year-old daughter, Kate who was diagnosed with a rare form of pediatric leukemia, RAM AML. There are less than 50 kids in the U.S. with this Rare phenotype as a diagnosis. She is strong, silly & doing well, but we have a long road ahead of us.

Kate's big sister (4), Kasey, is her biggest cheerleader, and they are the BEST of friends. Our family, friends, neighbors & co-workers are helping us in so many ways to get through this; we can never thank them enough. We just really cannot wait to all be home again together, and back to our boring, beautiful life.

A little background...Kate is our spunky, sassy, fearless, silly, destructive, and endlessly loving child. She is our rainbow baby and completed our family in November of 2023. She has SO much life to live and things to do!

Kate started with back-to-back ear infections in January 2026 but had a fever that would not go away. We kept bringing her back to the doctor, then finally on 2/1/26 I (Mom) brought her to the Emergency Room (Not Golisano, another local hospital that I will not name) by ambulance because her fever was almost 105, at this point it had almost been 2 weeks of fever, and she was lethargic and not okay. They did some tests and diagnosed her with "Flu A" and dismissed us, with minimal lab work that was ultimately useless.

The next day, I snuggled Kate all day and let her rest and sleep, she would not even walk, but she had the "Flu", so this was "normal". Fast forward, the next day she was still asleep when I was leaving for work, but her eyes looked black and blue under them. I figured it was just the lighting and her being tired and went to work. My mom who watches the girls called me a couple hours later and said we needed to take her back to doctor, she was still not walking and not herself at all. I called my husband, Dave, and he met me at home. We took her back to our pediatrician office who sent her for lab work, etc. We then went home. We were getting into bed around 9 that night when we received a call from the Peds office. The doctor relayed that Kate's platelets were a 2! (Normal is 150-450 for her age) She said we needed to go back to Emergency Room asap and bring a bag they will likely keep her overnight. (we never thought overnight would turn into over a month!) She then called back and said to make sure we only go to SMH Golisano Children's Hospital because they have hematology. They were thinking she had something called ITP, a platelet disorder. (I wish that had been it)

We got to the Hospital a little after 10pm, it was like they were waiting for us. We were ushered into a room immediately, and in less than 2 hours we were admitted to 7 NORTH, Peds Hematology/ONCOLOGY floor. Never did we think it would be cancer.... Kate's diagnosis was confirmed that it was Leukemia, and later confirmed it was AML, then the rare RAM phenotype diagnosis came along upon further testing. (of course, Kate would have to be unique!)

February 4th, 2026, Kate was diagnosed and started chemo that evening, a day that we will NEVER forget, the day we had our whole world turned upside down. Ironically, this date is also " World Cancer Day". Kate completed Round 1 of chemo early March with minimal side effects and was in "remission" but still had residual disease. We have just finished round 2 of chemo which was a bit rough on Kate, she is still inpatient recovering. She is back to her normal sassy, spunky self! However, she has no immune system from the chemo so we are waiting for her numbers (ANC) to go up, and it will be safe for her to go home briefly before her next treatment. They are planning to do a bone marrow transplant end of April, which begins with 5 days of more intense chemo prior to transplant. After that she will be in patient for over a month, once discharged home we will still have to return several times a week to the outpatient clinic for treatments & follow up.

(around 9 months of weekly visits give or take)

We are so grateful for Golisano Children's Hospital and our Amazing team of Doctors, Advanced practice providers, nurses, techs, environmental services, as well as CURE (Elena & Michelle) for their unwavering support, guidance and love for our family. Please show your support & love for our girl, and all the pediatric leukemia and cancer patients who do not deserve this! No Kid Fights Alone!

Much Love,

Dave, Kelly, Kasey, Kate & Sammy (our dog who Kate calls "creamy")

#katescrew