On July 8, Katherine was diagnosed with leukemia. The Conrad family has $10,000 to meet before the insurance can begin to help with chemo and surgeries. We are starting with $14,000 to cover that gap plus some extra as Chris may need days off work. Please continue to pray for Katherine daily! 

Caring Bridge- Katherine Conrad updates

From Sasha-

"About a month ago, Katherine started feeling tired after we had gotten home from a trip visiting family. We chalked it up to the travels and she made her Confirmation that Saturday, 6/15. She had little appetite and wanted to go home and sleep. She stayed home from Mass Sunday and complained of pressure in the ears and a headache. So we gave her lots of rest and fluid during that week, thinking it was a head cold. When she still wasn’t improving toward the end of the week, and had developed two small bumps on her upper leg, we took her to the ER. She tested positive for strep and a staph infection, and was given two different antibiotics. We were told to follow up with the pediatrician the next week—which we did. Katherine was feeling better and eating and drinking, so we stayed the course. By Saturday she was cleaning bathrooms and making pancakes, both things she does on Saturdays. Our pediatrician had given us an order for lab work if we wanted to see if anything more serious was going on, but she was making steady progress. But by Friday, she was pretty pale and had little energy. Definitely regressing. Saturday she slept in but we took her for the blood draw once she was awake.

When we got home, she was tired but ate dinner and played with her siblings and even wanted to declutter and clean her room, a trademark. Sunday morning we woke her up early for Mass and she was very weak. The minute Mass was over (literally as I was walking toward the social hall) my phone rang with a voicemail from the pediatrician’s office that her hemoglobin was very low and she needed to go to the ER. We gathered up all the kids and drove to the first ER we could find, but they told us they would likely have to transport her, so we headed to St. Joseph’s. You can’t go wrong with St. Joseph. Once she was in the ER, they took more blood and confirmed that she not only had low hemoglobin but platelet levels also. So the hematologist was called and he was very frank. Low levels on multiple markers is often leukemia. There were abnormal cells in the culture but she would need to be admitted and have more labs done. In the meantime, she needed platelets and blood. 

This morning’s daily offering email provided this, which is appropriate:

"In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider; God has made the one as well as the other."— Ecclesiastes 7:14a

The God and merciful Lord, maker of Heaven and Earth, is the giver of good gifts and also the One who permits adversity and promised to bring about good through it. He gives and He takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. May His praise be always on our lips."