Kristen Luder

Kristen Luder (Kansas City, MO)

DSRCT Diagnosed 5/11/00 at age 9

May 2000: Removed a large mass from her abdomen and as much of her peritoneum as they could.

Here is the chemo she received:

5/22/00: 1900 Cytoxan, 25 Doxorubicin, .6 Vincristine

6/13/00:1700 Cytoxan, 25 Doxorubicin, .5 Vincristine

7/5/00:1850 Cytoxin, 25 Doxorubicin, .6 Vincristine

8/7/00:2160 High Dose Cytoxan, 2 Topotecan

9/22/00: 2390 HD Cytoxan, 2.3 Topotecan

10/24/00: 2300 Cytoxan, 25 Doxorubicin, .66 Vincristine

In September 2000, they did an exploratory surgery to look for any visible tumors. They found two tumors the size of pencil erasers and removed them.

Sometime between two of the chemo rounds, she gave up stem cells and also had bone marrow drawn from each hip.

On December 2, 2000, Kristen began eight days of strong chemo. On day 9, she received her own stem-cells back -- stem-cell rescue. On December 24, 2000, she was able to return home.

In February 2001, she began radiation which spanned over two months.

In June 2001, she experienced shingles that went into her lungs, causing a bad case of pneumonia. Returned home after eight days in the hospital.

In August 2001, we began our trips to New York City to Memorial Sloan Kettering to receive the A1G4 vaccine from Dr. Cheung and Dr. Kershner. Over the next 12 months, we made 10 trips to NYC.

Other stumbling blocks along the way included being addicted to IV pain killers twice and a couple serious infections from a fly bite (when her counts were down).

As of now, August 2005, she is still clear of the disease and life is great! She just turned 15 and started the 9th grade!