WELCOME TO K.A.S.T. ( Kerrie Andree Support Team)

K.A.S.T was formed in July, 2006 when Kerrie was diagnosed with a terminal illness known as Myelodysplastic syndrome (also known as MDS or RAEB).

K.A.S.T is the brain-child of Kerrie’s close friend, Sandy Bliss, who came up with the idea as a means of providing Kerrie with emotional support from her friends. Kerrie was going to need all the emotional support she could get from friends, family and even strangers.. so we absolutely fell in love with the idea. Kerrie’s sister, Jenn, would like to thank Sandy for allowing her to take this idea and run with it!!

Our entire family would like to thank James Ball for his help with this web page and making K.A.S.T. possible. We love you James and you will always be a special part of our family.

To Kerrie’s family, K.A.S.T. seemed like the perfect name for a group supporting Kerrie, because of her love of performing in musical theater, and we immediately began thinking of ideas that would go along with this theme.

Kerrie and Jeannine Kring (one of our awesome aunts) were brainstorming over ideas for K.A.S.T Member T-shirts, plans were being made to have “Kasting Calls” for people to join us in fundraising events, and suggestions were even made on how people could “audition” to become members of K.A.S.T. Our aunt Jeannine suggested people needed to shave their heads to become K.A.S.T. Members (as Kerrie would lose her hair)… but Kerrie has always been a unique individual, and wants to stand out in a crowd, so we decided to forgo this requirement. Thanks for the suggestion though!

The inspiration for the sunflowers, in the K.A.S.T. logo, came from a bouquet of flowers Kerrie received from Michelle O’Connor (another awesome aunt). Of all the flowers in the bunch, the sunflowers were the most beautiful. Seeing the look of happiness they brought to Kerrie, the decision was made to make the sunflower the official symbol of K.A.S.T. Thanks aunt Michelle.

Shortly after writing this page, Jenn happened accross a webpage about the group of older women, in England, who did the nude calendar to raise money for thier friend suffering from Luekemia ( there was a movie made about them called Calendar Girls). Their symbol was the sunflower. Though coincidental, it’s nice to know we are in good company with these women.. and before anyone asks.. No! Kerrie did not do a nude calendar!

In regards to losing her hair, Kerrie  acted in true “Kerrie” fashion and told us that she will not try to hide it like some people do. If she was going to stand out, she was going to make sure everyone took notice of her. Those of you who know her are probably laughing and shaking your heads right now. Kerrie decided to go with the most unusual wigs she could find.. Albert Einstien, Dolly Parton, Don King.. the possiblities were endless.Then Kerrie received an e-mail from Mary Darnall ( you guessed it.. another awesome aunt) who said, “What about wild hats? Don’t forget hats!” Kerrie loved this idea, so she began her collection of unusual hats. Great idea aunt Maryjo!

The main goal of K.A.S.T. was to keep people up to date on Kerrie’s condition, inform people of current and upcoming fundraising activities, educate people on Kerrie’s particular illness, but most importantly.. give Kerrie a means of emotional support from family and friends. We wanted her know you were thinking about her, praying for her and that she is a special person in your life. Above all, we want to let her know how much she is loved.

ABOUT KERRIE’S ILLNESS

Somewhere around the beginning of July, 2006 our mom noticed that Kerrie was looking pale and complaining of being tired all the time. They both thought this may be due to a lack of protien, as Kerrie had undergone bariatric surgey in January and needed to be very careful to get enough protien in her diet.

She finally decided to get it checked out with her doctor. Because some of her test results showed she was anemic we still thought this was due to a lack of protien and was just something small that would be a result of her bariatric surgery. The doctor prepared us that it was more than that and he felt Kerrie may have Luekemia.. so they did a bone marrow biopsy.

Our family was prepared for the diagnosis of Luekemia.. but we would have been better off if that was the actual diagnosis. On July 13, 2006 Kerrie, Mom and Jenn met with the doctor and sat in disbelief. Until that moment, none of us had ever heard of Myeloidpastic syndrome.

This is a very rare blood cancer that generally occurs in people over the age of 60. It is not known what causes this, but we do know it is not a result of her bariatric surgery.

In many cases, there is not a treatment for people with this diagnosis other than to keep them comfortable. Because of Kerrie’s age, there was one possibility of a cure… a bone marrow transplant.

Our family was very fortunate, and received news that Jenn was a perfect match to be Kerrie’s bone marrow donor. There was only a 25% chance Jenn would be a match at all, so we were extremly blessed that Jenn and Kerrie turned out to be a perfect match for each other (even if they didn’t always get along.. but that’s part of being sisters!) Our brother, Ron, wanted more than anything to be Kerrie’s “hero”, and be her donor.. but he should know that, donor or not, he will ALWAYS be her hero!

On July 31, 2006,with just two weeks to go for the bone marrow transplant, the doctors discovered Kerrie’s cancer had progressed into Acute Myeloid Luekemia ( AML) and the transplant would have to be put on hold until she could be brought into remission.

Twenty-Four hours later she was admitted to Henry Ford Hospital and begin intense chemotherapy. After several weeks we received the news that the induction chemo had been unsuccesful and Kerrie had not gone into remission. A second round of chemo began the next day.

The second round of chemo was a success and Kerrie was brought into remission toward the middle of October, 2006. Plans for the transplant were underway.

After months of worrying and waiting, the transplant was performed on October 17, 2006 and we all began to breath a sigh of relief. This wasn’t to last long. Ten days later Kerrie suffered a stroke that left her blind in the left eye, paralyzed on the right side of her body and unable to speak or eat. This was soon followed by several emergency surguries on her sinus cavities and surgery to remove a large infection in her brain.
After several weeks, Kerrie regained some of her ability to speak, swallow and regained small movements in her right leg. She improved, day by day, and was eventually moved to a Rehab Center where she showed great improvement. Our “Kerrie” finally seemed to be coming back to us. Speech was difficult, a feeding tube had to be inserted, oral intake was limited to pureed food and there was still very little movement in her right leg, but she was still with us!

At 6:00pm, December 31, 2006 Kerrie suffered a large set-back and was transferred back to Henry Ford Hospital. We were back at square one.With several signs of GVDH ( Graft Vs. Host Disease) and an almost complete reversal of her ability to speak, swallow and move we, again, wondered if Kerrie would win this battle. On January 21, 2007 she was transferred back to the Rehab Center and is continued her fight to regain the life she had before all this happend.
Her speech improved daily, although it exhausted her she went through hours of physical therapy a day and through all of this she never gave up.

We hoped to bring her home soon, but she needed to be able to complete simple tasks with only little assistance. Things we take for granted.. eating, using the bathroom, rolling over in bed.. she needs assisance for all of these and we wouldn’t be able to bring her home until she was able to do such simple things with the help of only one person.

We brought her home, in March 2007, and she began intense rehab at home and in a nearby rehabilitation facility. In speech therapy she fought to remember simple words like “apple” and the names of the people in her family… in Occupational Therapy she struggled to to learn how to brush her teeth, while only being able to use her one good arm and barely able to stand.. and in Physical Therapy she struggled to learn to take a single step. It was heartbreaking to watch, but her determination was strong.

Through all of this, Kerrie never gave up. She woke up each day and gave her fight every ounce of energy she had. On May 1, 2007, she had advanced enough that she could do many things with only half the assistance she needed and had actually climbed up three steps in Physical Therapy. Her goals was that she would be able to climb the steps, to her bedroom, within three months, and wouldn’t have to stay in the hospital bed in the living room. Then the call came from Henry Ford. Kerrie’s Luekemia had returned and she would need to go back to the hospital.

Several treatments were tried and Kerrie chose another round of chemotherapy. The doctors constantly gave her the odds of her survival ( less than 10%), but she refused to give up her fight. Already weakend, partially paralyzed, still having difficulty speaking and blind in one eye.. she chose to fight and accepted every treatment they suggested including the chemo. No one thought any of it would work, but Kerrie continued to say, “But I have to try. I want to live.” While we worried about her, she worried about how this was affecting everyone else in our family. In the midst of her intense fight, she still put everyone else in front of herself. She continued to be an incredible person.

With chemo looking like the only option, Kerrie was allowed a brief trip home, in June, and returned to the hospital a few weeks later to begin her chemo. Because the chemo destroyed her immune system, she was at high risk for illness and developed an infection in July. She continued to fight, refused to give up and said she would do whatever it took to survive.
On July 26, the doctors told her no treatment was working.. Mom and Jenn stood by her side, holding her hand, as she resigned herself to the fact that her fight was over. She simply said, “But I want to live” and when the doctors, Mom and Jenn said, “But it’s not working”, she said, “O.K… laid her head back on the pillow and asked if she could have her pain medication. All medications and transfusions were stopped, with the exception of her pain killer, and we sat in disbelief as we realized we were spending out last time together. She stayed coherent for a few more hours and Mom, Dad and Jenn never left her side. Ron was able to join us later that evening.

At 3:33pm on Friday, July 27th, 2007 Kerrie Lee Andree gave up her fight. Mom, Dad, Ron and Jenn were there with her… holding her hand and letting her know how loved she was.. and then, one of God’s most beautiful angels left this earth.

On the pages of the blog, you will find the day to day fight of what Kerrie went through and occasional posts of what our family is going through now. It chronicles Kerrie’s last year with us and shows what an incredible and determined person she was. On the days things were too difficult to post, our Aunt Michelle and Aunt Jeannine kept the K.A.S.T. family updated through messages in the Gallery. The gallery is also filled with pictures of Kerrie throughout her life and throughout her struggle. The Blog and Gallery are sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking.. but well worth reading.

WHAT WERE FAMILY AND FRIENDS ABLE TO DO FOR KERRIE?

PRAY FOR HER! - We believe every prayer helped!! With the diverse staff working at the hospital where she and our mom are were employed, and the diverse religions in between our extended family and friends, we had the Catholic’s, Lutheran’s, Protestant’s, Buddhist’s, Muslim’s, Hindu’s, Baptist’s, Spiritualist’s, Pentacostals, Orthodox, Unitarian’s, Jehovah’s Witness, Seventh Day Adventist’s, Mormon’s, Menonite’s, etc. covered..We have two uncles who are priests, and one of them is a priest in Rome, so we may even have had the Vatican covered as well. We think we had all bases covered except for Scientology. If anyone has Tom Cruise’s number please let us know!

JOINED K.A.S.T - People sent her hundreds of cards, e-malsl and posted messages on the message boards. Through her entire fight she knew she was being thought of and that she was loved.

ANSWERED ONE OF OUR “KASTING CALLS” - Many peopled join us in fundraising efforts. In the “spirit” of Kerrie, we had fundraising activities that were as unusual and fun as she was and we thank everyone who organized or participated in one of these events. Our mother has recently started a Kerrie Andree Memorial Scholorship at the university where Kerrie was attending the nursing program. Some of the fundraising money we obtained has been used for the scholarship and we may do fundraising events for this in the future.

WHAT CAN YOU DO FOR KERRIE NOW? BECOME A BONE MARROW DONOR - Kerrie had asked this of anyone who would have wanted to be tested to be her donor! The next time you see a Free Bone Marrow Drive in your community please sign-up. Although it was not able to save Kerrie, you may be able to save someone else and save their family from what we are going through. To be tested is nothing more than a simple blood test and being willing to have your name added to the National Donor List. If you are a match for someone, their insurance/family will cover the cost that would be incurred and you would be able to do all procedures in your home town.

Thank you for being someone special to our family, special to Kerrie and for spending time with K.A.S.T.

and…. thank you to Kerrie for being one of the most beautiful, caring and passionate people in the world. You have made our family better by being a part of it. We love you!

Sincerely,

Jenn Andree ( Kerrie’s Sister)
Ron Andree ( Kerrie’s Brother)
Joan Andree ( Kerrie’s Mom)
Steve Andree (Kerrie’s Dad)