Little 's big Welcome to Kim!

This week we welcome Kim, our new social work intern. She has been here for two weeks so far and loving it. She hails from Clintonville, Wis. and is currently studying in UW-Green Bay. Let’s learn a little more about Kim.

Hi NF community, I would like to introduce myself to everyone.  My name is Kim Burton and I am the newest intern at Littlest Tumor Foundation.  I am currently a student at UW-Green Bay working toward my masters degree in social work.  I grew up in the fox valley area and am happy to be back in the vicinity.  I left the area for about 10 years while I earned my bachelor's degree in biology from the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minn.  Then I traveled to Nevada to volunteer with the Americorps. Later, I returned to Madison, Wis. after completing my assignment there and had been working hard to make a difference in that community.  I am excited to be back in the area and look forward to working with the LTF and learning and expanding my knowledge over the course of the next year.  

Little Walks for 24 hours

On Friday May 4, 2012, we at the Littlest Tumor Foundation kicked off NF awareness month with our 24-hour walk up and down College Ave. in Appleton, Wis. This year we started at 10 a.m. Friday morning and walked to 10 a.m. Saturday morning. For the course of the walk we held signs that said, “tumors in children we do not like them,” we walked through the nice, sunny May weather all the way to bar time with its abundance of inebriated drinkers and through the rain that started around 2 a.m.!

The Copper Rock provided us with a place to stay for the night as well as great coffee. We even got a ½ page article in the Appleton Post-Crescent. Over the 24-hour walk, 30 people joined us as we raised awareness about NF. Even some onlookers joined us for our cause! We are dedicated to raising awareness about NF and of course, having a little fun to. We want to say THANK YOU to all our walkers and all of the people who gave donations. We want to especially thank the Copper Rock coffee house who donated coffee and a place for walkers to rest between shifts. The walk is just one of the many events that are occurring this month to raise awareness about NF. Stay tuned for more event dates and times! 

Little Walks for Life

On Saturday April 28, 2012, the Littlest Tumor Foundation was present at the Relay for Life event in the Kolf Center located on the UW-Oshkosh Campus. The event ran from 4 p.m. on Saturday afternoon and went until 4 a.m. on Sunday morning. LTF was there for the WHOLE 12 hours raising awareness about NF and some of our upcoming events. We had a “little” booth where the Relay for Life participants could sign up for the sam-i-am race that is on May 26, 2012. Check back soon for great events in May (NF month)!

NF KIds

Our blog is about wellness, but today we will add a bit about what NF kids go through. Our guest blogger is an NF mom Amie Broeniman her 7 year old Emma has NF. Life had been fairly routine with Thursday Chemo's until an eye exam about 2 weeks ago when suddenly we came to the realization that Emma was seeing NOTHING out of her left eye. Time to move the the MRI up and change course. So we had an MRI in 2 days and the tumor has changed a little and with the clinical changes we were on to chemo #3! This is where I wanted to be 5 months ago I am trying hard not to think about all the time, gas and energy was wasted in the past 5 months.

We started the new chemo which is called Avastin/CPT11 yesterday, 2 years after we started the first chemo. The oncologist said to us "The protocol is 2 years but if things are going well we will keep going after the 2 years!" I can't even let my mind go to the fact that by time she is 10 she will have spent almost half of her life in chemo. I feel strongly though this chemo will work and the tumor will shrink..
The good thing with this new chemo is the fact that it is every other week so we will get a break from our travels. The side effects or potential side effects are a bit scary but we will deal with them if we have to and hopefully other then the sickiness ones we wont have any and I will gladly clean up vomit poop what ever if this %#@#$ would just stabilize.
So I am hoping with a break here and there I will have a little more inspiration to write.