When Katie was 11 years old, she began having excessive thirst which led to drinking and urinating constantly.  After one year of symptoms, Katie was finally diagnosed with Diabetes Insipidus in September 1999. Her endocrinologist ordered an MRI to reveal that Katie had a tumor wrapped around her pituitary gland. Katie underwent a brain biopsy to determine that it was Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis in October 1999. Following the surgery, she received 6 weeks of chemotherapy and prednisone. Her and her family prayed that this was something that Katie would grow out of, and that she would never have a re-occurrence. But it happened.

When Katie was 16 years old, she found a lump on her clavicle when she was changing one night for bed. A needle biopsy revealed that the disease was back. It wasn’t only in her clavicle, but also in her lungs and liver. Over the course of her junior and senior year of high school, she underwent a year of chemotherapy and prednisone. In January, she was officially in remission again! Praise the Lord!

She went on to attend Georgetown College in the fall following graduation. But at the end of her freshman year, it came back. A lesion was found on her pelvis, and Katie underwent two different surgeries to remove the tumor. Luckily, that was the only location during this occurrence even though she underwent another brain biopsy to determine the pathology of another lesion in the white matter of her brain. It was determined to not be LCH or malignant. This lesion continues to be stable since it was discovered in 2006.

Katie did not let these bumps in the road slow her down. She continued at Georgetown College and was able to graduate in four years and was accepted into graduate school! But another speed bump came along the way.

During the spring semester of her Senior year at Georgetown, she began having back pain. A scan revealed a lesion on her T-7 vertebrae, and a biopsy confirmed it was LCH again. More symptoms surfaced revealing a skin lesion as well as a lesion on her jawbone. While attending her first semester of graduate school, Katie endured 6 months of chemotherapy. Following the treatment, Katie became disease free! And she has been since January 2010 (15 years!!!)

Since then, Katie has had multiple scares where recurrences seemed to have been certain, but she has remained disease free.

Katie is now finishing her 13th school year as a School Psychologist, and she is very dedicated to her job. She stays busy spending time with her fur baby, Winston, and her family and friends. She also enjoys traveling, reading, and following her Kentucky Wildcats (GO BIG BLUE), knitting, and puzzles.

Through the years of attending Histio events within the Association, Katie has realized she is not in the fight alone. That she is in it with all Histio warriors and families. The bond that exists between those that have been affected by Histio is rare and incomparable.