The Lord is my Shepherd;  I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name' sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: For thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me  in the presence of mine enemies; Thou annointest my head with oil;  My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell  in the House of the Lord forever.

Kim's service and visitation will be at:

Montecito Memorial Park and Mortuay
24145 Barton Road
Loma Linda, CA. 92354
909 825-3024
Visitation: May 18 - 4:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M.
Service: May 19 - 11:00 A.M.

The Reed's address is:

Jeff & Kathy Reed
128 E. Etiwanda Ave
Rialto, CA. 92376

E-mails from Jeff & Kathy

July 12, 2000

We were sure sorry to miss the reunion. I've told Kathy that we will be there for the all class in 2004. As it turned out we wouldn't have made it anyway. I think you know my youngest lives in Alaska. Well on July 5th she was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia. They flew her to California for treatment so she is in day 5 of a 90 day treatment. The prognosis is good. She has a great positive attitude. As a matter of fact they are letting her come home tomorrow and she will be doing the rest of the treatment as an outpatient. We're a little nervous about taking care of her but the chemo has killed her immune system so she's less at risk of catching something at home. We're keeping our fingers crossed. . . . . She decided to get her hair cut off before it fell out on it's own.

Jeff

September 30, 2000

Hi all. Kim is in week 2 of phase 3. Pills for 5 more days then another injection in the spine. She had 1 last week and it went fine. They gave her a half dose to see how it went. Next one on the 6th will be a full dose. She gets 1 every other week for a total of five.

She will be finishing her treatment in Alaska. She goes home on the 11th of Oct. She is so happy. She still has a long way to go but mostly shots and IVs so she is lining up a doctor up there. She is in remission and all her cells are healthy. She is looking good and has regained all her weight.

I just wanted to drop everyone a quick note to let you know what's going on.

Thank you all so much for all you've done for us.

Love to all, Jeff, Kathy & Kim
 

I'm sorry to say that the results of Kim's test have come back and she has had a relapse. The test shows her with 57% Leukemia cells in her white blood cells. She will be flying back to California this weekend to start another series of treatments.

The goal will be to get her back in remission then do a bone marrow transplant. Our other daughter will be tested this week to see if she's a match. She is the best shot. There is another treatment they are doing where they harvest the stem cells from her bone marrow and kill the leukemia cells then give you a transplant with your own cells. I don't know yet if that is an option for her or not.

I will send another update after she gets here and sees her doctor.

Keep her in your prayers.

Jeff & Kathy

February 9, 2001

. . . Kim arrived last night. She looks pretty good. Doesn't feel good though. Her hair that was blonde is now dark brown. Well we are headed to Loma Linda (hospital) to admit her. We have no idea if it's for a few days or weeks. Her doctor in Alaska says the bone marrow transplant procedure from beginning to end is about 100 to 120 days. Some of this is getting her back in remission and assuming Susie (their other daughter) is a match.

Well time to go. More after we see the doctor which may not be till Monday.

Love, Jeff, Kathy & Kim
 

Hi all,

Well we just got the results this morning and our daughter Susie is a match on the first test. The doctors were very excited so that's a good sign. There is a part two to the test but we don't really know what that is yet. Kim got her chemo last night and this morning she is feeling better than she has felt all week. She has been running a fever since she got here. Sometimes as high as 102.9.

They have given her every test possible to find the cause and finally decided it must be from the Leukemia. Her white count has went from 51,000 to 84,000 so the leukemia is taking over. We were surprised to find out that she gets chemo for two days and that is it.

She will be in the Loma Linda hospital for 3-4 weeks then transfer to City Of Hope for 4-6 weeks we think. The doctor told her the worst part of this treatment would be boredom.

So anyone who would like to send her a note please do. I have been printing out the e-mails and taking them to her to read.

She can't be around flowers because of her immune system so if you'd like to send her something she can use phone cards. The best place to buy them that we've found is Costco.

Well all for now. Time to go see her.

Love, Jeff. Kathy and Kim
 

Hi all.

No time for a long note but she continues to improve a little at a time. She is making her own blood again. Her white count is starting to come up which will help her immune system. Her platelet count rose on it's own and she has been moving around a little. She's breathing over the respirator.

They do dialysis every day and she's starting to look more like Kim. The nurses were very happy yesterday. And us.

Love to all, Jeff, Kathy Kim and family

Hi all.

Well Kim had a pretty good weekend. She still gets the fevers and the doctors can't find the reason. They have reduced her oxygen to 35% and the machine is helping her breathe not breathing for her. They have stopped giving her the paralysis medication but still keeping her heavily sedated.

They say she may be awake in the next few days but it could be a couple weeks. Her white count is in the normal range so her body is starting to beat the pneumonia. All positive signs. Her condition now is considered critical but stable. The doctors are encouraged. Us too. All for now. Time to go see her.

Love to all. Jeff, Kathy, Kim and family

April 4, 2001

Well another quick note. Sorry it's been so long. We are either at work, at the hospital or asleep.

Kim is still improving. She was starting to wake up but was uncomfortable so they raised her sedation. She was moving around and able to acknowledge us. She is still fighting fevers and yesterday and today they did a nuclear (?) scan. They are trying to find an area of infection that could be causing the fevers. Every time she has one (daily) they draw blood and try to grow cultures and all have been negative. Her white counts are in the normal range but she continues to need platelets about every 2 -3 days.

They have reduced her dialysis to every other day and are talking maybe every 3rd day. Her kidneys have started to function some and we still have hopes they will return to normal. She is still on the respirator but at the minimum settings. They were trying to wean her off and she was doing well but there have been too many things going on the last couple of days to put her through that. Since she has been on the machine for 5 weeks now it is real tiring for her but the other day she went 9 hours.

What they do is, instead of the machine giving her a set amount of breaths, the machine gives her air volume when she takes a breath. Her pneumonia is almost gone. We meet with the doctors tomorrow to see what's next. She is still in critical but stable condition.

One bright spot today was a doctor who hadn't seen her for a couple weeks didn't realize it was her and was excited at how well she is doing. So some more slight improvements.

Thanks for the cards and e-mails. They help keep us going. Keep the prayers coming.

Love, Jeff, Kathy, Kim and family

April 19, 2001

Hi all.

Well Kim is okay but she had a rough weekend. They are still trying to find the cause of the fevers so they ran many tests Sunday and Monday. She is back to pretty heavy sedation. Sunday night we were getting ready to come home a little bit early since she was so sedated and sleeping peacefully when she had a seizure. It was fairly mild but very scary.

She had had them during her first phase of chemotherapy but is on an anti-seizure medication so it was totally unexpected. So Monday they did the second battery of tests. We are still waiting for results. Should have them all back tomorrow.

A lot of the tests they do involve growing cultures that take 2-3 days. They also did a test of her white cells to be sure they didn't see any signs of leukemia and it was clear. That is a constant worry that it will reappear before she's strong enough for more chemo.

On the good side they are still doing dialysis but only filtering her blood. Her kidneys have been putting out more each day. They haven't done anymore weaning off the ventilator since she's been having so many tests. We were getting so used to the little steps forward each day that a step back is tough.

Before all this, she was starting to be more awake and we were able to communicate with her. We got an occasional smile and she'd raise her hand and wave when someone came in. It was good to know she was still in there.

Well all for now. I'll send another note when we get all the test results back.

Keep praying for her. She's come a long way but there's still a long way to go.

Love, Jeff, Kathy & Kim
 

Hi all.

Well after the setbacks last week Kim has made a major turn around. Yesterday they took her off the ventilator and she has been breathing on her own for over 24 hours now. Also yesterday they took her IV lines out for her dialysis since her kidneys have gone to completely normal in the last week. Then last night they started decreasing her sedation and she is now awake.

She is unable to talk since she still has the trachea tube in her throat but asked for a pen and paper to write us notes. She is unable to do that yet as she is too shaky. So we got a piece of paper and wrote the alphabet on it and she can point to letters. She gets very frustrated but we're getting better at it.

Well all for now. Keep her in your prayers. She still has a very long way to go but she is incredibly tough.

Love to all. Jeff, Kathy, Kim and family

May 9, 2001

We met with Kim's doctor  yesterday and the Leukemia has come back very rapidly. Her white cells are almost all leukemia cells. The prognosis is not good.

We have one last chance to save her. They will give her a drug today to start to kill the leukemia cells. They have to do it very slowly since she is very weak and could not take a strong dose.  The doctors say it only has about a 25% chance of success but without it she only has a few days left.

She has come so far and gone through so much to not beat this.

So everyone pray for the miracle that will save her.

Thank you  so much.
Love, Jeff, Kathy and Kim
 

We want to thank all of you for your prayers and concerns but I'm sad to say that the last hope we had isn't working. Kim's leukemia has come back real strong and any chemo that would kill the leukemia would also kill her.

She is now sedated and on pain medication and the doctors only give her a few days at most. She is resting very comfortably and just looks like she is in a deep sleep.

It is incredible how many lives were touched in pulling for her to beat this. She is a real fighter but it is just too much for even Kim.

Thank you again for all you have all done for us.

Love to all. Jeff, Kathy & Kim
 

I'm sad to say that Kim lost her battle to complications of Leukemia this morning. She was a fighter till the end but her body could only take so much.

Thank you all for your prayers, cards, e-mails and encouragement. We will never forget how you were all there with us in this battle.

Kim was just amazed at the outpouring of support from all over the country from people she didn't even know. You will never know how much it meant to all of us.

Love to all, Jeff, Kathy and Kim
 

. . . . it is incredible how many people were touched by her illness. A lot of good things will come of her passing. Right now they're hard for us to understand.

We allowed them to do an autopsy on Kim to maybe help find a cure for this awful disease.

Please send this to the class and let them know how much we appreciated all the cards, e-mails and notes of encouragement. We are looking forward to the next reunion (2004) so we can thank you all in person.

Love, Jeff & Kathy
 

Jeff & Kathy Reed
128 E. Etiwanda Ave.
Rialto, CA. 92376

Jeff's e-mail

Kathy's e-mail

The family wishes you, in lieu of gifts or flowers, to please make a donation to the

Leukemia Society

or the
Loma Linda Medical Center

Picture of Jeff & Kathy