Katherine Ann Barnard, usually known as Kat, is twelve years old and in the sixth grade. She is smart, beautiful and the joy of her family's life. I will describe her using her own words from a recent school project. "Katherine. Happy, athletic, hazel eyes, blonde hair, softball, dogs, kittens, dirt bikes, internet and goofy." Katherine is a tough kid. She has been a softball player since she was 4 years old. She is never sick. Never.

On Friday October 26, 2007, she complained of a headache and then began vomiting. I immediately called her pediatrician. The short version of the story is that the pediatrician, who I credit with saving her life, identified something in her physical exam. We were sent to the hospital for further tests and a brain tumor was discovered.

Since that day, we have endured a stay in pediatric ICU, a craniotomy to remove the mass, return home, then seizures and an ambulance ride back to the hospital to address that issue. The physicians sent her tissue sample to Johns Hopkins for evaluation.

We now have a diagnosis. Katherine has High Grade Glioma. The neurosurgeon has removed the largest tumor but there is still a second tumor that is in her midbrain and is inoperable.

She then completed six weeks of radiation while having chemotherapy. Following the radiation she began a higher strength chemotherapy protocol. It was during this chemotherapy that she developed the hepatatic adenoma, a benign mass on her liver the size of a large grapefruit or small cantelope. The liver mass developed in February of 2008, while she was in the midst of chemotherapy. The mass was so large that it completely obstructed her stomach and also pressed on her pancreas causing acute pancreatitis. She was not able to eat food from February until June.

When her blood counts recovered enough for her to have surgery, we traveled to Emory Children's Hospital at Egleston in Atlanta for a resection of the liver mass. She was hospitalized for over six weeks at that time. Following the liver mass resection she developed pneumonia in both lungs and required a ventilator for a week. She continued to have difficulties and developed a large pressure sore on her ankle which slowed her recovery further. She was discharged from the hospital in Atlanta on July 4, 2008.

Since then she has been at home, recovering her strength and beginning to eat again. We travel back to Atlanta for another MRI on August 27, 2008. You can read more about Team Kat on her website at www.caringbridge.org/visit/katherinebarnard