Khaliah-Shay Kaulana Rapozo, the 11-year-old daughter of Valerie Gallardo and Curtis Rapozo of Wailua Houselots, has managed to find a little bit of Kaua’i in chilly 40-degree Seattle. After arriving in the Seattle area last month for what is hoped
Khaliah-Shay Kaulana Rapozo, the 11-year-old daughter of Valerie Gallardo and Curtis Rapozo of Wailua Houselots, has managed to find a little bit of Kaua’i in chilly 40-degree Seattle.
After arriving in the Seattle area last month for what is hoped to be a life-prolonging blood transplant for Khaliah, who suffers from leukemia, the family received a call from Peter Buza, a former Kekaha resident, who with his family owns and operates Kauai Family Restaurant in nearby Georgetown.
Peter Buza, Lita Buza and Mary Buza have brought Kaua’i-style cooking to the Pacific Northwest with great success, and invited the Wailua family to lunch.
The touch of home, including the Hawaiian home style setting and tasty local grinds, has proven the perfect tonic during a particularly busy and stressful time in Khaliah’s young life, Gallardo reported.
“While eating there, we met up with some (other) local residents,” Gallardo said. “They have a warm hospitality, and greet their customers with a lot of aloha.”
Khaliah and family have kept a whirlwind schedule since being delivered to Lihue Airport by Steve Kaui’s Custom Limousine stretch Lincoln Navigator (they’ll also pick the family up when they come home).
“We have been at the hospitals averaging eight to 10 hours per day,” Gallardo said. “We have daily blood draws, clinics, classes for managing care at home, managing IVs (systems for delivering intravenous medicine and other liquids) and medications at home, nutrition, food care, infectious disease,” and other learning necessary to take care of Khaliah after the transplant, Gallardo said.
This week, Khaliah is getting daily radiation treatments, and beginning this Saturday, April 6, she will endure three days of intensive radiation treatment in preparation for the blood transplant surgery now scheduled for next Tuesday.
The three days of intensive radiation treatment will tire out Khaliah, her doctors say. This week’s first round of radiation has already done a number on her, though she remains in good spirits, according to her mother.
“We’re all doing fine, and since we arrived here we have been on a very hectic schedule, seven days a week,” Gallardo said.
“Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (is where) we do our daily blood work, and clinics with the outpatient doctors who oversee her daily. The University of Washington (hospital) is where she receives her TBI (total body irradiation),” Gallardo continued.
The Children’s Hospital is where Khaliah gets X-rays, ultrasound treatments, electrocardiograms (EKG) and transfusions, and where she will be staying inpatient for her umbilical cord blood transplant operation, said Gallardo.
The schedule does allow for some sightseeing, and Khaliah has had the rare privilege of playing in Seattle snow. It doesn’t normally snow there.
The intensive medical regimen has revealed one complication.
While doing routine tests of organs and blood for the presence of any virus or bacteria that may be lurking in Khaliah’s bloodstream, doctors and technicians found small gallstones and an elevation in her blood level that was causing liver inflammation, said Gallardo.
A liver biopsy was performed to find out what the problem was, and the treatment regimen included a combination of antibiotics, other medications, and chemotherapy. As it was determined that a certain drug or combination of drugs was causing the liver inflammation, the drug combinations had to be changed.
On March 29, the final recommendation and evaluation meeting was held, and Khaliah was given an excellent bill of health, her mother reported.
After transplant operations, the liver is the organ most often adversely affected, but doctors see Khaliah’s liver treatment regimen progressing so that rescheduling the transplant procedure again shouldn’t be necessary, Gallardo said.
Back on Kaua’i, fund-raising efforts continue, with her fifth-grade class at King Kaumuali’i Elementary School hosting a spaghetti dinner fund-raiser on Wednesday, April 24, at 6 p.m. in the school cafeteria. Call 241-3150 for more information on that fund-raiser.
Khaliah’s Kaua’i ‘ohana is also planning another fund-raiser (watch this newspaper for details soon). Her grandparents are Carlos and Magdalena Gallardo of Hanama’ulu, and Mervin and Fay Rapozo of Wailua Homesteads.
In the meantime, donations can be dropped off at any Bank of Hawaii location, or sent to Friends of Khaliah-Shay Kaulana Rapozo, P.O. Box 1852, Lihu’e, HI 96766.
Back in Seattle, where medical insurance is taking care of most of the costs associated with Khaliah’s treatment, Gallardo says she has no second thoughts about making the journey or decision to go forward with the procedure.
“The level of care here is excellent. We feel so comfortable with the choice we made, and would definitely recommend these doctors to anyone,” she said.
“We meet people from all around the country,” said Gallardo, who found Monday this week the first time she was able to schedule some time to update friends and family members of Khaliah’s condition and transplant schedule.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
