Photo Album | Guest Book | About Katya | Q&A | News Archive | Useful Links | Contact Us | Acknowledgments | Pearls of Encouragement
For Friends of Katya Maria Sansalone

BULLETIN: Please contact Sam or Rachel for information about a new website for Katya.

Welcome family and friends to Katya's web site!

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We are deeply grateful to our family, friends, and the medical workers who have in many different ways shared with us their love, kindness, and skill during Katya's ongoing struggle for meaningful life. We are also sorry for how the present absorbing circumstances and the often frenetic pace have prevented us as Katya's parents from communicating regularly with our many friends and relatives in various parts of the world who have been trying to keep updated on Katya's progress. It is our hope that this web site will help fill some of that 'information void' and provide at least some sense of contact with us during this period in which it is unusually difficult to reach us. We also hope this resource will help to add fellowship, friendship, and meaning to Katya's life.

Warm regards,

Sam, Rachel, Gemma, and Caleb

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How to Use This Site
You will always find the latest e-news update about Katya right here on this home page, near the top -- where it's posted as soon as it's written. The frequency of updates varies widely depending on circumstances and significance of developments. If you wish, you can have future updates automatically e-mailed to you by filling in the form found at the end of the "Latest News Update" section.

To move around to other pages within the site you can use the "Navigation Bar" found at the top of this page and at the top of all other pages. It is the (usually horizonal) list of links listed as: "Photo Album | Guest Book | About Katya | Q&A | News Archive | Useful Links | Contact Us | Acknowledgments".

Describing the links found on the Navigation Bar: the "Photo Album" page will be updated periodically with new pictures (and perhaps video), so you might like to check back every now and then. You can browse through our "Guest Book", then follow the instructions at the bottom of that page if you would like to add your own name to it -- all are welcome. The "About Katya" page is an anecdote beginning on the subject of her early days around birth, with more material to be added later as she grows. You can find answers to frequently asked questions at the "Q&A" (Questions and Answers) section. At that link you'll also find information on what to do and what to expect when you meet Katya. For example, did you know that to help protect Katya's health everybody has to wash their hands before touching her? Read the details at the Q&A page (Part D). Past news updates that you may have missed and might wish to read can be found at the "News Archive" page. (Some favorites are 9/Dec/'01 and 10-12/Dec/'01.) If you want to learn more about some of the medical issues Katya is dealing with, the "Useful Links" section provides quick access to a few resources elsewhere on the Internet. If you would like to contact us by e-mail, click on the "Contact Us" link for our addresses. You may enjoy reading our growing list of thanks at the "Acknowledgments" page where you can learn about some of the many people, including some genuine heroes, who have been specially helpful to Katya and her family.

Possibilities for the future? We might at some point add a basic chronology of Katya's issues and development, detailed commentary and essays about the controversial medical-ethical-social issues surrounding treatment and support of children with her kind of condition (or at least a link to another ethics-based website that we're likely to establish for public access if we ever find the time), a 'Notable Quotables' section, and possibly an internet 'chat room' so family and friends visiting the site can exchange thoughts and experiences about Katya and her issues. We might even consider a monthly brief live webcast of Katya in some activity so relatives and friends living far away can occasionally have a kind of real time 'peek and visit' as she grows.

It is our hope that this website will help provide the information you may be seeking about Katya, and that it will help to add fellowship, friendship, and meaning to her life.

Note: Our apologies for any 'banner ads' that probably appear at the top of this convenience-hosted website. Please know that they are not part of Katya's official website and we have no interest or involvement in them, and thereby do not control the ads that appear. Although this hosting service is very convenient, a drawback is that the tripod.com operating company can place ads at the top. We do have some proper space for this website elsewhere at our (no-advertising) Sympatico service (as well as at the VoxelMedia site where space has also been arranged), but have not yet had the time to co-ordinate with a programmer the move to either of those better locations and to arrange for the different logistics of doing updates from there. Sorry -- we'll get to it when we can.
SOME SITE HIGHLIGHTS: NEW! Check out our new "Pearls of Encouragement" page linked above. Meeting Katya soon? Click on the "Q&A" link above for helpful information (under its Part D). Want to 'sign' our guest book? Click on the "Guest Book" link above-left for new, easy instructions.
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Latest News Update
Interim Note -- February 14th, 2002
Many apologies for our taking so long to send out an e-mail/website update. We're aware that word-of-mouth has been keeping many people informed, but also that at least a few have heard nothing recently -- we're really sorry for that. In the last week e-mails have come in from far away places and it seems the recent absence of electronic communication has even created some worry -- we're so very sorry. Here's a quick update: Katya has been home since December 23rd/24th. Her heart seems to be fine -- more about that in the next update; a routine echocardiogram might be done before then and will help confirm her cardiac status. We had some really nice days and experiences since getting her home -- again more about that later when we have a bit more time for details in a fuller update. But unfortunately Katya had been beset by severe, relentless diarrhea and related complications that had made life unbearably miserable for her and us for most days during the past couple of months. Medical workers only very recently (within the last couple of weeks) figured out that it appears to have been because of a lactose intolerance that developed suddenly, perhaps around mid-December. So Katya's lengthy GI ordeal has utterly prevented us from getting much sleep around here since her homecoming, and everything has been upside down schedule-wise. That is why the website/e-mail updates -- and a great deal more -- had fallen between the cracks. Thankfully, things have begun to turn around since the apparent lactose intolerance was discovered -- Kayta was taken off breast milk a couple of weeks ago, put on a lactose-free formula, the diarrhea itself has stopped, and as a result life is getting a little more even-keeled around here. There's lots more to tell, including some nice stuff -- hopefully we can get around to it soon. Love to everyone.

Click here to jump to the "News Archive" page if you would like to view previous news that the above update continues from.

If you would like to receive future news updates about Katya automatically through our own personal mail list, let us know what e-mail address to send them to. You're all welcome -- our mail list is kept private and currently includes friends, relatives, and hospital staff. Simply fill out the form below and then click on "Submit".

First Name:
Last Name:
E-mail Address:
  

If you prefer, instead of filling out the form above you can contact us by phone or your own e-mail means. To see a list of our personal e-mail addresses click on the "Contact Us" link near the top of this page, or you can use the general family e-mail address linked directly below.

Privacy Reminder

A friendly reminder to users of this site: The contents of this website are considered private, intended for viewing only by friends and relatives of Katya Maria Sansalone, and other users authorized by her parents. If you would like to refer someone not currently included in these categories, such as someone whom you think could benefit from the website, please feel free to request this by contacting Sam or Rachel -- it should be fine, but please check first. (Click on the "Contact Us" link at the top of this page to get our individual e-mail addresses, or use the general link provided below.) In keeping with this privacy, please don't list this website on any directory, search engine, or other non-family means of communication. In addition to this website being private, please note that all original material contained in it is copyrighted. Friends and relatives are permitted, however, to go ahead and download pictures for their personal use without asking first -- just e-mail us to let us know you've done so.