WENTZVILLE, Mo. — An 8-year-old Wentzville girl’s health journey has gone viral just hours before she’s expected to have a risky spinal surgery.
Doug Karrenbrock said his daughter Penelope Kate, who's known as PK, started having pains in her back in December.
“(We) went to the pediatrician, took it from there, went to physical therapy, stuff like that—did four weeks of that, continuing to get worse as we were doing it. She was still playing soccer. She was still doing gymnastics, what she could. And then over the past month, it got to the point where she could not do anything,” Karrenbrock said.
They took her in for more tests, X-rays and MRIs, and found out the results right before they headed off to a father-daughter dance last Friday.
“She has a mass, that they believe is going to be a tumor. It's in her spinal cord, just right below her neckline,” Karrenbrock said.
This news sent PK to St. Louis Children’s Hospital where her dad says she’s been so brave and strong through it all.
“She's dancing around that room and singing and being sassy as ever,” Karrenbrock said.
He said the community has been right there with them sharing an image that says "Pray for PK" thousands of times on Facebook, creating a prayer chain and even reaching some local celebrities all wishing her the best, including St. Louis City midfielder Aziel Jackson.
His teammate, center-back Tim Parker, also sent PK a video wishing her luck.
PK goes in for a biopsy surgery Wednesday at 10 a.m. that doctors said is risky. The surgery will hopefully help them get more answers about what’s going on.
“She is definitely a fighter, for sure. And we believe that we're going to be able to get through anything they throw at us,” Karrenbrock said.
The Karrenbrock family said they can’t thank everyone enough for all the thoughts and prayers they’ve received thus far for PK, but they want people to keep praying and thinking of her throughout the week to help them all get through this.