MONROE - One Monroe dad is gaining a new understanding of the word grit, and he's learning it from his daughter.

Darryl Bates has been watching his 13-year-old daughter, Keanah Bates, fight for her life against acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) for nearly five months.

"It's the hardest thing I have ever endured," he said Wednesday, just after learning his daughter was moved to intensive care for the second time during her treatments.

Keanah was diagnosed with AML on Dec. 31, and treatment started immediately.

Her medical condition is unique and doesn't fit most medical textbooks' recommended treatment, her father said. The fast progressing form of leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow, usually afflicts adults ages 65 and older.

"It's not normal at her age," Bates said. "Only a very small percentage of kids her age get it."

Bates spends time with Keanah nearly every day - and sometimes at night - at American Family Children's Hospital in Madison. Keanah's mother, Rachel Ertmer, as well as grandparents and other family members also stay with her often. In fact, Keanah is never alone, not even at night.

Being with Keanah has become the most important thing in his life, Bates said, but he has other responsibilities that need his attention: his wife, three stepchildren and his commercial cleaning business, Excel Cleaning and Building Maintenance, Inc. in Monroe.

The business alone, with six full-time employees and several other workers, is enough to keep him busy day and night.

"People ask me how I do it. But I tell them, there's no master plan on how to handle this," he said.

In fact, neither Keanah's family nor her team of doctors can make a lot of plans. The AML and her body's response to treatment can change daily.

"She is rewriting the book on AML in children," Bates said.

Keanah seemed to make good recoveries between her early rounds of chemotherapy treatments. She even kept up with her school work assignments, Bates said.

Complications arose, but Keanah fought through them. She had allergic reactions to some medications. And then, doctors discovered blood clots in her heart.

The blood thinners doctors wanted to use to alleviate the clots are "good for the heart, but bad for the AML," Bates said.

Keanah had a relapse during a recent round of intense treatment, another unusual development, Bates said. Doctors found cancer cells in her spine and brain, and ordered radiation treatment. More tests pinpointed cancer cells in tissue on her chest.

After a fourth round of chemo, doctors decided they need to do something different: Keanah needed a bone marrow transplant.

Spending time with Keanah has always been a priority in his life, especially after separating with Keanah's mother, Bates said.

"I'm an advocate for fathers. I fought tooth and nail to participate in her life," he said. "I've interacted with her daily, since she was little - well, until she started in sports."

Bates discovered Keanah inherited his competitiveness - that grit to maintain and endure, and it served her well in her sports.

"Well, she got it from the whole family," Bates said. "Her mom taught her a lot of good things. She carries a whole lot of her dad's mannerisms and strength, but she's a strong person all by herself. I found that out when she was little. Even in thumb wrestling, she was very competitive."

So dad and daughter, and the rest of the family, are not giving up.

The blood clots in her heart have not grown, but they are still present, preventing Keanah from flying to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., where Keanah's family would like to take her.

St. Jude is internationally recognized for its pioneering research and treatment of children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. It is the only Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children, as designated by the National Cancer Institute.

"We don't have multiple choices," Bates said.

Keanah has been slipping in and out of a consciousness, caused partly from the medications she is being given. But doctors found she was not healing quickly enough after her fourth round of chemotherapy about two weeks ago. Her blood counts were not coming back up to expected levels, and her weakened immune system left her exposed to a blood infection.

Although doctors thought she was stabilizing on Tuesday, Bates said Ertmer called him at about noon on Wednesday to say doctors were moving their daughter to the intensive care unit.

By Thursday, the doctors saw signs of her infection subsiding and of Keanah stabilizing again, but doctors were still waiting for culture results Friday before narrowing their selection of antibiotics to specifically target the infection.

Meanwhile, the doctors and Keanah's family are still in touch with St. Jude.

Keanah is on the bone marrow recipient list, activated and ready to go. But her blood count needs to stabilize, and she needs to be at or near remission if she is to survive a bone marrow transplant, Bates said.

That's where Keanah's determination comes in.

"All the doctors and nurses say her internal will to survive is the strongest they've ever seen," Bates said. "I could write a book about what she's taught me."