“As a parent, you want to protect your baby,” Kristina Mitchell said this week from her daughter Kacey?s hotel room at Yale-New Haven Hospital. “But this is out of our control.”

Kacey has acute myelogenous leukemia, a cancer of blood-forming tissues of the bone, her 31-year-old mother said. And at a time when children her age are learning about the world around them, Kacey?s world has been largely limited to hospital rooms and courses of chemotherapy.

“Some days, she has gotten chemotherapy for 10 hours at a time,” Kristina Mitchell said. “It?s definitely starting to take a toll on her. She wouldn?t let me put her down for a minute the other day.”

Making their daughter?s illness all the more gut-wrenching is that Kacey is just learning to speak.

“We don?t know if her belly hurts, if her heads hurts,” Kristina Mitchell said. “She can?t tell us.”

Kacey?s illness has had a significant impact on her parents? outlook.

“I try to stay positive because I know that it?s important for her, but I have days when I just can?t,” Kristina Mitchell said. “The first week after we found out, I just couldn?t look at her or hold her because I?d break down. It has been very, very difficult.”

With Kristina and her husband, Glen, splitting time at the hospital, caring for Max has been left to Kristina?s mother, who lives in Hamden.

“I?ve only been with Max for about 14 days since he was born,” Kristina Mitchell said. “It?s been difficult to be torn between her and him.”

The initial treatment for acute myelogenous leukemia is chemotherapy, according to information on the National Institute of Health Web site. Over a longer term, treatment includes a bone marrow transplant.

But Kristina Mitchell said she is concerned about her daughter?s long-term ability to remain cancer-free, which she has been told is only 50 percent.

Friends of the Mitchells and other residents have rallied around the family to help them with the expense of the hospitals bills.

In Touch Massage & Spa on South Main Street is contributing a portion of the cost of its individual and couples massages through the end of April to the trust fund established in Kacey?s name.

Salon owner Lydia Jandreau said as a mother of two children, she felt compelled to do what she could to help the Mitchells. “I cannot begin to get my mind around what this beautiful little girl and her family are going through,” Jandreau said. “After hearing about Kacey?s diagnosis, I really wanted to help, as anyone would.”

There are also a pair of upcming fund-raisers that will benefit the fund.

The first fund-raiser is Saturday at the St. George Greek Hall in New Britain, with the second event scheduled for Tuesday evening at the Milestone Inn in Naugatuck. Tickets for both events are available at the door.

Joe Caponera, Kristina Mitchell?s brother, said $10,000 has been raised so far.

“It?s really incredible because a lot of these people are doing something for people they don?t even know,” Caponera said.

Kristina Mitchell said, for her and her husband, the outpouring of support has been an emotional tonic for the family.

“It makes us stronger to know that we?re not alone in this,” Mitchell said. “I?m very grateful for the love, support and prayers we?ve gotten because that?s all we have right now.”