How did this happen?
The question on Andrea Howarths blog cuts like a knife. One day the Port Coquitlam mom and her husband, Nick, are planning a trip to Disneyland with their two children Clara, now six, and Brennan, who just turned four and a few months later, they are plunged into a nightmare from which they are still recovering.
As she doles out cupcakes for a treat to her little ones in her comfortable condo, its hard to believe the story Howarth is about to tell, yet, according to statistics, its a sadly common tale for hundreds of BC families.
Last February, Clara was struck down by a serious fever that turned out to be Strep A. Later, as the little girls body fought the illness, her blood work revealed an even stronger adversary: lymphoblastic leukemia.
It was very scary, Howarth recalls. Flipping through a binder that logs Claras test results, prescriptions and hospital stays, she describes how Clara, then a kindergarten student, came home with a headache. That turned into flu-like symptoms and a fever of 40 C.
She couldnt hold anything down, Howarth said, and with a mothers instinct, she and husband Nick decided to make the trek to BC Childrens Hospital on Oak Street in Vancouver for some expert advice.
In the hospitals intensive care unit, Clara was given round-the-clock care by nurses and doctors who specialize in dealing with children and who patiently answered the Howarths litany of questions.
It took several days for the eventual, shocking diagnosis, but by then, anxiety and exhaustion had begun to take its toll.
Thankfully, they had great support from the staff at BCCH, and their close-knit family, friends and colleagues. Howarths parents even cut short a cruise to be with their daughter and Nick, a police officer, was able to get time off work.
The diagnosis, when it came about eight days after Clara was admitted, was hard to take. We were just devastated, said Howarth.
With leukemia confirmed through bone marrow testing, the family exchanged one cramped room in ICU to another in the oncology ward and Clara began chemotherapy treatments.
Childhood cancer is surprisingly common, with approximately 850 Canadian children expected to develop cancer this year 100 of them newly diagnosed in BC. All of the British Columbia cases will end up at BC Childrens, where staff are experienced in dealing with the special needs of children and research is being conducted into new therapies.
I cant say enough about the staff. They are amazing and theyve become our friends, Howarth now says, with some relief.
Clara returned home in the spring and, although extremely weak and with the trade-mark hair loss, finished kindergarten and is now back at school in Grade 1.
Her cancer is in remission, although she still has to receive treatments that are extremely hard on her body. The long-planned trip to Disneyland was cancelled but Howarth is thankful her daughter is doing so well.
In fact, she has become a BC Childrens Hospital booster and is supportive of a $200-million capital campaign to replace the aging facilities with a new hospital that will be much more comfortable for families and more efficient for staff. Recently, she toured a mock-up of the new design and cant say enough about it.
There are families who have to live there and they need this.
Plans call for larger rooms, the consolidation of oncology services on one floor, instead of three, as they are now, dedicated lounge areas and larger shared facilities, including a kitchen.
The improvements will be a benefit, she agrees, but for now, being home with her children every day and seeing Claras health improve is all Howarth really needs.
That trip to Disneyland can wait.
Fast facts:
BC Childrens Hospital has embarked on a $200-million capital campaign towards the construction of a $683-million hospital expected to open in 2018.
BC Childrens is the main provincial resource for children with cancer; any child in BC who is suspected of having cancer is sent to BCCH for diagnosis.
Between 100 and 150 children are diagnosed with cancer annually in BC, and at any given time BCCH has about 800 children in active treatment.
In 2011, 8,969 children and teens visited the oncology/hematology and bone marrow transplant clinics at BCCH.
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