Fae’s Radiothon Story

Fae went to schoolhouse the time earlier her household learned she had cancer. Everything seemed truthful normal, and then…it wasn’t. Her puffy look – similar she was having an allergic absorption – and swollen lymph nodes led Fae’s mom, Brett, to instrumentality her to urgent care, wherever bloodwork flagged what was suspected to beryllium leukemia. At the Alberta Children’s Hospital, further investigating narrowed down the benignant of crab to a circumstantial diagnosis: T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL). As if this quality was not shocking and devastating enough, Fae’s parents Brett and Rob, learned the crab had filled up lymph nodes done Fae’s cervix and astir her heart, creating a wide that was compressing her heart, and she needed to beryllium admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).

Fae started chemotherapy close away. It worked truthful good that she developed a information called tumour lysis syndrome, meaning her kidneys were having a hard clip keeping up with filtering the accelerated compartment breakdown arsenic the chemo killed the cancer, truthful she needed to beryllium enactment connected dialysis for support. Once Fae was yet stable, her household began to process what laic ahead. While they were relieved to cognize that her crab was treatable, the attraction program was 2 years and 4 months long. Brett says they truly had to prioritize the contiguous and absorption connected each day, 1 astatine a time.

The archetypal signifier of Fae’s attraction – “frontline chemo” – included 4 rounds of chemotherapy, which Brett describes arsenic “Intense. Nuking the cancer. Hitting it arsenic hard arsenic they can.” The 2nd phase, “long-term maintenance”, begins this period and volition transportation Fae done to the extremity of her attraction successful August of 2026. Thankfully, they person an astonishing squad of nurses and doctors successful the oncology session supporting them each measurement of the way. Though she mislaid her hairsbreadth and had to halt playing hockey, Fae has been an implicit trooper, missing lone 1 time of schoolhouse due to the fact that she felt excessively sick to go, and uncovering a caller consciousness of intent successful coaching her younger sister’s hockey team. “She ne'er complains, she cracks jokes, she makes the champion of it,” says Brett. “She sounds similar a 40-year-old therapist erstwhile she talks astir her feelings.”

A precise peculiar enactment passim attraction has been the Hospital astatine Home program, which saved Fae’s household from making galore trips to the infirmary from their location successful Okotoks. Instead, a caregiver came to them truthful Fae could beryllium comfier during attraction and determination were less disruptions to her family’s schedule. “It has made an undeniable interaction successful keeping the lives of my household somewhat mean again,” says Brett. “The nurses successful the Hospital astatine Home programme are immoderate of the astir compassionate and competent radical I person travel across. It has been a immense value disconnected our chests to spot that the radical coming to attraction for our kid are the champion of the best.”

These days, Fae is doing well. She plans to enactment successful hockey camps this outpouring and summertime and instrumentality to the crystal with her squad successful the fall. The household is besides looking guardant to a privation travel to Disneyland. Despite the hard roadworthy they’ve been walking, Brett is thankful for the galore radical who person played an important relation – from the astonishing PICU staff, to their oncologists and the Hospital astatine Home nurses.