Radiant Resilience: Lauren's Story

On Monday, February 19th, the last day of the Family Day long weekend, Lauren and Nadia went thrifting in the morning, and in the afternoon, we all headed out to Crescent Beach for a refreshing walk.

Dinner was at the Washington Avenue Grill in White Rock after which we went home to watch a movie.

On Tuesday Lauren, Tash and Emma headed out to Children’s for a 10 AM meeting with the oncology team. Dr. Harvey gave a summary of all the tests that lead us to Lauren’s diagnosis of Stage 2A + bulk classical Hodgkin Lymphoma. I won’t bother you with all the details, they are readily available online.

The next part of the meeting was about the recommended treatment. Lauren will receive six cycles of chemotherapy; each cycle lasts four weeks, with two treatments per cycle. Each chemo treatment consists of four medications administered successively via the portacath. After completing two cycles, they will perform another PET scan to assess if the treatments have achieved the intended results.

The last item to discuss was the side effects of the chemo treatment. Suffice it to say that there can be many, and there is always medication available to manage the side effects of another medication. There really is no way to predict how Lauren’s body will react to the treatment, so we will pray and take it day by day.

At 1:30 PM, Heidi and Silas dropped by the hospital for a much-appreciated visit. Heidi and Tash visited Starbucks, and the young adults put a serious dent in the five bags of candy and grapes that the Aikema’s had brought along.

Lauren’s chemo started at 2 PM and lasted all the way until 9 PM. She felt good during the treatments and never complained. After the treatment was done, Lauren’s blood pressure was high, which earned her some more time in the hospital. Finally, at 10:30 PM, they were allowed to go home.

Lauren, tired from the day, went straight to her room where she found balloons and more candy left by her friends.

It’s incredibly moving to see how people go out of their way to show love for Lauren and our family. I can’t thank you enough for letting us know that we are not in this alone, and for putting a smile on Lauren’s face.

On Tuesday morning, Lauren woke up feeling good and decided to go to school. She takes Gravol to combat nausea, which makes her quite sleepy, so it’s pretty much like any other school day.

I had the idea to add one of Lauren’s old photos at the end of every post. I guess we will find out how long she will allow me to do this…