RMH

There was never any question about who would go.  

When Karissa and her mom raced into an air ambulance in their hometown of Sudbury this past July, the rest of the family --- dad, six siblings (14 months to 12 years) and Grandma, packed the family van and headed south to Toronto --- none of them knowing where they would end up, all of them knowing they had to be together.

“At first we were both in shock. You are trying to process it, but I couldn’t right away. I didn’t have any reaction. I was shaken up and then I started feeling sick,” says Karissa’s mom, after learning the diagnosis and what was to follow. “How are we going to do this?  Our whole life is going to change?  What are we going to do?” Her husband had no answers.

While driving, Dave received a call from his panicked wife in the hospital, “there are 15-20 doctors all around her.  It’s crazy. They don’t’ need to do the bone marrow test. It’s already in the critical stage and they are starting treatment right now.”

The fourth of seven children, Karissa was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Spots on her legs, and face, a high fever, flu-like symptoms and two hallucinatory episodes were among the signs that confirmed acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), cancer of the blood and bone marrow.

With his wife in tears, Dave kept driving towards the hospital. “I didn’t know where I was going. My thought was oh Lord don’t take our child.  What is going on her. All I was thinking was just let her live.”

Dave fully expected to find a hotel for the rest of his family that evening, after arriving at the hospital.  He never had to. “The social worker came in and said there is a room for you at the House.”

The family of nine has been living in a suite at Ronald McDonald House Toronto since arriving in the city. 

“Life-saving. It saved our lives as a family because there’s no way that we could have all stayed here in Toronto this long, together, no way, especially within this distance to the hospital. It’s absolutely fantastic. We can function as a family here,” says Karissa’s Mom.

“One of the reasons we all wanted to stay together is because we thought that it had a lot to do with her healing,” adds Karissa’s Dad. 

APL is difficult to treat because it causes both blood clots and blood loss at the same time. 

“The first two weeks are very critical. Not many people survive past the first two weeks,” says Karissa’s Dad.

Just days after arriving at the hospital, Karissa suffered a stroke. “They were expecting her not to be able to speak, to walk, for the right side of her body not to be able to function. She was not talking. She had sores in her mouth from the chemo.  She just was not well and she did not want to talk to anybody,” says Karissa’s Dad. She did not speak for days, except to her sisters.

The family has been at the House for six months and counting, participating in many of the programs and services offered, including attending RMH Toronto School.

“Karissa looks forward to when the rest of the kids go to the hospital. There would be no way that she would be able to go months without seeing her sisters. They are all super-close, so to be away from them for months would have been even more traumatic,” says her Mom.

As Karissa faces several more months of treatment, her parents wonder what would have happened to their family without the House. “We think about it every day and we’re just bewildered.  Where would we be right now?”