Hello Everyone,

Some of you are friends, family, and or current and past families of Cedar Mill Childcare. You may have met Nicole and Mitchell at some point over the years. If you have never met them let me tell you about them. Through the years that I have known Mitchell and Nicole they have always shown love and support to everyone they know. They are a sports fanatic couple. When not at sporting events they can be found at movie theatres enjoying the newest release.

Nicole, has been at Cedar Mill Childcare for 10 years. She has been an integral part of the high quality of care that the children receive. She is dearly missed at the moment.

As some of you may know Mitchell and Nicole were given devastating news near the end of August. Below is a summary of the challenges they have been facing the last three months.

In mid June, Mitchell started to experience upper back pain. He chalked it up to normal back pain from sitting at a desk for work. As the pain persisted he went to his RMT every week for 6 weeks. Finally he decided that he should probably talk to his doctor about what was going on. His doctor prescribed some muscle relaxers and ordered an x-ray. After a fall and a scary increase in symptoms Nicole and Mitchell decided they should head into the ER. Lions Gate admitted Mitchell immediately and took all of his symptoms very seriously.

After being there for just over 24 hours, a CT and a MRI their world came crashing down. They were told that Mitchell has a large tumor wrapped around his spinal cord in his neck and upper back. They told Nicole and Mitchell the prognosis wasn’t good and most likely was terminal. Doctors wanted to do a biopsy the next day so they could figure out for sure what kind of tumor it was.

While waiting for biopsy results Mitchell ended up needing emergency surgery again to open his spine up and make room for the tumor that was pressing on his nerves and spinal cord causing him to lose function in his hands and arms rapidly. He was able to regain some function post surgery thankfully.

They finally received the biopsy results and were given a miracle diagnosis of an ependymoma tumor. Thankfully not the fast growing terminal one they had once believed it might be.

Mitchell was transferred to Vancouver General Hospital to receive highly specialized care from the amazing team of neurosurgeons they have there. The up and down rollercoaster continued while at VGH because the doctors wanted to make absolutely sure what they were dealing with. They kept saying that it just wasn’t acting like a ependymoma tumor and they wanted to make sure before surgery. Three weeks later and two more pathology results later the diagnosis was confirmed and Mitchell had a surgery date set for September 26.

The surgery was very very dangerous. Attempting to resect a tumor wrapped around a spinal cord comes with a lot of risks but it went well. Unfortunately Mitchell lost even more of his motor functions during the surgery. Since the surgery Mitchell has been working hard on healing and doing physiotherapy to regain strength and reconnect those neuro pathways again.

Mitchell is so strong and so determined to gain back as much function as possible. This journey will be the hardest thing Nicole and Mitchell have ever gone through but they are so thankful to get to work hard now at a future they felt was almost stolen from us.

After 9 weeks and counting of Nicole and Mitchell living in hospital they hope to be moving on to GF Strong rehabilitation centre so Mitchell can work towards building strength and skill and learning to live in this new body and work towards getting back to his job that he loves so much.

This is were we come in as a community to support Nicole and Mitchell through this challenging time. Mitchell is going to need to purchase the necessary equipment to help live a more normal life. Items such as a wheelchair, lift, ramps for doorways, possibly a specialty bed, and other accessibility items for around the house will be crucial in helping Mitchell return to an independent life. Additional accessibility devices such as computer accessibility upgrades, special desk and tools to aid in Mitchells ability to return to work faster will also be needed.

It is still unclear how much aid Mitchell will need ultimately for the rest of his life. Things such as a new vehicle and different living arrangements will most likely be needed in the future.

Anything you feel able to give would be appreciated.