Family Trying to Stay Strong
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Hi my name is Nancy Boisvert and I am 41 years old. For my whole life all I wanted was to have a perfect little family. Growing up in Timmins seemed to be the perfect place for this to happen but a little over 5 years ago my life led me here in the Ottawa region to be with my fiancé Jeff. I'm happy to say three years ago my dream finally came true and we were blessed with the birth of our son Devin and once again four months ago with our beautiful daughter Autumn.
During the pregnancy with Autumn I became extremely sick. I was constantly dehydrated, kept loosing vision in my left eye and because of it, I was admitted and hospitalized about six times. Seeing different doctors each time, none of them could pin point the problem. They all came to the conclusion that it was just a really bad pregnancy.
Towards the last few months of my pregnancy my vision kept getting worse. My son's playgroup nurse insisted that I see an optometrist. Within two days of seeing him we were in Kingston General Hospital and I was diagnosed with a pituitary tumour. The doctor's waited until I was 36 weeks to deliver the baby at which time they started planning the procedure to remove the tumour before it did anymore damage to the brain. While I was in the hospital for the birth of my daughter, I discovered a lump on my breast which turned out to be cancerous. The doctor's decided to do both operations at the same time. During the surgery they then discovered that the cancer had spread througout my body and to my pituitary gland. I was classified as a stage 4 cancer, very aggressive, and non-curable. This cancer is called "Metaplastic" it is extremely rare and only 1% of women are diagnosed with this type of breast cancer and the rate of survival is very low at only six months to one year.
The future and well being of my family is what is currently upsetting me. The costs of my treatments are great especially the childcare and for the travelling costs to the cancer center in Kingston. My fiance is currently working and has not been able to take too much time off due the these costs. But my biggest concern is that I would like to make sure that my children have a bright future and we are hoping that after the chemo treatments in December we will able to get married.
During the pregnancy with Autumn I became extremely sick. I was constantly dehydrated, kept loosing vision in my left eye and because of it, I was admitted and hospitalized about six times. Seeing different doctors each time, none of them could pin point the problem. They all came to the conclusion that it was just a really bad pregnancy.
Towards the last few months of my pregnancy my vision kept getting worse. My son's playgroup nurse insisted that I see an optometrist. Within two days of seeing him we were in Kingston General Hospital and I was diagnosed with a pituitary tumour. The doctor's waited until I was 36 weeks to deliver the baby at which time they started planning the procedure to remove the tumour before it did anymore damage to the brain. While I was in the hospital for the birth of my daughter, I discovered a lump on my breast which turned out to be cancerous. The doctor's decided to do both operations at the same time. During the surgery they then discovered that the cancer had spread througout my body and to my pituitary gland. I was classified as a stage 4 cancer, very aggressive, and non-curable. This cancer is called "Metaplastic" it is extremely rare and only 1% of women are diagnosed with this type of breast cancer and the rate of survival is very low at only six months to one year.
The future and well being of my family is what is currently upsetting me. The costs of my treatments are great especially the childcare and for the travelling costs to the cancer center in Kingston. My fiance is currently working and has not been able to take too much time off due the these costs. But my biggest concern is that I would like to make sure that my children have a bright future and we are hoping that after the chemo treatments in December we will able to get married.
Organizer
Cheryl Campbell Laurin
Organizer
Timmins, ON