Langford’s Hannah Day will hit a new milestone in her cancer recovery Friday when she has surgery to remove a catheter that’s been in her chest for two years.
The five-year-old cancer survivor has plans for a long-awaited bubble bath, a big sleep on her tummy and a jump in a swimming pool — in the shallow end until she learns to swim.
The “central venous” catheter is a small appliance typically inserted in the chest under the skin that connects the port to a vein. Through the port, drugs including chemotherapy can be injected and blood samples can be drawn without needles.
Mother Brooke Ervin said it’s another overwhelming, scary, yet exciting hurdle to have the lines come out. The surgery is scheduled to take place at B.C. Children’s Hospital in Vancouver on Dec. 12.
It’s another sign Hannah is gradually moving on “from this life of cancer,” Ervin said.
Dr. Rod Rassekh, an oncologist at B.C. Children’s Hospital, said removal of the catheter will give Hannah more freedom, including the ability to once again take a bath or go swimming.
“It is a milestone in that it takes children closer to a normal life, so most are thrilled once the line is removed,” said Rassekh.
It’s been a long road for Hannah, diagnosed in 2012 with a cancer that attacks muscle tissue, called rhabdomyosarcoma.
Rassekh said the hospital sees only five or six cases in B.C. every year. “Her tumour was unusual in its location, in that it was spread throughout her abdomen without an area of obvious tumour.”
Hannah had no sooner gone into remission than she was diagnosed with chemotherapy-induced leukemia in December 2013.
On March 19, surgeons at B.C. Children's Hospital performed a rare haploidentical transplant, in which Hannah received stem cells from her mother. Doctors have considered her cancer-free since that day, almost nine months ago.
If she remains in remission one or two years, she is considered a long-term survivor, according to her oncologist.
“The longer we go without the cancer coming back will increase her odds of a lifelong cure,” Rassekh said.
Today, Hannah has grown back much of her hair, has attended a few days of school at Happy Valley Elementary in Langford and is enjoying being back on Vancouver Island.
However, her path to recovery remains rocky. Her leg muscles have become increasingly weak as a side-effect of the drugs used after the stem-cell transplant, Ervin said. Also, after Hannah was given antibiotics in November at Victoria General Hospital for a suspected case of pneumonia, she developed C-difficile, severe diarrhea.
Still, Hannah continues to move forward and the family — including father Robert Day and younger sister Hailey — is looking forward to Christmas. “It will be our first Christmas at home together in three years,” Ervin said.
