Our daughter Juliana, or Jules as we call her, seemed perfectly fine until one day at the park, she suddenly doubled over in pain while running. She lay with me for about 15 minutes, crying and telling me her tummy hurt. Later that night, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off, so we went to the emergency room where they ran a few tests and set an appointment for an ultrasound and x-ray the next day. I was worried it might be her appendix.
It was early in the pandemic and my husband, Tom, wasn’t allowed to come with us to the appointment. Jules seemed fine—full of energy, even jumping around in the room. But when the radiologist asked if anyone in the parking lot was waiting for me, my heart sank. They asked Jules to go colour at the nurses’ station. I got Tom on speakerphone, and then they told us—our little girl had a growth on her kidney. They said it was most likely a Wilms tumour, which was later confirmed. We were immediately referred to SickKids in Toronto. I was told to return to our home in Georgetown, pack a bag, and get to the hospital for Jules to be admitted and wait for the next steps.
We quickly arranged for my parents to take care of our other two children, James and Emma, while we headed to Toronto. We met with the surgeon two days later, and three days after that, Jules was in surgery to remove the tumour along with one of her kidneys and some lymph nodes.
After the surgery, Jules started weekly chemotherapy and a few days of radiation treatment. Once settled into her chemotherapy regimen, our oncologist suggested we continue her treatment closer to home at the POGO Satellite Clinic at Credit Valley Hospital. This meant we only needed to return to Toronto every three weeks. At first, we were nervous about the change. But the oncologist reassured us that we would love the POGO Satellite Clinic—and we did.
It wasn’t just about being closer to home, though that made a massive difference for our family. The POGO Satellite Clinic became a place where we felt supported and cared for. The staff—especially Jose, Lindsay and Alex—became like family. They were always willing to do whatever was needed, including staying late when Jules had a fever. They even rescheduled one of her treatments so she could start Senior Kindergarten on the first day with her classmates. That small gesture meant the world to her.
POGO’s support went beyond medical care. Our POGO Interlink Nurse offered to talk to Jules’s class about her cancer. Ultimately, they arranged a virtual meeting with her school administrators and teachers to discuss how to best support her, including helping with sunscreen since chemotherapy made her more sensitive to the sun.
Jules is doing well today. She loves school, playing with her friends and Taylor Swift. Her check-ups have stretched from every three months to every six; eventually, they’ll be yearly. She will be monitored for life at a POGO AfterCare Clinic. We’re grateful every day for POGO’s support. They turned a terrifying experience into something more manageable, always making sure we felt supported along the way.