Surviving the battle against cancer is a cause for happiness and celebration, but what happens when the cure for the disease takes away from the one thing you had always wanted? That was the case for Kennedi Austin, who, in 2014 at the age of 18, was
Surviving the battle against cancer is a cause for happiness and celebration, but what happens when the cure for the disease takes away from the one thing you had always wanted?
That was the case for Kennedi Austin, who, in 2014 at the age of 18, was diagnosed with Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (APL). As hard as getting that diagnosis was, it was even harder to hear right from the outset that her treatment would probably destroy any chance she would have of bearing children.
“I've always loved kids; I've always wanted kids . . . That was one of the things that hit me the hardest,&” said Kennedi, recalling the day of her diagnosis - March 18, 2014 - as the scariest day of her life.
In the week leading up to that day, Kennedi was concerned with the appearance of unexplained bruises, with a giant bruise on her shoulder appearing overnight. A dash of intuition and Google searches had her, her mother and boyfriend considering the possibility it could be cancer.
“My mom and boyfriend kept nagging me to have it checked out,&” she said, adding that a trip to the doctors and blood work confirmed the bruises were indeed the result of leukemia, with Kennedi being taken by ambulance from St. Paul to the University of Alberta almost immediately afterwards.
Kennedi and her mother, Andrea, were rocked by the news that their suspicions were true.
“I was terrified, confused and I really didn't know if I was ever going to leave the hospital alive again,&” she recalled in an essay application she wrote for a scholarship last year.
However, the positive news was that APL was not the death sentence it was years before, with her doctors telling her she had a 90 per cent chance of full recovery, with the advances in treatment. She began chemotherapy right away, with arsenic used in the treatment of APL - over the next five months of treatment, she would lose her hair and develop major mouth sores, headaches, weakness, and lose the resiliency of her immune system.
“It was a very long five months,&” she said, adding, however, she always believed she would beat cancer.
“She was the rock,&” agreed Andrea, who took time off work to be with her daughter in that time, while her husband stayed back in St. Paul with their son. “There were days when I was like, ‘I can't do this any more.'&” She was always like, ‘No, we got this.'&”
“Going through something like that, the mentality is so huge,&” said Kennedi, explaining why she kept her focus on remaining positive.
Friends, family and community members rallied around Kennedi, with the local 4-H Club providing support and friends loaning Andrea the use of their home in Edmonton to stay during her daughter's treatment.
Kennedi was declared in remission in August of 2014 but continued to have maintenance chemotherapy up until last year. She began working at a local flower shop full-time in November of 2016, but wasn't feeling 100 per cent.
She had been tired and throwing up, both of which she attributed to chemotherapy, but noticing her daughter was gaining weight, Andrea asked if she was sure she was not pregnant.
However, Kennedi had taken home pregnancy tests with negative results, and on top of it, questioned why she could even expect she would be pregnant after doctors told her how unlikely that was.
“I was having some back issues . . . after having a back x-ray done, I found out I was six months pregnant,&” she says, laughing even now with surprise, adding that the pain came from the baby pressing on her sciatic nerve.
“When I told my hematologist I was pregnant, she honestly fell out of her chair - not even a figure of speech,&” said Kennedi, still chuckling as she remembered the doctor's stunned expression. “She was very shocked.&”
While it was something Kennedi had wanted and hadn't dared to believe was possible, the timing was less than ideal. Since she had been taking chemo treatments at the beginning of her pregnancy, her emotions were a complicated mess of disbelief, shock and concern for her baby's health.
“It was very overwhelming,&” she said, with her mother adding that the news of the pregnancy at that time added stress to the family.
While she had tests and thorough care throughout her pregnancy, and was told the baby appeared to be healthy, Kennedi was not sure whether she could believe it, as the doctors had once also told her she couldn't even have children.
It wasn't until she and her boyfriend Tyler saw Abigail Rose Fodchuk born on April 6, with 10 fingers and 10 toes and crying her lusty and odds-defying entry into the world, that Kennedi felt not only the happiness and excitement of a new mom, but the total relief that her baby was perfectly fine.
Andrea holds her new granddaughter close to her chest, rocking from side to side, and for the first moment of the interview, can't speak for emotion. When she finally does, she says, “We definitely refer to her as our miracle baby.&”
Kennedi looks for the right words to explain her feelings on her daughter's birth, before saying, “I guess I just chalk it up to being put through cancer and surviving - this is my reward.&”
