Georgia Arsenault

Georgia was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia on May 23rd, 2018 which was just a few months after she turned 3. For a few weeks prior to her diagnosis, Neil and I questioned what was going on with her. She was often complaining of a sore tummy and headaches and just seemed off. I was overwhelmed with worry. I kept telling Neil I wanted her to get some bloodwork done because I had a feeling something was really wrong and he couldn’t understand what I thought they would find with just bloodwork and he thought I was crazy. I will never be able to explain what this was like but I knew deep down that my girl was so sick. I knew everything was about to change.

She went to bed on a Monday night with sore legs and I sat up all night rubbing her legs and crying because I knew it was time to call the doctor and I did that following morning. She got us right in and requested bloodwork. The next morning she had bloodwork and I went home and sat by my phone all day waiting for the call. I literally dropped to my knees when I saw our doctors office calling at 4PM. I answered and she was crying. I could NOT believe what I was hearing. She said Georgia was very very sick and there were a lot of Leukemic cells found in her blood. She told me to pack bags as we would be heading to Halifax immediately. I was in total shock. Our other daughters were only 5 and 4 months old I had no idea how long I would be leaving them for. I was still nursing our baby. I was afraid she would starve. I knew our 5 year old would suffer emotionally. I had no idea what this meant for Georgia’s future. It was absolutely terrifying. I was literally sick.

I have a hard time talking about the following 7 months. It absolutely breaks me. Georgia suffered so much. Her treatments were at both QEH and the IWK. We were constantly on the road For treatments and I felt like we were torturing her because she was too young to understand that these treatments were meant to save her life. We spent a total of 8 weeks admitted to the IWK and Prince County Hospital  She had countless life saving blood transfusions. She had many fevers that brought us to the ER late at night. As her mom, I just feel like this is so unfair. I don’t know if I will ever come to terms or be ok with what my child has had to endure and continues to have to endure. Not only that, but our older daughter has struggled emotionally as well and that’s also unfair. My heart is mostly always broken now.

In January, Georgia began what is supposed to be her easiest phase of treatment which is maintenance and she will be going through this until July 31st, 2021. It has not been smooth sailing, but her life has gotten much easier. We are constantly battling nausea and other minor side effects but it takes a lot to slow our girl down. She spent most of her summer outside in our pool with our friends and family (following Covid rules of course) and she just started kindergarten at age 4. She is thriving. I give her chemo every morning along with many other meds and then she heads to school. Most days she even wakes and gets sick and doesn’t even complain. She is absolutely hilarious and unique and just loves being “normal” and loves to sing and dance. She has changed me and so many others around us. She is most definitely the strongest and most determined little person I have ever met and I am so proud to be her mom. She is an absolute GEM! 

Now come on July 31st!!