What appeared at first to be a simple leg injury turned into something Kerri Stiller would never have ever imagined her daughter would have to go through.
“She fell, had lots of pain but it was not getting better,” said Kerri Stiller.
Her daughter Keera had a fall in November, the injury was initially diagnosed as an MCL tear and the 17-year-old was put into a knee brace awaiting an MRI appointment in January.
After that appointment, everything completely changed.
“Four hours later they called us back to the hospital and pretty much told us it was cancer,” said Keera’s mother.
Within days Keera was flown out to CHEO in Ottawa, had a biopsy on February 9th and it was confirmed she had osteosarcoma and started chemotherapy treatments on February 14th.
“She did chemo from then until April with no success, the chemo was not working, the tumour had gotten bigger so they did surgery at that point,” Kerri explained.
“At first they thought Keera could get a knee replacement, that’s what they thought they originally could do, but cancer had taken too much of the femur and knee that is when she had the option of a straight amputee or a rotationplasty, she chose that as there is more of a quality of life, she will be able to function with the prosthetic on her own.
“The heel and the foot become her knee so she will have a lower limb prosthetic and her foot will operate the prosthetic itself,” explained Stiller.
Since then, Kerri, who works for the Victoria Order of Nurses in North Bay, was forced to leave her job as she has stayed in Ottawa with her daughter, while her husband Gord, who works at Broadspectrum in North Bay, has been traveling up every weekend to Ottawa leaving late in the week and returning to North Bay on Sunday night.
“He is tired, I see it in his eyes,” Kerri said about her husband.
While the family struggles while supporting their daughter, Kerri says Keera has been a brave and strong through this entire ordeal.
“It is overwhelming, it just seems like nothing ever goes Keera’s way but I could not be more proud of her,” said Stiller.
“She is a trooper, she always has a smile on her face. She makes little jokes and takes it day by day and that is all you can do is go day by day. It is not like we have control over anything. We just make the best of what we can.
“I watch her, and I wonder where she gets her strength. I don't know if I could do the things that she is doing. I always say if I could take it away (from her) and do it myself I would, as a parent anybody would right?”
Keera is expected to continue chemotherapy in Ottawa until late September, but the Chippewa Secondary School student is optimistic about starting her grade 12 year in October. Aside from the chemo, she will also receive intense physiotherapy as she will work on getting used to a new prosthetic limb.
“She is a rep soccer player, she plays basketball,” said Stiller.
“That is really hard with the life change we do not know how well she is going to walk - she has not walked since January.,” Kerri added, noting she has been getting around in a wheelchair since then and has just started using crutches.
But the family is optimistic and Keera is already talking about buying her prom dress for the spring of 2019.
While the Stiller’s are excited about getting through the summer, the financial cost has been tough as the prosthetic leg cost could be anywhere from $20,000 to $60,000. Kerri says the government covers about 75 percent of that.
Family friends have set up a GoFundme page to help offset some of those costs. That page called Keera's Haven, can be found HERE.
