Brooke Kajdy, 23, was diagnosed with stage 4 B-cell lymphoma in June 2023. She was 20 weeks pregnant at the time
Brooke Kajdy, 23, was pregnant when she first started experiencing unusual symptoms in the beginning of 2023.
Knee pain, swollen gums. These symptoms were “two things that seem completely unrelated, completely random things,” she said.
Repeated visits to the family doctor, the emergency room, the chiropractor and the physiotherapist came back with the same conclusion: They were all pregnancy-related.
But the pain would get worse over the next three months for the Airdrie resident.
“It felt like what I would assume arthritis would feel like,” said Kajdy, who described how at one point she could barely walk from her house to her car, parked on the street outside and how she had to crawl up the stairs.
It wasn’t until June, while she was getting an antibiotic infusion at Foothills for “whichever infection they thought I had,” that her doctor wondered if something else was afoot and admitted her that day.
“Something is not right here,” she quoted him as saying.
A bloodwork test and a hip biopsy confirmed that she had stage 4 B-cell lymphoma.
Kajdy was 20 weeks pregnant at the time of her diagnosis.
“It was partly relief, that I finally had a diagnosis after all this runaround,” Kajdy said of her reaction on hearing the diagnosis. “And then on the flip side, I was obviously devastated. I’m 23, I’m a young mom, two kids. I’m so young. Why is this happening to me?”
In the months since, Kajdy has undergone several rounds of chemotherapy, radiation and an immunotherapy called CAR T-cell therapy, all to mixed levels of success. The immunotherapy, Kajdy said, took care of many tumours. But she still isn’t cancer-free.
After her last round of chemo, she asked her doctor what she should do next.
“(He) was just quiet,” she said. “It was the most heartbreaking thing ever … because it was just like oh no. We’ve run out.”
Their oncologist suggested she try participating in clinical drug trials in the United States that could treat her disease. The trips, however, would come at a great expense for her and her husband, upwards of $500,000 to potentially $1 million. The drug treatment would be covered, Kajdy said, but “we would have to pay out of pocket” for everything else.
Hard on family and friends
When Kajdy was first diagnosed, she and her husband were given two options: terminate the pregnancy and start a full chemotherapy treatment or continue the pregnancy until 32 weeks, while undergoing an altered form of treatment that would minimize side effects on the baby.
Kajdy chose to continue her pregnancy.
“I was already 20 weeks,” she said. “It wasn’t like I was just a few weeks in.”
At 32 weeks, she underwent a C-section and Theo, her son, was born.
“I was so happy that once he was out, he was completely healthy,” she said. “He’s perfect.”
Theo was placed in the neonatal intensive care unit for two more months to monitor his health and Brooke and her husband, Gabriel, would visit him every day.
Between ensuring his health and continuing chemotherapy, there was “no time to enjoy him,” Kajdy said. “It was just like go, go, go.”
Now Kajdy is a mother to two young children — Sophie, 3, and Theo who turned 1 in August.
Most days, Kajdy said she is able to manage tasks around the house by herself.
“I’m lucky that I have the kids to keep me going and keep me distracted,” she said.
But taking care of the house and kids becomes difficult after rounds of chemotherapy.
“My husband is amazing and he holds down the fort like no other,” she said. “But it’s a lot for one person to handle.”
That’s when the couple leans on their “village” of family and friends to support them.
“My husband’s parents have been amazing,” she said. “They’re always watching the kids when I have appointments or if I’m not having a good day, will come help me out.”
Her friends have been very supportive. “My husband’s rugby club has been just outstanding when it comes to helping us out and fundraising for us,” she said. “We’re very lucky to have a big community.”
Her family lives in New Zealand and visited last year to help the couple.
“It’s been hard for my family because they aren’t here,” she said. “And it’s tough on me because it’s not necessarily the treatments that are the hardest part. It’s more so the way that this is hurting the people I love.”
Drug trials in U.S. can cost up to $1 million
After a conversation with her doctor earlier this week, Kajdy said that a medical team in the U.S. is eager to have her visit and participate in the trials. However, the process to parse through her medical history, identify which trials she would be eligible for and set plans for her visit has been “a long waiting process.”
“(The doctor) said it should be about two weeks before we have a set solid in stone plan,” she said, and hopefully a maximum of six weeks before she and her husband can visit the U.S. for treatment.
“If it were to be that long, I would do a thing called bridging chemotherapy to kind of keep things under control until I can get there,” she said.
While they wait, the family shared their story via the GoFundMe page. The money, Kajdy said, would cover a portion of their expenses which would include hospital stays, tests, scans, travel costs for trips every three months or up to a year.
“Our doctor did say it’s typically closer to the $1-million mark,” Kajdy said. “It’s a lot of money.”
The couple is looking at two clinics, one in Houston and the other in Seattle as options for treatment.
The trial in Houston, Kajdy said, is a similar immunotherapy CAR T-cell treatment that attacks a protein differently from the treatment available in Canada.
Another treatment in Seattle would use a donor’s stem cells to kill Kajdy’s cancer cells.
“In Calgary, we have access to the standard treatments used at first diagnosis and relapse for this lymphoma, if the cancer responds to treatment,” reads an emailed statement from Dr. Kevin Hay, Kajdy’s oncologist and clinical scientist at the University of Calgary.
While Stage 4 (IV) lymphoma is often treatable, “a person’s prognosis depends on many factors, which include the type of lymphoma and the age of the individual,” the statement continues.
“In some cases, a patient’s cancer does not respond to multiple lines of treatment and therefore the only option is a clinical trial. Unfortunately, there are currently no trials available for such cases, but options to go to the U.S. for a clinical trial are viable, but costly to the patient.”
According to an emailed statement from the health minister’s office, Albertans can fund their medical treatment outside of Canada either through the Out-of-Country Health Services Committee or get partial coverage through the Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan. In such cases, all services must be insured health services that are not available in Canada.
“However, services that are experimental, undergoing clinical trials, or fall within the category of applied research are not eligible for funding,” the statement reads.
Kajdy’s case is an unusual one. When she asked her doctor what her life expectancy looked like after her last round of chemotherapy failed to completely treat the cancer, he said she was an “outlier,” according to Kajdy.
“He said he hasn’t seen anyone with this kind of aggressive cancer I have who has lived as long as I have,” she said. “Most of them have already passed away.
“He said I’m very much an outlier, but I am the perfect candidate as someone who has tried all the treatments that are offered here in Canada to now be sent to America to try new things.”
Despite her experiences, Kajdy said that her sense of optimism keeps her focusing on the positives.
“Of course, I still get there sometimes, when it’s quiet and I’m by myself,” she said. “But I’m a very positive, optimistic person and so it’s really easy for me to focus on the positives and not get stuck on these scary things that are happening.”