Wishes come true

Becca may only be 18, but she has been through a lot for her young age. For the past two years, Becca has battled acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and the Sea-Doo was presented to her as her gift from the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Getting diagnosed

On Nov. 17, 2008 Nancy Anderson took her daughter to the doctor.

“I was really tired all the time,” Becca remembered.

At 15, Becca was an active teenager. She was a sophomore in high school, had a job, was in dance and other activities. Being tired seemed routine for someone with her activity level. “I was really pale and had headaches all the time, too,” she said. So she saw went in for a check-up.

After a series of blood tests, Dr. Crosley told the Andersons they needed to take Becca to Duluth — that day. Her hemoglobin level was at five — a healthy person has levels between 12-18.

Nancy said she had a feeling her daughter had cancer.

“I just knew,” she said softly. “Sometimes I guess I know too much.”

Shortly after, the Andersons arrived in Duluth and Becca underwent different tests, Nancy’s worst fear was confirmed. Becca was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Two days later, she had surgery to insert an internal port for Becca to receive chemotherapy and for blood draws.

“It was surreal,” Nancy said of Becca’s diagnosis. “It was like a bad dream.”

For the next several days, Becca and her family received an overload of medical terminology, treatment options and protocols concerning her condition.

“It was scary but we were told she had the ‘best’ kind of cancer,” Becca’s sister Katie said.

A worn-out Becca spent a lot of her time sleeping and getting introduced to oral chemo drugs and other medications. Thankfully, results from Becca’s cerebrospinal fluid biopsy came back negative for cancer, meaning she wouldn’t have to have radiation.

“It might sound funny, but my biggest fear was losing my hair,” Becca laughed.

Word of Becca’s diagnosis spread quickly and her family and friends were quick to help out.

“I was lucky enough to come home for Thanksgiving two weeks after I was diagnosed,” Becca said. “When we got home, my sister, Katie, had the house all ready.”

“She had lights up, too,” Nancy said smiling. “And there was a fire in the fireplace.”

While Thanksgiving with family was a nice break, Becca was back in Duluth only days later for a bone marrow biopsy and more chemo. The biopsy came back with positive results. The family was told Becca’s leukemia cells were in remission, but her journey was far from over.

Treatments

Becca had weekly chemotherapy treatments and the road to Duluth became familiar quickly for the Andersons.

“I had to go to Duluth once a week until last spring,” Becca said.

“It started to become routine,” Nancy added. “As horrible as that is, that is how it went.”

“We learned we couldn’t make long-term plans,” Katie said of the treatments. “We never knew how she would react to one and we just took every day as it came.”

Becca turned to John Pozniak who was a four years older than her and went through cancer when he was her age.

“John really helped,” she said. “He told me everything would be OK.”

“I don’t know that there was a time when I didn’t think things would be OK,” Nancy added. “That feeling never wavered. I always had faith everything would work out.”

Becca still takes oral chemo medications daily and has monthly treatments in Duluth until March.

Setbacks

Although she never relapsed, Becca still had difficult hurdles to jump during her treatment. One specific type of chemotherapy infusion she received called vincristine was especially difficult.

“I had a bad reaction to it and I couldn’t eat,” Becca said. “When I was able to eat, most of it came back up. I had to take a lot of nausea medications.”

Nancy calls the reaction horrible.

“She was down to 89 pounds,” Nancy said. “Every night I had to hook her up to an IV pump to feed her nutrition throughout the night.”

Becca was also put on steroids which eventually caused her to suffer from osteonecrosis, or bone death.

“I couldn’t do any of my sports,” Becca said. “It was hard not to be able to participate in dance or track. It makes me sad sometimes.”

Having leukemia shut out more than sports for Becca. She also missed out on most of her sophomore year. Luckily, she said, she had a lot of help from teachers and Ardel Henrickson who came to Becca’s home to get her caught up on schoolwork.

“Ardel helped so much,” she said. “So did my other teachers.”

Becca’s fearful hair loss proved a hard setback as well. And she went through it twice.

“The first time came fast and wasn’t so bad,” Becca said.

But, Nancy said the second time was harder. “Nobody saw her head the second time. Not even the dog. She always wore hats and bandanas.”

“Regardless of the hair loss, Becca didn’t sit on the pity pot much,” Nancy said. “She is awesome.”

Today, Becca is still closely monitored. Nancy explained that if Becca’s temperature is 100.5 or above, she will need to be hospitalized.

“It’s hard for me to see her around the general population,” Nancy said. “I’m getting better though.”

Support

Becca said the support from her family and friends throughout the last two years has been amazing. A group of Becca’s friends made bracelets that said “Blessings for Becca Boo” and sold them to raise money.

The family wears their bracelets every day.

“I’ll take mine off in March,” Nancy said. “The day of her last treatment.”

Doug and Nancy’s graduating class organized a spaghetti feed to help the Andersons.

“There were people lined up down the street,” Katie said of the positive turnout. “It was amazing.”

Nancy also added that the chemotherapy department in the Falls also offered invaluable support. She said whenever she had a question or concern they were always helpful.

Katie said well wishes from everyone was overwhelming.

“I imagine that walking that road without support of family, friends and the community would be really hard,” Nancy said through tears. “But, I never felt alone.”

Make-A-Wish

The Make-A-Wish Foundation contacted Becca right away, but because she was so sick, she said she couldn’t think of anything she wanted except to feel better.

“At first, I wanted a 2010 Civic Hybrid,” Becca laughed. “But apparently they don’t do on-road automobiles.”

When she was feeling better, Becca said she’d like a jet ski.

“My doctor wouldn’t let me get a jet ski because of my bone disease,” she said. “So then I went to a pontoon boat, but because of size limits, it wouldn’t be big enough to hold my entire family.”

Becca said she settled on a fishing boat, but her doctor lifted restrictions on the jet ski because her disease was getting better.

She had to take online boating safety classes, but she got what she wanted.

“It was great,” Becca said of finally getting the watercraft.

The Andersons arrived at the Dec. 20 ceremony surprised to see a small crowd had come for the presentation at Essentia Health’s First Street Building in Duluth.

“I had to shake hands with a lot of people I didn’t know,” Becca laughed.

Her family is excited to use it, too.

“It holds three adults,” Katie smiled. “We’ll have fun.”

Becca plans to use it the Sea-Doo summer at a family cabin on Willard Lake in Canada.

Aside from getting her jet ski, last week brought another exciting event in Becca’s life. She got her first haircut since her diagnosis.

“It was wonderful,” she smiled.

Future plans

Nancy said she is anticipating watching Becca graduate from both Rainy River Community College and Falls High School this spring.

“I’m excited for her,” she said.

Overall, the experience has brought the Anderson family closer.

“We appreciate what we have everyday,” Katie said.

“We’re so thankful of everyone who has been with us throughout this entire process,” Nancy added.

Next fall, Becca plans to attend college in Duluth to study medicine — possibly pediatric oncology.