Courtney Goslin is a seven year old grade 2 student in Linda Spearman's class at Prince Andrew. Until last Christmas, she was a normal, cheery little girl who collected Beanie Babies and enjoyed playing on the monkey bars at school.
Around Christmas Courtney began resisting going to school, saying she didn't feel well. Her mother, Lucy, suspected that the girl was simply having trouble adjusting to her new school.
But on Christmas Eve, Courtney couldn't stop drinking orange juice and her eyes and lips started turning blue.
Lucy rushed Courtney to the hospital where blood tests revealed sugar levels at 65 (normal is 4-10). Courtney was admitted into intensive care and diagnosed as being diabetic.
"Courtney couldn't leave the hospital until we had learned how to give her insulin and learned everything else about how to take care of her," Lucy recalls. "It meant a lot of adjusting for the family and for Courtney."
Lucy and her husband Glenn have three other children ages 17, 13 and 4.
Courtney learned that she must eat six times a day and must avoid sweets. She had to learn to prick her finger four to six times a day to test her sugar. If she got upset or worried, her sugar would climb.
"If her sugar got too low, says her mother, "she could have a piece of chocolate. It was the only time she was really happy.
"She hates the pricks. One time she threw the picker across the room and broke it. It was all a nightmare."
But the nightmare had only just begun for Courtney and her family.
At the end of September, Courtney came home with a rash on her arms. Her mother took her to the doctor who said it appeared that Courtney's blood vessels were bursting.
"We had the blood tests done at 3:45 pm and at 7 pm the doctor called and told us to get Courtney into the hospital."
Courtney was admitted. He platelets were low and her white and red blood cell counts were down. She had bruises all over which she had attributed to falling off the monkey bars. "If you just touched her, she would bruise," remembers Lucy. "She looked like I had beaten her."
The next day, pediatrician Dr. Joe Galiwango told Courtney's parents that he suspected she would need a bone marrow transplant. He suspected she had leukemia except that her spleen wasn't swollen.
Less than 24 hours after being admitted to Hotel Dieu/Grace Hospital, Courtney and her parents were on their way to London.
Last week, specialists there confirmed that the very best thing for Courtney would be a bone marrow transplant. She has A-Plastic Anemia, a rare blood disease which attacks blood cells.
The entire Goslin family was tested - but not one of them was a match for Courtney.
Last Friday, the search for a donor match for Courtney began.
"The Canadian Blood Services recommended we get everyone we can tested," said Lucy.
In the meantime, Courtney is on a program of medical treatment which may help or may not help. It will be three months before doctors know if there is any improvement. It also takes three months for blood typing testing to be returned.
"They never had a case where someone with A-Plastic anemia also has diabetes," said Lucy. "It's a double whammy. We don't understand why and the doctors couldn't believe it. They don't know what will work. They are also giving her steroids to build her up - but these also elevate her sugar levels."
Courtney has been back and forth from the hospital several times in the past few weeks. When she develops a fever, she must go back immediately. "It's a big time battle when we have to back."
Lucy, who works a midnight shift at Tim Horton's on Malden Road, has been on a leave of absence, enabling her to travel to and from London and to be with Courtney as much as possible.
She hopes to return to work part time after Courtney returns to the family home in Oliver Farms on the 24th of October. Courtney's father is a foreman with Sartori Construction.
Many of Lucy's co-workers plan to attend a bone marrow information meeting at the Canadian Blood Services on November 10 to learn about becoming a donor.
Courtney is in London hospital for now where she spends her days on intravenous, doing crafts and school work and playing with her Beanie Babies.
"She loves her Beanie Babies," says Lucy fondly. "They make her happy. She talks to them."
Courtney's immune system is depleted so she cannot play with other children in the hospital. Some of the blood vessels in her face have burst and she is self conscious of her appearance.
Although Courtney tries to keep her spirits up and often smiles for her family, some days its all too much for her.
"I'm so tired of being pricked," she told the nurses one day as they tried to find a vein for the intravenous. "Just leave it out and let me die."
Lucy and Glenn don't intend for that to happen. They have been given hope that through friends, the community and the internet a bone marrow donor will be found for their daughter.
"God has tried twice to take her from me but I told him he can't have her," said Lucy.
The Canadian Blood Services will hold a one hour bone marrow donation information meeting on November 10 at 1 pm and at 7 pm. The meetings will be held at 3909 Grand marais East (near Central) Interested parties between the ages of 17 to 59 are asked to call 944-6866 if they plan to attend.
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