about karine

Written by Lyse Chartrand, Karine’s mother  

Karine was born on December 28^th, 1980 – she just turned 21! She is our second child, has an older brother, Alain, who is now 26.

With the exception of a few hospitalizations when she was much younger, Karine has overall enjoyed good health. 

This past September, Karine experienced excruciating pain in her left leg and actually had trouble walking.  Once the first set of X-rays came back as suspicious, bone scans and MRIs were ordered.  The initial diagnosis from Ottawa was “osteosarcoma” – bone cancer – as she had 3 hot spots in her legs.  Due to the fact that there is no specialist in Ottawa (orthopedic surgeon /oncologist) who could perform a biopsy, we were referred to Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.  Karine was admitted on our first day there, and after multiple other tests and a biopsy, the official diagnosis of Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin’s, Large B Cell was made on November 23, 2001. The hot spots in her legs are lymphoma tumours attacking the bone marrow.

We had returned to Ottawa by then and Karine is now under the care of a hematologist/oncologist at the Ottawa Cancer Clinic.  She requires 8 cycles of chemotherapy (the CHOP one).  The treatments are administered once every 3 weeks. The treatments and their side-effects are quite difficult.

Karine's biggest disappointment is to put her studies on hold for now and not being able to complete her last College semester.  She plans on taking a few courses over the summer/fall months as she gets better and will indeed graduate next year.

Her big brother’s upcoming wedding next September is an event she is looking forward to.  As she is one of the bridesmaids, she is determined to be in good shape to fully participate in this celebration.

Karine has a heart of gold and is lucky to be surrounded by many good friends and family members who support her unconditionally throughout this ordeal.

Karine loves chocolate, her boyfriend, animals (especially polar bears, dogs and horses), poetry, inspirational stories and the Backstreet Boys.

We are all cheering her on!!