GoFundMe set up for 7-year-old Ste Anne boy with leukemia

Carter Plaseski is a fun, energetic boy who loves video games, sports, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. But his life dramatically changed when he got what his parents thought was a cold.

“It was the end of January. He got, like, a little bit of a cold…And then it stayed like that for a little bit, where it was just sort of – it never turned into anything, or at least for about a week, it didn’t turn into anything serious. It was just a bit of a cold. But he was able to do things and go to school and wasn’t complaining of anything, didn’t have a fever,” Carter’s mother Jade Plaseski said.

“And then all of a sudden, it was a Wednesday…(Jan.28) he came home from school that day crying and complaining that his stomach was hurting. And he doesn’t normally come home from school like that.”

Following Carter’s stomach ache, the next day Jade and her husband Cody saw Carter waking up with a swollen face and he had blue veins on his chest and stomach.

On Feb. 3, they took him to the doctor who said it was congestion that was not draining properly and told them it would go away in four days and gave the Plaseskis treatments they could do to reduce the swelling. It worked at first and the swelling went down a little, but on the fifth day the swelling had returned to what it was in the beginning.

His parents became concerned and Cody took Carter to the emergency department at Bethesda Regional Health Centre where the doctor examined him, took blood, and an x-ray. When the results came back they found he had a tumour in his upper chest area that was sitting behind his sternum on his lungs and windpipe.

“It was pure panic,” said Cody, describing how he felt when he found out.

He immediately called his wife and told her the news. She packed a bag and met them at the door and they went to Children’s Hospital in Winnipeg. Doctors there told the family that Carter had acute leukemia and that the mass was the swelling of lymph nodes where leukemia cells were collecting. Carter’s windpipe was only open about three millimeters.

“So, it went from him being sick and a normal little boy to being in the hospital a week and a half later where he could barely breathe. You know, we then spent a whole week in ICU because of the airway,” said Cody.

The seven-year-old was diagnosed on Feb. 8 with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), an aggressive fast-growing cancer, where immature T-cells (lymphoblasts) uncontrollably accumulate in the blood, bone marrow, and often the thymus. It primarily affects children and teens, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of pediatric ALL cases. While historically harder to treat than B-ALL cases, modern intensive chemotherapy has improved survival rates to over 85 percent in children, according to the National Library of Medicine.

Cody’s 21-year-old brother died of ALL when Cody was just 14 and he was worried his son was going to die from the cancer as well.

Jade and Cody describe Carter as a sweet, active kid with a big kind heart, who is polite, and an excellent big brother to his three-and-a-half-year-old sister. He loves to laugh and play games like Minecraft.

Although he didn’t know what leukemia was, Jade said when she and Cody explained to Carter that he had cancer, he immediately became emotional as he knew that cancer was what killed his uncle.

“Hearing that was scary for him… He was crying and asked us if he was going to die, and that was probably the worst.,” said Jade. “You shouldn’t have to have that kind of conversation with your seven-year-old.”

Carter spent two weeks in the ICU and doctors were amazed that he was awake and able to function considering what his body was going through.

“And not only is he awake, but he’s, you know, laughing and playing video games with dad. And they’re all just like, you know, I don’t want to say their jaws are on the floor, but they’re like, why is he awake? Why doesn’t he have all these other symptoms that he’s supposed to have? And I feel that, like, that’s a good thing,” said Cody.

“It kind of feels like it’s evidence that he’s strong, you know, his body’s strong and it’s fighting,” said Jade.

Carter is home now and receiving chemotherapy and four medications to treat his cancer. He has regular visits to Cancer Care where they take tests and measure his progress. His treatments are done in 28-day blocks and medications are adjusted as needed. His parents say he is receiving a “cocktail” of medication. Since chemo makes Carter’s immune system compromised, he has to be careful not to get sick.

“It’s really hard to plan for anything or to have any kind of idea of what life is going to look like going forward because it sounds like it could change at any moment. Yeah, each trip that we go, we pack an overnight bag just in case,” said Jade about visiting Cancer Care.

Jade shared that immediately after his chemo treatments, Carter is really tired and lethargic.

“He’s sad, too,” she said, noting they watch him the week following a treatment to see how he responds. She added that Carter might have to start blood transfusions soon because of his low white blood cell count.

It is expected that treatments will last for about three to four years.

“We’re taking time off to deal and manage this and help him get through it. He needs the support, and, of course, he can’t take himself to the appointments. So, our life right now revolves around… Just learning our new normal,” said Cody. “Yeah, a new normal and doing what we can to support him and worrying about way more than we did before.”

Cody has taken time off from his job at Manitoba Hydro and Jade has as well from her work in the Hanover School Division as a youth support worker to look after Carter.

To help the Plaseskis, their family members have created a GoFundMe page, which to date has garnered more than $46,000 of a $50,000 goal.

“Yeah, it’s hard to find the words, honestly, for it,” said Jade. “We’re so grateful that people would want to do that for him and for us. It’s really special. It’s really kind.”

Jade and Cody are urging parents to trust themselves if they feel like something’s wrong with their child and to get a second opinion and to advocate for their children.

The Plaseskis are grateful to the medical staff at Bethesda and Children’s for all they did for their family.

“I feel like I just want to put out there that this experience, even though it’s scary and awful and terrible and I wish it wasn’t happening, has restored some of my faith in the health-care system. Watching the way that they have responded to our son, the way they take such good care of him every time we’re around them, their patience, their understanding with us,” said Cody.

“It feels weird to say a good experience because it’s such a terrible thing, but it really has made it feel just that much better, I guess, or more comforting, knowing that you have these really great people taking care of your son.”

To donate to the Plaseskis GoFundMe page visit gofundme.com/f/together-for-carter-our-brave-boy-battling-leukemia.