Our son Finn was just three months old when he was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, an aggressive and fast-growing sarcoma. We spent the first year of his life fighting for it. It was so unreal because Finn was so little. It was like a slap in the face and it just kept hitting us hard and fast—surgery, cancer, chemotherapy. There was no time to think or feel. We were in full survival mode.

My son Mason took a little spill and started crying as he had hurt his leg. It was the end of the party and nothing serious, so we packed up and headed home. Mason complained about his knee hurting. Assuming he twisted it, I had him laid up on the couch to rest the knee. The next day when he said it still hurt I told him we will have to go to the doctors to have it checked. He said, “no its okay” and started walking on it again.

We started to notice that Kaidan wasn’t feeling well the same night he was given his first round of immunizations, so it was tricky to know what was going on. I called Health Link twice that first night, saying he was so lethargic and crying so much. They assured me that it was just a reaction to his immunizations. The next day I phoned our family doc and made an appointment but he couldn’t find anything wrong. He chalked it down to an ear infection and gave him antibiotics. My mama instinct went into over drive, saying, “No way. Don’t give him that.