A visit back to Schomberg wasn’t as pleasant as it should have been

Written By ROBERT BELARDI

In the summer of 2019, Springhill, Nova Scotia native, Curtis McCormick was working in a Canadian Tire warehouse in Amherst. He had experienced periodic chest pain from time to time. 

He went to the doctor and was prescribed Tylenol and Advil temporarily. Everyone at work, said to him it's most likely muscle strain from lifting product. He didn't think of it too much, and went off to college in September, two hours away from home. 

On October 3 of last yer, McCormick endured a horrible night's sleep. He felt an intense pain in his chest that prohibited him from breathing properly and turning. It became unbearable and it was time to go to the hospital. 

He went to emergency department after class that day and the doctors, couldn't feel a heartbeat on the left side of his body. The hospital ran scans and discovered a large mass. 

McCormick was sent to Halifax for a biopsy. The family, waited a week for a bed to be available in the hospital. 

“We were told over the phone, about seven or eight days later, that it was suspicious for something called Synovial Sarcoma. We asked if that was cancerous and they said yes,” his mother Linda McCormick said. 

The hospital said this needs to be removed immediately. McCormick's breathing was laboured and he often coughed when he spoke. 

In November, McCormick's tumour was removed. His mother said it was the size of a cantaloupe. It was 29 centimetres in diameter and it sat, entrenched, behind his left lung. 

The doctors removed 95 per cent of all that was there. The surgeons could not extract everything. 

Without prior knowledge of sarcoma, the McCormick family researched the condition on the internet, searching credible pages, seeking answers and further direction. 

McCormick, was sent to see an oncologist. The oncologist was convinced, this could not be removed by surgery. One week before Christmas on December 18 there was apparently, nothing the oncologists could do. All they could do, was run a Computed Tomography (CT) Scan. In other words, a fancy x-ray. 

On December 27, the family was told again, there's nothing the doctors can do. McCormick was 19-years-old at the time. 

From what was a worrisome time; a period of the “what ifs” and “how long do we have” seemingly became the ubiquitous thought process in the household. McCormick was in imminent danger of the unknown. 

Following the scan, the family was directed to Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto to see sarcoma specialist Dr. Abha Gupta. 

“She said, ‘there's lots that we can do. Don't worry, you're not going to die,” Linda McCormick reiterated. 

That was in January 2020. McCormick was directed to receive chemotherapy treatments immediately in Halifax. 

Back home, each treatment was three to four days long. It was a lot of time spent in hospital enduring what was going to be a tough road. 

And then, the ominous COVID-19 pandemic swooped into our world wreaking havoc within the medical system. 

For the last two treatments, McCormick sat in the hospital alone. 

He finished chemotherapy in May. There were a lot of boxes that had to be filled with the infamous checkmark for surgery to be done. There had to be no other form of cancer and the tumour had to be shrunk to a minimum. 

The tumour had shrunk from therapy and there was no spread. But there was one, existential problem. 

“The cancer, had developed a resistance on the last treatment to the chemo,” Curtis McCormick explained.  

The family waited for a call from Toronto for surgery and radiation.  

They all hung on to hope by a thread. If the tumor grew and the cancer spread, surgery may not have been feasible and the end, the family thought, would have been around the corner. 

Curtis' surgery was overshadowed by COVID-19 and delayed further than expected. The tumour grew larger every day. 

In June, McCormick held another CT Scan in Halifax and was told, for the third time, nothing can be done.  

Linda, sent the scan and tirelessly emailed Princess Margaret in Toronto. Two weeks later, Princess Margaret said they can perform surgery. 

 In July the family drove to Schomberg. Linda McCormick grew up in Schomberg. She moved out to Nova Scotia where her husband was from. Her sister, currently resides in the town. Under these circumstances she was going to stay with her sister and her return to the town was not for the reason she would have hoped. 

But once, they arrived, McCormick's health began to decline. 

“He could hardly walk, he couldn't do stairs, he wasn't breathing well, he was in pain all the time. We thought once again, everything was not going to happen,” Linda professed.  

The family pleaded to enter the hospital and after the fourth time phoning Princess Margaret, they were allowed to enter and the surgery was set for July 30. 

For an hour that day, the community came together at the McCormick residence to wish Curtis well while receiving a complimentary ice cream bar from the family. 

The surgery was successful as far as they can tell. They were able to remove all the cancer they found and the doctors believed a few more radiation sessions would eliminate all the remnants leftover. The surgeons removed his left lung, a piece of his diaphragm and the lining of his lung.

The impossible became possible. Call it a miracle if you will. Curtis is alive. 

So, now, they wait. The family has not heard from the hospital and Linda is actively on the Sarcoma Support Group learning on what typically happens in this scenario. There will be a follow-up scan, the family believes, in two to three months.  

“It's not really a done deal yet. We have to wait for the follow up scan and give some time and then another scan to see if anything else is growing,” Curtis said. 

“Having people pray for us all over the place has been a huge help for us to get through this. Our faith that God is good, even when times are hard and that nothing is beyond him,” Linda said. 

“It hasn't been easy, it's been extremely hard but that has definitely carried us through.” 

“I do certainly feel like, God has given me the strength to get through all the really hard treatments that I didn't think I had and I feel like he certainly blessed my recovery from surgery because I'm recovering, a lot quicker than I thought I would and it seems a lot quicker than what the doctors estimated as well,” Curtis explained following his mother's comments. 

Through this unprecedented time and situation, the McCormick family is overwhelmed by the heart-felt support from the Schomberg community. Their story has been shared on the Facebook page. Citizens, were bringing the family food, offering wheelchairs and enquiring on his status. 

Through this traumatizing experience, Linda McCormick is quite unhappy about the visitation policy within hospitals. Her and her husband, endured a tough process in order to receive special permission to see their son; who turned 20 years old through this time. 

“We would have been happy to of gotten a COVID test every week to go in. We would have been happy to do anything to of been able to of spent more time in hospital. The surgery was delayed and that was a problem and that caused problems for sure. But the visitor policy was what hurt us the most,” Linda said. 

Now living with her sister, Linda and Curtis must wait another two to three weeks until Curtis, becomes healthy enough to travel back home to Springhill, Nova Scotia. 

The King Weekly Sentinel, prays for the McCormick family and wishes Curtis a full recovery.