After nearly two years of fundraising, Esther Holoien will be the first to take advantage of a community effort to improve diagnostic care in the north.
This afternoon, Holoien will be scanned by the University Hospital of Northern B.C.'s brand new diagnostic Single-Photon Emission Computerized Tomography (SPECT) CT system, in a bid to see if her cancer has spread.
Last summer, Holoien was diagnosed with a thyroid cancer so rare, "it didn't even have a name," she said.
It all started with a lump, the size of a Grade A large egg in the right side of Holoien's neck, that she discovered last April.
"It came up overnight pretty much," Holoien said of the lump she found when absentmindedly reaching for her neck while reading a book.
But it took months before she did anything about it.
"At first I thought, okay my Mom had a goiter maybe it's just that. I'll just leave it, maybe it will go away," Holoien said. "I just kind of stewed about it until August because it never went away. I waited that long. So if you ever have lumps, don't wait."
Things moved quickly after that, the rareness of Holoien's disease prompting aggressive action. She had her first surgery to remove half of her thyroid in March and the rest was removed in April.
The new diagnostic tool was the product of a Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation fundraising campaign that started roughly around the same time Holoien was diagnosed in the spring of 2013, and it will be put to use for much more than detecting cancer.
The SPECT CT scanner will be one of two in the province (the other is in Victoria) that works to pick up heart conditions, cancer, look at the brain, spine, bones and joints and event spot dementia, all while using lower radiation.
The machine takes two types of real-time images and merges them into one field for a more precise image in less time.
Northern Health zeroed in on this piece of equipment as part of its shift towards diagnostics, said Spirit of the North CEO Judy Neiser, who called diagnostics the "area of greatest need."
The next area of focus will be on updating thing such as the MRI and digital mammography
equipment.
"Because while we have a lot of this equipment, it's getting older. Nobody uses a cell phone that's 12 years old, right, and yet that's what our MRI is," Neiser said. "And so it's trying to keep ahead of the leading edge pace and trying to bring the best of care closer to home for the northern residents."
The fundraising campaign for the SPECT CT wrapped up sooner than the foundation thought it would, said Neiser.
"It's really been [because of] so many generous people who've heard about it, who've embraced it, who have lost loved ones because things weren't detected and diagnosed quickly," Neiser said. "We've met with a lot of people who were truly touched by the concept of having something here to detect and diagnose anything. Absolutely anything."
The last of the funding was wrapped up with this year's Festival of Trees Gala event where $70,500 for the SPECT CT was brought in within minutes as part of a final request with an additional $39,500 to go towards the next campaign.
It's fitting for Holoien to be the first to go through the machine, as she's used to being the the one that her seven brothers and sisters look to for guidance. She calls her younger sister, who suffered a severe heart attack two years ago, her inspiration.
"I know from what she dealt with, what I'm dealing with is much lesser scale," Holoien said. "I can do this, I can do this."
