Foothills Medical Centre Emergency Department

Ian H. 

on Birdeye

3 days ago

In advancing stages of brain cancer my wife was suffering from severe headaches and nausea. While these symptoms could be controlled with steroids - these same steroids would negate the positive effects of future immunotherapy treatments. We were walking that fine line between symptom management and availability of future treatments by very gradually reducing the daily intake of steroids. One day she crashed hard when the reduced intake of steroids became inadequate. The symptoms became increasingly intolerable with seve... read more

Ian H. 

on Birdeye

5 days ago

My late wife's fatal journey with metastasized melanoma brain and lung cancer took a turn for worst after she suffered a record of 4 short focal seizures in only 5 hours one afternoon. These events took place after a recent SRS radiation treatment for the brain cancer and particularly a large tumor in her right frontal lobe which was causing the focal seizures. She had also previously received immunotherapy to treat the metastasized tumors everywhere in her body. What was concerning about these numerous seizures was that s... read more

Ian H. 

on Birdeye

a week ago

My late wife had a difficult journey with cancer. It started with a 5 minute focal seizure at a gym in Calgary wherein she was mentally alert but physically incapacitated convulsing on the gym floor. This came out of the blue sky as she had absolutely no previous indications of a serious health problem. She was transported alert and fully (temporarily) recovered from the incident to Foothills ER. We waited for hours to move from Triage to Assessment/Admissions to Patient Care. Once we finally got past the gate keepers -... read more