Wings lifts Kalispell family during child's cancer treatment

When Chris and Nicole Ross Miller headed to Spokane on a fall day in 2014 with their two young daughters, they expected to stay for the weekend.

Their oldest daughter, Makenna, then 5, had a doctor’s appointment at Sacred Heart Medical Center for some unusual symptoms her pediatrician first thought might be a recurring tick fever.

After three rounds of blood testing in Kalispell, her doctor determined she likely had acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a disease that has symptoms similar to other diseases. He insisted they head to Spokane immediately.

“Not knowing what we were getting into, we were thinking positive,” Chris recalled. “We weren’t 100 percent sure [of the diagnosis] until we got to Spokane. We thought we’d only be there for the weekend.”

They ended up staying for eight months.

Makenna began chemotherapy the day after the Ross Miller family arrived in Spokane, and the whirlwind of making arrangements to transport their lives from Kalispell to Spokane began.

Childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia is a type of cancer in which the bone marrow makes too many immature lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell. It’s a fast-moving disease that progresses quickly. If not treated, it can be fatal within a few months.

“A lot of patients we met, they didn’t catch it for six or seven months,” Chris said. “We were lucky to catch it within a couple of months.”

Makenna’s first symptoms appeared in August 2014 when she experienced severe leg pain at night.

“I would have to carry her, even to the bathroom,” Nicole said. “She also ran a fever, only at night. It lasted three days.”

The symptoms recurred the following month, lasting for an entire week that time. That’s when they sought medical help.

Chris, a construction worker employed by the Federal Highway Administration, was able to take time off work and arrange his schedule to be with his family in Spokane. After a winter break he traveled back and forth to Kalispell, and to Vancouver, Washington, for training, returning to Spokane for weekends.

Nicole is a stay-at-home mother to Makenna and younger daughter Kiara, 4, and was able to be in Spokane for the duration of the treatment.

The family was fortunate to get a room at the Ronald McDonald House in Spokane, where they stayed the entire eight months until returning home the in June 2015.

As the bills stacked up, Chris found himself spending hours on the phone with his insurance company.

“I thought I had pretty good insurance,” he said. “There were times I was days on the phone with the insurance company.”

Even with good insurance, there were co-payments and living expenses. That’s where Wings Regional Cancer Support stepped in, helping the Ross Millers make ends meet during the ordeal.

“We had never heard of Wings until all this happened,” Chris said. “Everyone is assigned a social worker [at Sacred Heart] and our social worker got ahold of Wings, and they provided financial assistance to us.”

It was a godsend at a time when the last thing on their minds was wanting to worry about money.

“The whole ordeal is very emotionally and physically exhausting,” Chris said. “This assistance has helped us ease our mind.”

Makenna is now cancer-free and in remission. She is in the fifth and final phase of chemotherapy, taking treatment orally.

“Once a month, we go to Spokane to get chemo through a port through her chest,” Nicole said. “That will be removed in December and then she’ll be done with chemo.”

Makenna’s checkups will continue for five years. She is a first-grader at East Evergreen Elementary School.

“She handled it very well. She’s doing great,” her mother continued. “She enjoys school and is doing a little catch-up because she missed all of kindergarten.”

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.