Healing in the Public Eye: Coun. Elizabeth Peloza describes hospitalization that threatened chemotherapy treatments

In this edition of ‘Healing in the Public Eye,’ Coun. Elizabeth Peloza discusses a recent hospitalization for a life-threatening condition.

Coun. Elizabeth Peloza is opening up about a recent health scare that jeopardized her chemotherapy treatments following breast cancer surgery.

Since March, Peloza has been sharing her healthcare journey in a CTV News series called ‘Healing in the Public Eye’ but was recently forced to take a break from filming.

“I’m well enough now to do a public update and catch everybody up,” she says while sitting in her living room. “I ended up coming down with pneumonia, and then a secondary infection that my family doctor said was sepsis. I ended up being hospitalized for a week,” she explained.

Peloza had previously discussed her concerns about chemotherapy temporarily suppressing her immune system, and while hosting a community meeting on April 17 admitted to CTV News, “It has not been a good couple days.”

She now reflects on the days that followed her community meeting.

“I knew I wasn’t feeling well,” she said. “We started to notice that I was losing my voice, and then the coughing and fatigue set in. It was obviously escalating very quickly.”

A high fever convinced her to visit the emergency department.

Peloza is grateful her 20-year-old son had recently returned home from university.

“You always hope that your kids, because you’ve raised them, will step-up when it’s time,” she said.

He has a driver’s license and drove her to the hospital.

“I’m sure he was terrified as well. [I was] trying to put on a brave face for my kid even as my body was telling me, I think we’re dying. It was absolutely terrifying. I’m lucky he drives,” she said.

A pair of short cellphone videos Peloza recorded at the hospital shed light on the situation.

“Halfway through chemotherapy treatments and unfortunately celebrating that accomplishment in the emergency department,” she said while laying in a hospital bed.

In the second video she’s holding onto an IV cart, “My doctor asked if I had ever received a blood transfusion.”

She would receive a transfusion and eventually return home to continue her recovery.

But Peloza was disheartened to learn that the ordeal left her too weakened to receive her next scheduled round of chemotherapy.

“Devastated,” she admitted. “For me, this is dose-dense treatment for cancer because the cancer could potentially be aggressive. They took out the tumours, but you’re always worried about free floating cells somewhere hiding in your body.”

Dose-dense chemotherapy is a strategy where medications are administered more frequently than in standard schedules to maximize the impact on tumour cells and reduce the time cancer cells have to regrow.

“My chemo’s on an every-other-week schedule to make sure that they find it and kill it,” she said. “But in the back of my mind, I know every delay is potentially making it less effective.”

The mother of three admits to struggling with the possibility of losing the progress made during the previous two months of chemotherapy.

“If we’re being honest, I was crying in the shower because it muffles [the sound] a little bit,” Peloza said. “I do have my children at home, but regardless of their age, they’re still your kids and you’re still the parent. I was just taking that time to emotionally process it.”

She now wants to share the lesson she learned during those difficult days.

“Wherever you’re at, it’s okay. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. It might not be, but eventually you will hit the low in the valley and things will improve,” she said.

Peloza eventually received the positive news she needed to get out of her valley.

Her doctor cleared to resume chemotherapy treatments a week ago.

“I was able to start chemo treatments again last Friday, which was great. So now that’s five of eight rounds done,” she said.

Peloza is sharing her experiences during chemotherapy to raise awareness about the importance of early detection, spotlight local resources for cancer patients, and to let others know what to expect if they begin chemotherapy treatments.

Her chemotherapy is expected to conclude in late June.