Back to Reality….
We’ve been talking about beating the beast.
Recently, we’ve talked about brave, new treatments in cancer world, where patient odds of living longer, with a better quality of life is very real. These are all such positive thoughts in a world where positive is not an every day word.
Well, today was a day when reality struck. It hit hard…cancer usually does.
Kids and cancer is such an awful combination.
I was on the pediatric oncology floor at the cancer center meeting with grown-ups who care for these wonderful young people who happen to have cancer. Walking past the closed doors of rooms filled with these kids, out of the blue, was an open doorway. Brightly colored streamers made out of foil reached out to me with every gust of air that moved through the unit. The voices coming from the room were up beat…someone was actually laughing. When I passed by the door, I saw the sign that read “Last chemo treatment today!”
It was a good day in that room. Score one for Life.
My footsteps took me to a play room, where kids of all ages can come to forget about their treatments, if they’re well enough. It’s an ‘escape from cancer’ room. Oh, they still wear their masks in this room and they still push their T-stands where bags of medicine swing from side to side. But it’s a little piece of normal that helps them remember how to play foosball, how to play with toys and dolls or read about a place outside the hospital walls, reachable only through a book and a vivid imagination.
WE all could use an “escape from cancer” room.
November 18, 2011 @ 7:04 pm
I receive updates from one young girl who is fighting leukemia. She has done very well. She seems to now be on some form of maintenance chemo until she has been pronounced cancer free. Her family has been through hell. She has 2 brothers and they know some of what she has been through. Her Mom and Dad are true warriors….they’ll do anything and everything to help her through but mostly they have maintained an even life thanks to friends and neighbors. One other young girl is receiving bone marrow from her sister….much Hope there but also much pressure for the bone marrow donor. She is so afraid that her bone marrow won’t do the job. Can you imagine the pressure that this young girl has placed upon herself. She wants desperately for her sister to be well and if that doesn’t happen….what a burden she’ll unjustly carry.
Just like Bridgette’s sister who gave her marrow. It worked but only for a short time. And then Bridgette was gone physically from this earth. Spiritually she is still with her family. Her sister donor still struggles with the “Why”.
Children who have cancer are so hard for me but then again, I think about their siblings who try as best they can to give them a lifeline..their marrow. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Such a burden for both to carry…the patient and the bone marrow giver. I pray for both. All around children, there should be a “cancer free” zone. Let them be children!!!!!