A Child Gets Chemotherapy

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

Today I remembered chemo…

The chemotherapy drugs given to your child in the hopes that it can cure them are also hazardous chemicals that bring a whole host of other side effects, some irreversible. Side effects including heart damage, kidney damage, infertility, adult onset cancers, hearing loss, and others. Your child’s doctor shares this information with you prior to starting chemotherapy as if you have a choice. The choices are possible life or for certain death. What choice can you make but to agree, no matter how horrific it all sounds?

Typically Pediatric Oncology Nurses wear the kid friendly scrubs that you see all pediatric nurses wear. However, they also wear additional “personal protective equipment” on an oncology floor when administering chemotherapy. Therefore, when the nurse comes into my daughter’s room to connect chemotherapy, she comes into the room with additional protective gear. On this visit, she wears an additional gown covering her scrubs, a mask, extra thick gloves, and protective glasses. Picture someone about to enter a nuclear chamber and you probably have the right visual.

She hangs the bags of neon colored fluids from the IV pole. She checks the tubes that have been surgically implanted into our daughter to make sure that they have good blood flow. She presses multiple buttons on the IV pump as she double checks the doctor’s orders. My daughter and I can’t help but nervously look at the bags, as their neon red and yellow colors appear so vivid in the white hospital room. The nurse tries to act normal to keep everyone calm but it is even difficult for her because she can’t make even the slightest mistake or there could be lethal consequences. She must concentrate to make sure that every procedure is followed to the letter.
A nursing supervisor arrives and verifies everything has been done correctly. The tubes are connected and the nurse presses the start button on the pump. Everyone in the room watches as the neon fluid makes it way down the tube, out of the bag, through the pump and directly into the chest of my daughter.

Most people cannot imagine what it is like to be to be told that your child has cancer. This is just one of the dreadful experiences that a child and their family has to endure over and over again when cancer is present in their lives.

Although we have access to world class medicine, there is a lack of emotional and spiritual support for children diagnosed with cancer. An organization called Striving for More has been established to encourage and fund quality emotional and spiritual support for children with cancer. To make a donation or to find out more, go to http://www.striving4more.org