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

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My Spiritual Pilgrimage to Guatemala

My initial plan was to travel to Guatemala for a Spiritual Pilgrimage with the goals of connecting with God, learning from others and hopefully being transformed with humility by the experience. Upon hearing about the work of Lemonade International, I was moved to take a more active role and turn my spiritual pilgrimage into a mini mission trip to help the Lemonade International team with the important work that they do in the La Lemonada ghetto. Although I may not have had the solitude or study that a traditional pilgrimage usually entails, I feel my goals were achieved.

The entire trip was unforgettable. However, these are the moments that stood out for me.

• I spoke to many families and came to the realization that most of them had lost at least one child. Although my life of a lost child does not parallel that of most of my peers here, it did parallel most of the women I met in Guatemala. There was an odd sense of comfort in that discovery.

• Watching children walk down to the ravine to dump their trash and other children rummage through the trash in the river after the rain. You see, garbage men do not even go into the ghetto. Therefore, the people of La Lemonada dump their trash into the ravine. Initially this seems awful but then you realize that they don’t have any other choice.

• Accompanying Tita and her team of International workers into the ghetto each morning was in itself an emotional experience. I almost felt like I was part of a scene in a dramatic movie. Children with gobs of enthusiasm advanced on us squealing “Mana Tita, Mana Tita” (short for Hermana Tita or Sister Tita). Hugs, kisses and “Buenos Diaz” were doled out to everyone in the crowd. A screen writer could not write a scene this heartwarming.

• One of my goals for this trip was to find a child to sponsor. We had decided that we would like to sponsor a young girl in Colleen’s honor. It was important to me that I felt moved by the child I met. On the last day of our trip, we went to the playground to play with the kids from the Limon school during their “field day”. Shortly after arriving, I spotted a little girl that caught my eye and she approached me and hugged me. I asked her name and she said “Helen”. I quickly found out that she was 8 and that her favorite thing in the world was Hannah Montana. She had a light in her eye that reminded me of Colleen. After I communicated my desire to sponsor her to our hosts, I was told that before my arrival, Helen had told one of the teachers that she really wanted a “Madrina” (Godmother or Sponsor) and asked how she could get one. The teacher told her that all she could do was pray to God. Twenty minutes later, I showed up on the field and spotted her knowing that she was the girl that I had to sponsor. I look forward to the day when I can visit Helen again after she has been told that I am her Madrina.
  

What a wonderful feeling to be able to help a child.

See all of my pictures from the trip at my Picasa site.

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