Getting
the diagnosis that your child has leukemia can feel like the end of the world.
It is. But it is also the start of a new one. This blog is about reimagining
this vile cancer into something that parents and kids can talk about. I hope
that some of this might help you find ways to look at this dragon without
feeling like you’re the one being slain, or like you’re going to throwing up
every time you look at your beautiful child, or that you’re going to burst into
tears if you stop for even one moment.
My
experience is limited to the US, and in particular A. I. duPont Children’s
Hospital. As I’m sure you’ll see in this blog it is an amazing place, but there
are other hospitals just like it across the country and around the world. This
is the first of many offers to contact me with your ideas, hints, and moments
of WTF. I’m not in the medical fields and nothing in this blog is about medical
advice, it is however about observation and experience (mine and other people’s).
Sharing is part of this blog, but I would ask for the sake of your and child’s
protection to keep it anonyms.
This
blog will be full of imagination and ideas, and less about the clinical and
technical. There is a lot of good information about leukemia on sites like www.cancer.gov and www.KidsHealth.org. Go there and read if
you’re looking to get answers to questions but if you’re looking for the next
step come back here. This blog more about reshaping reality into images and
ideas that are understandable and relatable. Think of this as a treasure
seeking, laughing in the face of danger, dragon slaying, speaking truth to
power, the altering of reality place for those of us facing cancer by proxy.
Here
starts a new world, and with luck a healing one too.
-
PG Somerset
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