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During one of her first blood transfusions, the nurse made a comment about how wonderful blood donors are and how a nice person gave this blood for Rachel. My then 6-year-old daughter looked at the nurse and said, "That's my blood that you keep taking all the time. You're just giving it back."
My son David was diagnosed with Medullabalstoma at the age of four. Just before surgery he was given some meds. to calm him down. He had to have his surgery on the adult side of Brackenridge Hospital in Austin, TX. As he was being wheeled into the surgery suite, he started to sing one of his favorite songs at the top of his lungs (luckly he has a great voice!). The song was Ghost Riders in the Sky by Riders in the Sky. A man had been brought down for surgery and the poor man looked awful. He lifted up his head at the sound of David's song and smiled. My husband and I were told later that it made his day. David does not remember this, but loves to hear the story. David is doing well. He has been in remission for two years.
When my son Rob was going to be getting the double wammie: shots in both legs at the same time. He thought sitting on Dad's lap might help. As Rob got his shot, his dad complained of his rump hurting. When he stood up, we all noticed Rob's Jeff Gordon hat pin sticking in his rump! We thought that was pretty funny!
My name is Wendy. I e-mailed you once before about my son, Nicholas. I received a huge response to my question once you posted it in the guestbook. Thank you. Currently I have volunteered to create a newsletter for the families that attend our clinic. I have enjoyed so many things about your website that it will be the first featured. In the meantime, is it okay if I use some of the "funnies" you have published, with credit to your website. I don't know how any parent can get through this without humor and I hope to provide some of that with the newsletter. I'm new to this and am unsure of legalities so please advise me as to anything I need to know. Thank you, again! Wendy
Denielle
Every possible bad scenario went through my mind. The oncologist wasn't in so they suggested taking Nicholas to our diatrician. She examined him very closely, expecting the same sort of things as I but then began laughing... He has poison ivy! We were both laughing because, for once, he has a normal childhood illness! Other moms think I'm crazy but I am happy to know it's only poison ivy!! Wendy Kapusta
We were finally off the ground and everyone was doing well when Derrik just out of the blue starts yelling "MOM! MOM!" He was sitting by the window looking out at the clouds in awe. He asked, "Mom, do you think I'll get to see God? You told me that God lives in the clouds." I told him that God lives a little higher up then those clouds, but was so excited. The stewardess came down the aisle and Derrik asked her in all seriousness, "Maam, is this Heaven?" It took everything I had not to cry. Derrik has a loud voice so everyone around us heard him—they almost cried too. The stewardess didn't know what to say so she just smiled and went right on by. Tori
He looked up at the bag and asked "Whats that"? The nice nurse said "Well son, that's your breakfast; it may be bacon, or eggs...what does it look like to you?" He just looked at her like a teenager would, and said "It looks like water!" Kids...The nurse turned a nice shade of blush! Talk about comic relief!
Her hair did come back it was the same color as before. At first she was a little disappointed but now just happy that its still curly. Laurie
My 7 Yr old was diagnosed with a brain stem glioma in Jan of 99. She was recieving her chemo infusion one morning and the IV alarm went off long before her chemo bag was empty. After the nurse reset it, I remarked to her that I didn't know why it had gone off before her chemo ran out. She giggled and said "I pinched the wire.I wanted to fool the nurses into thinking my chemo was done so I could go home." We all had a good laugh.But I did have to ask her not to do it anymore.
Watching the technician draw blood yet another time, the little boy was seemingly making idle chit-chat when he asked her if she was going to give his blood to the dogs when she was done. She'd heard many odd requests from her young charges and had learned to quickly decipher most of their requests, but she was at a loss as to the real meaning of this question. She asked him what he meant and his innocent little eyes grew quizzical as he rephrased his question. "Don't you take my blood to the Lab when you're done?" Oh, Art Linkletter, where are you?
My son Adam was diagnosed with meddullblatstoma at the age of 3; before he was to have surgery to remove it, we spoiled him rotten and gave him anything he wanted ( I am sure every parent of a cancer child can relate). Well he LOVED Oat BrandTM which we called "dog food" (because that's what it looke like!). The dreaded day came when Adam had to have surgery. His medication made him so hungry, and he had to fast the whole night before. We were sitting in the waiting room all scared and quiet when all of a sudden Adam burst into tears crying that he was hungry. That went on for about 10 minutes and he was getting angrier and angrier (medicines were terrible for that) and crying and we were getting stares and all kinds of looks. Finally he yelled out LOUDLY...... "I WANT DOG FOOD TO EAT!!!" and everybody's mouths dropped open. We were so embarrassed that we felt the need to share with everybody in the waiting room it was Oat BranTM :)
We were recently driving our 3 year old daughter (recently diagnosed with ALLTcell/still in induction) around a Christmas light display. Upon seeing a display showing a hummingbird sipping nector from a flower, our daughter exclaimed: "Look at that birdie sucking blood out of that flower!"
My daughter Sara was diagnosed with ovarian cancer when she was eight years old.She had her ovary and fallopian tube removed followed by 9 months of chemo. One day when she was sitting up in her hospital bed devouring her third Big Mac®, the nurse asked her how she could eat so much. "Well," she replied, "I've lost an ovary and a fallopian tube so I have a lot more room in my stomach than you do." Sara is now 18 years old and is in university comlepleting a law degree.
Our 2-1/2 year old daughter, Elizabeth, was diagnosed with JCML (juvenile chronic myeloid leukemia) in February, 1999. The only cure for JCML is a complete bone marrow transplant. Her two brothers Joseph (6) and Kyle (4) were told that her blood was sick and would need a bone marrow transplant. They told everyone that Elizabeth has sick blood and Mommy and Daddy are looking for a donor to give Elizabeth a new "bow and arrow." Thankfully, a donor has been found, Elizabeth's mom, and transplant will take place at the end of June to give Elizabeth her new "bow and arrow!"
My 12-year old daughter was diagnosed with Hodgkins in August of 1998. Up until then she won the attendance award every year at school. Being new to medical terminology, she got words mixed up in the beginning and asked the anesthesiologist when he was going to administer the amnesia.
Our daughter Cecilia has ALL and we decided early on to involve her in our efforts towards healing her body, and also to make the best we could out of a really difficult situation. We began the consolidation phase (six 3-day/2-night stays for chemo), we all developed the idea of calling our stays at LPCH "Hospital Parties," complete with room decorations, dates with friends, fun art projects, great food - the works. After party #3, my husband and I breathed deep as we escorted Cecilia out of the hospital in her little red wagon - we were t-i-r-e-d and soooo glad to be going home. Ceal also took a deep breath, looked around as we exited and said, " I LOVE this place....." Ah, the power of positive energy.... : )
My 4 year old was in the hospital for the first time just having been diagnosed with ALL. After many, many days of people calling saying they were praying for her she finally said "well, will ya tell 'em to quit praying and come visit me!"
This one isn't so much out of the mouth of this babe ...
"Hit me. Hit me right here; I deserve it" he offered. Before he could react, Garrett's tiny fist shot out and caught him flat on the nose! The blow was so hard that the tech lost his balance and crashed backwards into his IV cart. Syringes and Steri-packs® flew all over the room. The moral of this story? Never, ever mess with a toddler on steroids.
Levi, 8, was at the University of Nebraska Medical Center receiving chemo and a nurse had drawn labs from his central line. At shift change Levi observed that his favorite nurse, Jackie, was to take care of him and sent his father to the nurses station for five packets of ketchup and a needleless syringe. Levi filled the syringe with the ketchup and placed it on his bed. When Jackie came in to his room and hour later he asked her if she had seen that blood work had been performed. When she said she did know that, Levi reached by his side and said they left a syringe and held up the one filled with ketchup. When asked to give it to her so it could be thrown away, Levi put the syringe in his mouth and pushed the plunger. Thinking it was blood, Jackie stood aghast in his room not knowing how to react. Upon finding out it was a prank, the story made its way throughout the seven floor hospital in a matter of hours.
While 14 year old Marcus was on chemo for a medulloblastoma, he was not feeling great and he tried to persuade his 8-year old brother, Etienne, to do one of his chores, namely feeding the dog for him. After giving it some thought, Etienne gave a big sigh and said "Okay, I'll feed the dog for you, but only because you've got brain cancer!" How's that for making it sound like a common cold?
Elise
My daughter Katrina was diagnosed in 1997 at the age of 14 months so a lot of her life has been spent dealing with cancer and the effects of treatment. Earlier this year, at the age of 5, Grandma took her to the grocery store where she saw balloons for sale—Happy Birthday, New Baby, etc—Katrina wanted one! But when Grandma told that there were none for her, she was insensed and quickly responded, "You would think they would have a balloon for kids with cancer!" Nana, then bought the biggest ballon she could find.
 I had recently had a baby before my 4 yr old boy was diagnosed. When he noticed his swollen belly from the dexamethasone, he said to me, "You know mom, sometimes boys have babies in their tummies too!"
Ham on rye, hold the ham, extra mayo, please Hannah's thoughtful reply this time? "A mayonnaise sandwich." She was on steroids at the time. (Needless to say we are waiting on her wish.)
I remember when Lance was first starting chemo, he was only 13 months old. He wasn't eating and I told this nurse that I was getting concerned. She said "Let me try to give him his bottle." I warned her he wasn't too happy with the whole bottle thing, but she was confident, she'd been working with kids for a long time. SO, I let her try. She gave Lance the bottle and Lance threw it right back at her!!! Pretty good aim too!! She told me where I could get a sipper cup after that!!!
My 2 year old daughter has Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and part of her treatment was spinal taps three weeks in a row. On one of the appointments, she asked if the doctors were going to put her to sleep again. I replied, "Yes, honey, it is so they can put medicine in your back." She replied quickly that the medicine is not going to work, only green beans will work!!! (Now you can you tell that she had to be without food for the procedure while on prednisone!!!)
My little brother had been out of chemo for about three days when my mom took him out for lunch at a favorite restaraunt. He sat there and nibbled on the food he would normally enjoy and then told my mom, "This food is good, but not good enough to eat."
My daughter has tried to allow my grandaughter some power and control throughout her treatment ordeals for Neuroblastoma. She let her decide which arm or leg to use for blood pressure reading, which ear the nurse could use to let take her temp. When it was time for Neupogen shots, mom & dad administered them, but Marissa could choose which leg to use. She had us all laughing when her choice was "Daddy's"!
My 7 year old son is under-going treatment for a medullablatoma brain tumor. After going through radiation and his first round of chemo, he had lost so much weight, our oncoligist recommended a feeding tube be put in place. Upon returning home, we made sure he had a urinal nearby. When he was hooked-up, it was impossible for him to bring his IV pole into the only bathroom on the second floor. Early one morning, our younger son came looking for me; he was frantically searching for "Al's turtle." I had emptied the urinal the night before and had forgoten to bring it back down. I told my my son that's what he gets for sending a third "potty" to request something!!!
My 3½ year old son, Ashton, was diagnosed with T-cell leukemia in November 1998. About two months after he was diagnosed, we were home and flushing his IV lines before bed. My 4-year-old niece was visiting and watched as we flushed Ashton's lines. She blurted out, "Well, where are MY tubies??" Ashton calmly looked over at her and said, "Silly girl...only boys have tubies!!"
Brave Dolly Madison
My son Andy was diagnosed with ALL in April, 1999. We were in the hospital for a fever stay in May and as I went to push the button to turn up the television he grabbed my arm and pulled my head down so he could whisper in my ear. You see, the call button was located near the volume button. He whispered, "Be careful mom ... if you push this button (the call button) that calls the BOSS!!!
My daughter, Christine, was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma May of 1998. During her protocol she has gone through seven chemo treatments, radiation and a bone marrow transplant. My now three year old, Cate, has been with us through most of this and has picked up quite a bit. This summer we are finally able to take Christine out to public places and went to the local restaurant to celebrate. Keeping young children occupied while waiting for the meal can sometimes be quite a task, but not so for our Cate. She kept the whole restaurant enthralled while she did needle pokes for each of the family and decided who needed chemo and who needed bone merry plants. She administered all of this using her fork (for needle pokes), a few napkins (for bandaids), and her straw (for chemo and bone merry plants).
My 7 yr old, Bryanna, was at Camp Courage last summer and on the last night there was a dance. One of the counsellors was teasing her and picked her up and held her upside down. She immediately told him to put her down or she would give him an MRI without sedation. The nurses were still laughing about it the next week when she went for treatment. Tammy
Our entire family (grandparents and all) were called to a conference with the doctors, nurses, counselors. (You know it's bad news when the doctors have to have their own crew there for support.) My 9-year old son, Andrew, was aware of the meeting because he wanted to know what everyone was doing there (since some of us had to take off work), but he was not invited to the meeting. During the meeting we were given terrible news: the doctor explained that Andrew's brain tumor was much more malignant than originally thought and they felt he only had about six months to one year to live. We were devastated but after gathering our wits about us, we all went back to Andrew's room. After a few minutes Andrew asked, "Well Mom, what did the doctors want to tell you?" The room got very quiet and all eyes fell on me waiting to see how I would handle this question. I gently told Andrew that the sterotactic radiation treatment didn't appear to be working. Everyone got very quiet and then Andrew huffed and said in an indignant voice, "I knew it...I KNEW IT!!!......Well, I think we should DEMAND a refund"! It was so typical of this little guy to make the rest of us forget our sorrow and ease the tension in the room. By the way, as a side note, Andrew just celebrated his 16th birthday on July 2, 1998! He loves proving the doctors wrong!!
Terri
My daughter told the nurse when she changed her site tape covering her broviac, "You don't do that right, my daddy does it better."
Our two year old son, Ryan, had just undergone surgery to remove his right kidney after being diagnosed with Wilm's Tumor. Not having ever experienced a hospital before, Ryan was very concerned over the children in wheelchairs. He just couldn't grasp why these children were not walking. I explained to him that cancer had made the children very weak and some of the children needed the help of a wheelchair to get around. After several days of recovery he was almost back to his old self and during a conversation with him I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. Ryan responded "Ryan wants to be a doctor and help children walk." Cancer and its treatment can be brutal and after all Ryan had been through, he saw the need to find a cure. Never has a father been so proud as I was that day, at that moment.
Nicholas was diagnosed with ALL in June, 1997. When he started prednisone I was warned by other parents and his doctors about an appetite increase. It was unbelievable. I couldn't figure out where all the food was going in his little body. When he could finally come home from the hospital, he decided he wanted a pet chicken! My husband actually found one (it turned out to be a rooster we later discovered). A couple days after we got our new pet, Nicholas woke up one morning, walked passed me in the kitchen, opened the silverware drawer and got out a fork and knife. He had not said one word to me at this point so I just stood and watched him. He started to head outside with the fork and knife in hand when I finally I asked him what he was doing. He turned and looked at me very seriously and said "I'm going out to eat that chicken!"
Just to let everyone know, chicken is doing great a year and a half later and so is Nicholas!
6 year old Kimmy was on day 38 of her chemo treatment for M5 AML when we finally got lab work back with an ANC on it. After having just gone through a couple very tough weeks, we were totally rejoicing in the encouragement we got form that report. When Kimmy asked what the heck was wrong with us, we explained that this was a good sign and that we were happy. To which Kimmy replied - "Good. Does this mean I can get my bone marrow transportation soon?"
We're Outta Here, Mom! P.S. Logan doesn't now that I asked the surgeon if I could keep the mediport when they removed it. It was a strange request but they gave it to me cleaned and in a container. Maybe one day I'll show it to Logan and we can share the laughter again.
My 6 year old daughter was diagnosed with Acute Mylocytic Leukemia the day after Thanksgiving, 1998. So far we have spent 6 weeks in the hospital and counting with no ANC. During a particulary rough period she was sitting on the bedside commode with the nurse by her side to steady her. Mom was running around the room getting together the wipes, creams, fixing the bed linens, etc. while the nurse and she sat quietly. My daughter leans over to the nurse and says "Do you think you could get my mom some of that Morphine stuff? She could use it." The nurse station could be heard roaring with laughter later that night.
My 7 year old son Santino was diagnosed with ALL in November 2000—we stayed in the hospital for the first six weeks. One afternoon his nurse came in and was explaining to me the new meds he was going to be on. She told me he'd have to take bactrim two days a week, two times a day. After she left the room, Santino asked me with a horrified face what a "back trim" was. I laughed so hard it took me a minute to answer him. I guess with all the spinal taps and bone marrow tests he thought it was one more treatment for his cancer.
When my 13 year old son, Clay, was diagnosed with three brain tumors in Sept. 2000, we spent the first month in ICU the we moved into the Ronald McDonald House. We entered the "waiting phase": Waiting for counts to drop. Waiting for counts to rise. Waiting for the next chemo dose. At a certain point there is almost nothing to do but wait. With so much time on our hands my son and I took up cross stitch. It was something that didn't require a lot of energy but kept us both occupied. One day while sitting on our respective beds, my son began to struggle with a knot in his string. Usually he took the easy way and would hand it over for me to untangle, but this time I watched out of the corner of my eye as he worked at it. Suddenly he turns to me and says, "Mom, I just had a tumor thought." I was a little surprised and asked him what that would be. He profoundly says to me, "Well, in the string of life, this would be a knot." That became our credo for every challenging event we have since encountered.
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