In the Summer of 2013, I received an email from a dear friend, an old youth leader who I loved very much.
The email told me of the sad news that her daughter Annika had been diagnosed with a stage 3 neuroblastoma.
Several months later I began to take care of other children with the same condition.
And now its gonna be pretty hard for me to be quiet about it.
"Awareness brings compassion and compassion brings action"
And we need all three.
Imagine being 2-3 years old (most occur in children under the age of 2). Having a condition only 4 per million children have. A condition that causes tumors to grow along the nervous system outside of the brain.
Picture having test after test run, in dark and scary rooms with loud and frightening machines.
It seems that every grown-up you see want to hurt you with a needle to get blood.
Then you sit in a big chair in front of a big desk, while your mom and dad cry.
And then suddenly more hospital visits. You start to recognize that you are driving to a place that scares you and you begin to cry even before you arrive.
And suddenly there is a weird thing on your chest. But they seem to be able to get blood out of it so no more horrible pokes.
And then then the nurses start giving you "medicine" to make you "feel better".
But you don't feel better. You feel tired and sick to your stomach.
You hurt and you don't know why
You have to wear a mask everywhere you go and you can't do the things you used to be able to do.
You feel like you never get to be at home anymore.
You can't sleep through the night anymore, because either you wake up sick or someone wakes you up to "get blood", or "take vitals" whatever that means.
Its not all bad I suppose, You get ANY food you like cause all the grown ups seem to be very worried about how much you eat. You get to watch lots of tv. You get to meet famous people and have lots of grownups tell you how cute you are. You get to see clowns and dogs, make music and be the nurse's helper.
Now I don't tell you this story for pity. I don't even tell you this story to get money or support for a cure from you (although I have included a link below for more information and how to get involved.)
I tell you this story to open your eyes.
In my line of work I have realized how blessed every parent of a healthy child is.
And so this is all I ask.
Be grateful for your health and the health of those around you.
And please pray for those who are not.
Annika-so glad your journey is going forward...so glad you are coming home for a while.
All my love and prayers are coming atcha....don't try to dodge em cause we all could use a few extras!
I hope to continue to talk about neuroblastomas, and Annika's story as time goes on.
The list of foundations is endless. I have done a SMALL amount of research and have found this foundation to be wonderful in there information and efforts for research.
I encourage you to do your own research of course before getting involved with ANY charity.
This is a blog begun by Annika's mother if you wish to follow her journey.
So good to hear she has headed home for a bit! Not being in STL I forget sometimes to check in on the blog. Yay Annika!
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