In Honour of both my daughter and Childhood Cancer Awareness Month…
Today is my daughter’s birthday… 16 years ago, she was delivered a little over three weeks early by C-section. I had placenta previa and it was unsafe for both of us for me to go into labour. As it turned out, the six weeks I spent in the hospital waiting to have her, and the 8 days she stayed in the neo-natal intensive care unit, was just the first of our many hospital stays.
A month and a half before Cailyn’s third birthday, she was diagnosed with a brain-stem tumour. Life as we knew it was irrevocably changed. Gone were thoughts of gymnastics and starting pre-school that September. Instead, we were focused on needles, surgeries, chemotherapy, hospitalizations due to allergic reactions to the drugs, and the most gut-wrenching conversations conceivable… conversations in which phrases like “she has 10 to 12 months to live” and “appreciate that you have had the time you’ve had with her” were actually uttered.
It was truly like being caught up in a tornado. We were spinning around in circles, completely unable to get our bearings and grab on to something stable. Nothing WAS stable anymore and normal things, like buying groceries, was a truly surreal experience… I remember stopping in the middle of an aisle and wondering what the heck I was doing in the middle of a store when all hell was breaking loose. This was just the first 3 months after her diagnosis.
We have been pushed to the edge of our capacity many times over the last 13 years. Sincerely, if someone had told me how challenging the last 13 years would be, mentally / emotionally / physically, I’m not sure I would have been able to cope. Cailyn has been my inspiration… her beautiful spirit has been my guide… I try very hard to rise to her example and bring my best to the table. My life is just as blessed by her as it is challenged by her journey.
I have been told that it is a miracle that Cailyn is alive and as able as she is. I’ll take it! Tonight, as I’m having a piece of her birthday cake, I’ll be crying… crying tears of joy for us and tears of sadness for all the families who have lost their beautiful children to childhood cancer… those we know and those that we don’t.
To honour Cailyn and thousands of kids like her, please consider supporting organizations that focus their resources on pediatric cancer research and support. There is no cure for Cailyn yet but I am still so very hopeful that there will be!
Three things you should know about childhood cancer:
1. Childhood cancer is the No. 1 disease killer of children – one in five children diagnosed with cancer don’t survive.
2. A child is diagnosed with cancer every 2 minutes somewhere in the world.
3. More than 95% of childhood cancer survivors will have a chronic health problem, and 80% will have severe or life-threatening conditions. So… these journeys are both life-threatening and “quality of life”-threatening.
Here’s to finding a cure!