When a family can be cared for HERE
My youngest daughter, Josie, was diagnosed with leukemia in January of 2012. She had been having some different symptoms that didn’t sound too serious ahead of that – a nosebleed, aches in her bones, she missed a couple of days from school with minor illnesses.
It was quite a shock to hear the diagnosis for leukemia. Looking back on it, it was one of those times where I realized how lucky I am to live in Austin – we didn’t need to go to MD Anderson, Dell Children’s Medical Center was right here. It was fairly late at night, but one of the doctors sat down with us to go over what we could expect and answered all the questions we had at the time.
The following two weeks were a blur as chemo was started, she had dialysis, tests were run. It was all done at Dell Children’s Medical Center, though – all the answers were right there.
It didn’t take long, though, and the whole family settled into a routine. Josie has two older siblings, and they became used to going to see Josie, sometimes even spending the night there when Josie required overnight stays. The nurses were fantastic, we got to know some of the personally and they would joke with us while we were there. At times we got to know other families who were going through the same things, taking turns in running to get something to eat.
The doctors did a great job of communicating to us what to expect, as well as with each other since a variety of procedures were needed. A lot of what was happening ran like clockwork; it’s clear that a lot of planning and work was done behind the scenes to make everything as smooth for us as it was.
Happily, Josie survived and is now flourishing. Her and her siblings developed a bond that keeps them close to this day, unusually close for siblings. I compare this to what I’ve heard from WWII veterans – no way they would want to go through the experience again, but they wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.
Thank you, Dell Children’s Medical Center!
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