Many people seem to think that once you make through cancer treatment you and your family are good to go. PLEASE #EducateYourself

The risks of cancer treatment remain long after treatment, not just for the patient, but the family and caregivers. It is crazy to think that the nurse coming in fully gowned, with safety goggles and the whole fit is hanging a bag of medicine extra bagged and extra labeled as precaution to be pumped into your babies veins. It is the reality of a cancer.

My'isha with her first completed Beads Of Courage necklace
My’isha with her first completed Beads Of Courage necklace

Finding out my daughter was missing a piece of her 6th chromosome was not nearly as life changing for me as cancer was. Although 6q25.3 micro deletion syndrome and coffin siris syndrome​ are issues that we have to deal with daily. It is the reason my daughter is 4 years old, and still in 2T and 3T clothes and barely able to say 20 words.

My'isha being My'isha. Beautiful and happy as always.
My’isha being My’isha. Beautiful and happy as always.

When we received the diagnosis of stage 4 high risk #Neuroblastoma with unfavorable biology, I left my job and everything behind to stand beside my baby girl, who was all but a yeah and a half, and watch her get far worse before she got better. I still have yet to get my mind back.

We as parents are given a lot of information through the treatment process. The risks, the special care of the patients undergoing intense evasive treatments, how to change a central line dressing, the future risks, how to infuse medicine… it goes on and on, and I still have the binders and books and files. I can assure you the risks involved with secondary chemo exposure were not of the mot important things discussed, neither was the higher risk for PTSD in parents.

Celebrating a year cancer free! Feels good to be clear. It is scary to know it still isn't over.
Celebrating a year cancer free! Feels good to be clear. It is scary to know it still isn’t over.

So the next time you see a family who has been through cancer, keep in mind… they have monsters that are going to come back and haunt them for the rest of their lives, both physically and mentally.

*Second Hand Chemotherapy Cancers

*PTSD in parents of children with cancer