We’ve all been there. We see a bald headed beauty on a St. Jude commercial and think “aww, that’s sad.” and go about our day, right? Unless you can relate to that bald headed beauty because your child has cancer. Or you know a child with cancer. Then it becomes a harsh, unfair reality. It becomes a battle that desperately needs more awareness, funding and help.
I have a very love/hate relationship with those commercials. On the one hand, any awareness for childhood cancer is a good thing, but on the other, people literally think that is what childhood cancer looks like. A beautiful bald headed toddler running around with a smile on their face, a bow on their head and an IV pump in tow… or a 15 year old boy getting a visit from a local athlete. While that can be a small glimpse of childhood cancer, that is not the majority of childhood cancer.
You know, childhood cancer is UGLY. It’s grueling. It’s heart wrenching. It sends parents to funeral homes, nurses home in tears, siblings home alone and hospital beds full. It brings a grown man to his knees and doctors running in circles trying to save a 2 year old from going into respiratory failure.
Childhood cancer is full of mucositis, fevers, skin changes, vomiting, hair loss, a cold for you, a death sentence for them. It’s literally watching the light in a child’s eyes fade. Have you ever had strep throat? Multiply that by 5 million, add sores not just in your mouth, but all down your GI tract and then light them on fire. That’s how I could only assume the pain feels like when I watch kids get hooked up to a pain pump and not even be able to swallow for days on end. That is a common side effect of chemotherapy… THAT is childhood cancer.
I wrote a blog a month ago, The Happy Floor describing the strength and the resiliency that kids who have to battle childhood cancer have, but I never want you to get that confused with the hell they go through. These kids and their parents are the strongest people I know, but shouldn’t have to fight a battle never meant for them.
Watching a child battle cancer is hard to look at… this I know. But can you imagine watching them die because there isn’t enough funding and research to support a more humane cure? Because I have.
Do better, America.
#MoreThan4 #NotRare
7 Responses
Thank you for saying what a lot of people don’t either understand or are afraid to say about St. Jude. There are others out there who feel the same way. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jennifer-anniston-drew-barrymore-and-the-false-awareness_us_59bfd17ae4b02c642e4a189d
Wow really I have never heard anyone say anything bad about St Jude. St Jude is all about helping kids. You and your Organization are very sad. Wow.
Now Way….Erin has not bad mouthed St Jude, but here’s a piece of information from a cancer mom that not all the public is aware of. Not all children are accepted to their facility. If you don’t meet one of their trials exactly you may be turned away. So, while they do a lot of research for our kids, they do require everyone to be enrolled in a clinical trial to go there. And all subsequent treatment and care has to be done in Memphis.
They werent putting St. Judes down in anyway they were just saying it isnt as happy as it looks. Kids are in pain, sick and have poison pumped into them in hope it can save their life. St. Jude does amazing things for kids and their families. Alot of people dont see the ugly side of cancer treatment.
Clearly you didn’t read what Erin was saying in her blog. Please go back and reread, because there was nothing bad mentioned in her blog bad about St. Jude.
Erin is a Pediatric oncology nurse. It takes a very special person to do what she does. When my son started chemo at 16 his older sister would cry to me afterwards from seeing all the younger kids crying when they were poked/ accessed with a needle in their ports to get chemo. These were not smiling bald little children like they are portrayed as in commercials. These were tiny, frail, scared little children who should be playing with their friends or asleep in cribs. The way the media portrays childhood cancer is not accurate. Please go back and read the article.
Hi Erin. I found your blog through a friend’s Facebook…Angela LaRue. Angela and I “met” on line because of a wonderful charity that was inspired by my son, Michael Bruhn. It’s called Gamerosity. Games+Generosity=Gamerosity. Through crowd-funding they provide a campaign for a child going through treatment and once enough is raised (about $500) an iPad mini and a whole set of wonderful items is provided the child. Our Michael received his iPad whilst in treatment on Christmas Eve 2012. He and another child actually got each other’s iPad’s (ours says Marik). I’m rambling. Sorry. There’s a lot more to the story but I wanted to say I would love to subscribe to your blog! And everything you said was SPOT ON!
Thank you.
Kimberly