Gold Ribbon Warriors

If you’re reading this post, chances are your life just went through a gargantuan, earth-shattering change with a handful of words…”Your child has cancer.” I know exactly how soul-altering a feeling that is. In the blink of an eye, the safety of normalcy was ripped from beneath my feet when our youngest was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) last April. I felt adrift, swimming in a sea of despair and fear and overwhelmed by all the information coming at me. I tried to ask the right questions, take notes, and began reading all the material that was given to me during that first week-long hospital stay.

Speaking to the hospital care team was comforting. Studying the reading material…not so much. Everything was too clinical and detailed, triggering panic with every medical term I didn’t understand or potential complication listed. I finally decided that the best course of action was to rely on conversations with the doctors and nurses alone. There were too many terrifying what-ifs in my research that very likely would never be relevant to my daughter. Direct, compassionate communication gave me the information I needed to care for my girl and her specific diagnosis.

Unfortunately, once we left the hospital, my certainty that I could take care of our daughter evaporated. We were faced with situations at home that we previously had a safety net of knowledgeable providers just steps away to help us with. It was difficult to wait patiently for a call-back from the clinic or treatment day appointment for answers. Luckily, I found another reliable source of information: parents of children who went through the same treatment. A once-upon-a-time fellow Army wife, my son’s soccer coach and his family, a co-worker at my cousin’s medical office…they had all gone through the same things with their kids and were more than willing to share their hard-earned knowledge. Their advice helped in so many instances and gave me confidence that I could handle other potential issues if they arose.

After the initial barrage of emotions subsided, I started thinking about other families who were in the same situation. How many parents had access to the same kind of support squad that we did outside of the medical community? I certainly didn’t find anything on the internet that provided helpful advice on how to get my three-year-old to take the life-saving medications that she hated or explained how I should prep for potential ER visits when she spiked a fever. And so the idea for this blog blossomed. Now that we are finally somewhat settled into a calmer treatment phase, I feel like I can breathe and take a moment to do something other than make sure our little warrior princess and her amazing siblings are cared for, so I’m diving into this project headfirst.

I hope loved ones of other gold ribbon warriors can come to this blog and find practical advice on how to support their sweet children during such an overwhelming time. Nothing I share here will be in the medical sphere…that is the job of your child’s care team. I want to be a light in the darkness, shining hope and guiding you through the countless practical dilemmas you will face as you support your child and care for yourself and your family. I plan to cover everything from how my husband and I cope with our stress to what to pack to take to lengthy treatments and a myriad of topics in between. Please subscribe, share, and check back often as I add to this blog and hopefully help make daily life a little easier for families impacted by childhood cancer.

Hold the line, Gold Ribbon Warriors and Support Squads. You’re doing amazing.

-Tabitha Sims