Pediatric Cancer

Apr 25

“The MDs build the treatment plan. The nurse’s job is to get it done. We’re the ones who are always there, making sure every single moment of every single day is the best it can possibly be. What’s going to take away that nausea? What’s going to take away that pain? How can we convince the doctor to let this kid see some sunshine? We know when the kid has a play at school. We know which massage therapist they love and which member of the family is most likely to persuade them to take their medicine. These kids rely on certain nurses like they’re gold. A lot of time these kids won’t listen to the doctor. But they’ll listen to their nurse.”

“A big part of a nurse’s job is translation. We have to turn medical language into common language. We explain the ‘why’s.’ Why they can’t eat. Why there is pain. Why their hair is falling out. You never know what those big medical words mean to a child, so we do everything we can to demystify them. If they play sports, we may describe their tumor as a baseball. And everyone knows that baseballs don’t belong in your belly. Ninety percent of them play video games, so sometimes the cancer is a monster. We’ve got to shoot the monster. We’ve got to bomb the monster. But we’re going to work together and get that monster. We’ll use any frame of reference that they understand: their favorite TV show, their favorite book, their favorite toy. And if we have an adolescent who’s a little bit angry, we’ll just shove our foot up the cancer’s ass.”

“The nurse is in that room day in and day out. You give a piece of yourself to that child. But intimacy has its dangers. You have to be able to set it aside. You can’t come in on your days off. You have to be able to go home at the end of the day and have a glass of wine, or go rock climbing, or visit with friends. If you can’t go home and rebuild, you’ll burn out. You won’t be able to handle the losses if you’re just surviving off the wins. Because the losses are severe. You were allowed into that child’s life at their most intimate time, and you were trusted. And that is a gift. And even in death, you learned something from that child that made you a better person and a better nurse.”