Recently on a cancer mom's Facebook page there was a discussion about getting pregnant and/or having little babies while your child is on chemo treatment.Ashlyn, my youngest of two children, was 4 months old when Emma was diagnosed. It was very hard. There were long weeks I had to spend apart from my growing baby. In fact, when she turned 1, I remember crying because I felt I had missed her whole infancy. We were apart on her first birthday, by the way.
There was another family in Memphis while we were there in the beginning. The mother had been pregnant when her child was diagnosed. She gave birth while in Memphis, and a family member had to come get the baby and take it home to care for it. The mother said she hadn't seen her new baby since it was something like three days old.
There is so much pain and hardship in pediatric cancer (and all cancer of course). It would be easy to forget. To push the pain aside, and forget about all the hard and scary things a cancer-kid parent goes through. But I don't want to forget. I want to remember, and to keep the memories and feelings fresh so that I can best know how to help others who are hurting.
So if I overburden some with my talk of hardship; of cancer; of pain, I'm truly sorry. But I hope I never forget. Please say a prayer for the families of those with cancer today, and I hope you will use your own pain in life to help someone else who is hurting.
