My Ongoing Cancer Story

The Diagnosis Part 2

     As we pulled into the parking lot of BC Children's hospital, I gulped nervously and brought myself to ask, "what's going on mommy?" She simply looked down at me, and smiled reassuringly. In the emergency room (ER), I had asked my dad for his phone so I could play my favourite game on it, Angry Birds. I played for what seemed like eternity, until the nurse finally called us into a small room with a few chairs, and a LOT of charts and diagrams plastered on the walls. A few minutes later, in walked my family doctor. He sighed, and explained to my parents that they had found leukemia in my blood. At that moment, I vaguely remember my father exclaim something similar to, "this can't be true, not my little boy." While my mother pulled me in close, and hugged me tight. I had no idea what "leukemia" was, but I figured it was something bad, because of how my parents reacted to the news. They quickly called Ryan's family, and told them to watch over my three other siblings, just in case I was going to have to spend the night at the hospital.

         Later on, they had moved us onto the oncology floor, where we met my oncologist. I had no idea what the words "oncology or oncologist" meant, but I kept quiet, and let him explain what was happening to me. I was so scared and I just wanted my twin brother, Liam. Doctor G explained to me that I would have to go through chemotherapy, and perhaps even radiation. Both are treatments to get rid of the cancer inside of me. He explained to my parents that he was going to have to do a few further tests to determine what type of leukemia I had, I remember being so scared of what was going to happen next. I bursted out crying, and yelled for my mom as he gently pulled me away from her. As they stuck needles into my little nine year old body, I struggled to understand what exactly was happening, and why my parents let this happen to me. This was the moment I realized something very bad had happened, and that I was going to go through things much worse than this if I wanted to beat this monster inside of me.
       After several more tests, and a lot more crying, I was finally discharged from the hospital, but my parents were told to bring me back early tomorrow morning for my catheter surgery. I was so scared on the way home, as my parents half sobbed, and half explained to me what was going to happen. I was no longer a regular nine year old, I was a kid who was about to go through something not even the strongest adult should go through.