It's not the hand you are dealt, but how you play your cards.
My medical team is everyone that took care of me since I was diagnosed with cancer. I know that all the doctors and nurses and everyone that was taking care of me was really great. Sometimes though, I would get grouchy because I would get nervous going to the clinic or hospital.
The picture on the left is the Lucille Packard Childrens Hospital. If you get cancer, you better get used to visiting the hospital and doctors office. In 9 months and one week, I spent 2,040 hours in either a hospital or a clinic! My dad says that is about as much time as a person works at their job for a whole year.
This is Dr. Twist. She is my main oncology doctor and is the one that takes care of my treatment. I think and my parents think that she is a great doctor. When they first found out about my cancer, Dr. Twist made sure that I got all the treatment I needed as soon as possible. She is pretty serious some of the time and funny some of the time. She has really cold hands but she is always very nice.
Last Chemotherapy Visit!
This is me with Dr. Donaldson after 28 treatments of radiation therapy. Dr. Donaldson is a nice person. My dad says that she knows a lot about rhabsomyosarcoma and has been excited about treating rhabdo for a very long time. She also uses really big words like intensity modulated radiation therapy. That means blasting the tumor with radiation right where it counts!
These are the radiation therapists that would give me my radiation treatment. The are all really nice people. Especially since I never wanted to get the treatment, and I was always getting sick. They were very kind, patient and would try to make me feel as good as possible. They work in the basement of the hospital which is kind of creepy. It is around the corner from the small animal imaging lab!
These are some of the nurses in the clinic. They would give me my weekly chemo, and they would take care of me when I needed to have my blood drawn or when I was really sick before going into the hospital. They are very nice and had things to talk about. Most of the nurses were really cool in an unusual way because most grown ups don't like Sponge Bob!
These are my nurse practitioners who had very special jobs. Their job was to manage my care when I was in the hospital (Pam on the right) and out of the hospital (Jen on the left). They wanted to make sure that I was feeling good and doing things that normal kids were supposed to be doing - like eating and pooping. They talked to my mom a lot about the perfect medication recipe so that I wouldn't get sick after chemotherpy. They worked with my doctors and made me take a lot of pills and a lot of other stuff. One time they gave me this citrus drink that gave me diarrhea for a week!
