Childhood Cancer Awareness Month! ![🎗](https://www.facebook.com/images/emoji.php/v9/t29/1/16/1f397.png)
![🎗](https://www.facebook.com/images/emoji.php/v9/t29/1/16/1f397.png)
Chemo side effects:
Fatigue
Nausea
Vomiting
Pain
Headaches
Skin changes
Mouth, gum & throat sores
GI problems/constipation
Weight changes
Hair loss
Kidney and bladder problems
Anemia
Blot clotting problems
ANC drops/immune compromised
Neutropenia
Infection
There is a lot of follow up care after a child goes through treatment and after treatment side effects that can occur months, and even years after their cancer treatments.
There is no cure for cancer…and we never hear the term “cured” used when Noah goes to clinic. Instead we hear “remission” and with the proper treatments used to treat his type of cancer, it will help his body go into remission and kill any or all cancer cells in his body!
Still, cancer cells can remain in the body, even after complete remission. This means the cancer can come back. When this happens, it’s usually within the first five years after treatment.
No one wants to hear the word “cancer” especially when it is your child. But it is REAL and it does not care if you eat healthy, exercise, or live the healthiest lifestyle ever. It has no color, race or gender! It can happen to anyone and the fight is not pleasant and it is heartbreaking as a parent to watch your child go through these treatments. Hard to accept that you cannot take the pain, nausea, vomiting, and overall sick feeling away. All you can do is try to comfort them (if they allow it because of how sick they feel) and just be by their side to love them.
In the first 8 months of Noah’s treatment, there were some down sides we did not post about or show because it would probably break you heart to the point that you would feel uncomfortable following his journey. Instead, we chose to post some of these photos that were not hard to look at but the behind the scenes of these photos were heartbreaking to us as parents getting him through some pretty tough times.
A cancer diagnosis is life changing. For the the whole family…Financially, emotionally, physically and mentally.
Jeff and I just received what the cost of Noah’s chemo pills and steroids will cost us every single month for the next 1-1/2 years AFTER insurance and it is still a big chunk financially.
We need to do more! We need to spread awareness. Childhood cancer needs more funding for research. I can’t even wrap my head around the fact that there has not been an updated FDA approved chemo treatment for kids since 1978.