Lessons learned when your kid has cancer

When your kid has cancer ...

• time passes in phases of chemo, rather than weeks, months or seasons.
  
• you become thankful for the mundane - belly laughs, a good night's sleep, and the strength it takes to walk across the room.
  
• you learn that friends and family feel helpless and don't always know what to do to assist or support you. And when they are truly helpful, sometimes you only have the strength to pray that they know how grateful you are.
  
• you struggle not to scream it out to everyone you see - like to the cashier that says your son looks tired and asks if he's sick - yet you want to hide in a corner and wish no one knew.
  
• you feel terribly guilty for neglecting their sibling.
  
• you bite your tongue when others complain about the small things, yet you know that they have every right to express their frustration.
  
• you struggle between keeping them safe and depriving them of the everyday experiences a kid deserves and the joys of childhood.
  
• it takes weeks of saying the words - cancer, leukemia, cancer, chemo, cancer, cancer, cancer - and sometimes it still doesn't feel real. My 3 year old son has cancer. Nicholas has leukemia.