If You…
If you walked in my shoes
Down darkened hospital hallways
To your child attached
to every monitor and tube imaginable…
And you sat by their bedside
and stroked their head
where their hair used to be.
Wondering if they were going to
be able to survive this
If you watched your child
get put to sleep
for procedure after procedure…
And you felt the crippling heartbreak
of turning to leave them
in the hands of strangers
doing their best to save their life.
Knowing there was no choice
while also knowing
there has to be a better way!
If you ever sat with your child
for a 6 hour infusion
and wondered how this poison
is going to affect them:
will it save their life or take it?
You read the consent forms
and the long list of side effects
(including death)
and then you sign
because that’s all you can do.
If you, in your darkest days,
have planned your child’s funeral in your head
while you held their hand
through an unimaginable fight.
But that pales in comparison
to knowing other’s darkest days:
the day they were told
“there’s nothing more we can do”
or the day they watched
their child take their last breath.
If you lived
just one
of these moments in time
I know there wouldn’t be
a need for advocacy, or raising awareness.
If you spent just an hour
in our shoes
their wouldn’t be budget cuts
or a chorus of parents
having to beg for more research.
Id like to think
there would be
only empathy
and a cure for every child…
If you
could
help us
make change
Written by: Dominique, her son Ashton is a leukemia survivor, follow her @ashtons_leukaemia_journey