Navigating Childhood Cancer: Gaining Strength Through Family, Self, and Your Child

It was the day after Christmas last year and just two months after my son’s third birthday that he was diagnosed with Leukemia. Every parent’s biggest fear is to hear their child has a disease, with cancer likely topping the charts. I remember those first nights in the hospital, my husband and I smiling and pretending that things were fine for our son by day, hugging each other on our hospital cot sobbing by night. It is a time that is incredibly painful and still surreal to look back on. I recall vividly when a team of doctors entered our hospital room to deliver his official diagnosis. We had been doing a copious amount of reading about what his condition might be while awaiting the final results of his bone marrow aspirate.