We have 5 years of stories…here’s one from this family:
“K was having trouble with coordination, falling often, hand writing, and having headaches in the mornings. We finally took her to her pediatrician, who didn’t seem too concerned but referred us to see a neurologist, who then send us for an MRI at Children’s Hospital the next day. We had already done some googling about her symptoms prior to these appointments and kinda had a bad feeling. The night they came back in the room and told us they found a mass on her brain was by far the worst day of our lives. Our hearts broke for her. It wasn’t fair, she’s so young, she’s going to endure so much pain, will she die? So many questions and thoughts racing through our minds, and such a helpless feeling. Usually when your kids are sick.. You know to give them some medicine, and love and that’s it. But this was different. We didn’t know what to do for her. We couldn’t make the illness just go away. It was life altering.
We had an overwhelming line of support from friends and family! They are the best! But then we also learned of another support system.. Our hospital social worker that we meant after K was moved out of ICU, brought us a bag of goodies from The Dragonfly Foundation. And it was awesome! It had little bottles of hygiene items, notepads, pens, a dry erase board, lots of things that we didn’t already have with us, that was very helpful. The nightlight was our favorite since K was getting up to pee quite often through the night! Brilliant!
As we learned more about The Dragonfly Foundation, we felt a little less alone, we now know there are others going through these feelings, or had gone through it before. There is just a connection between cancer families that people wouldn’t understand unless they had gone through it. TDF brought hope and light to our dark days in the hospital. And they have been providing so much fun and support for our family since then. They are like family. We are forever greatful!”