One morning, during the last dose of steroids, Channing freaked out on me when I asked him to take his meds (3 syringes, and 2 pills). He yelled at me and said "I'm going to squirt this in Ema's, Jakob's and your face because you all have Leukemia and I DON'T". It broke my heart when he said that and I realized that Channing needed a little more understanding of what was going on inside his body to feel a little more in control. I did a lot of research of what to tell him, and how to explain it (honestly I didn't even understand it), and I asked a lot of fellow cancer moms how they explained it. I was told about a FANTASTIC book that's called
"Chemo to the Rescue" . It's a very basic explanation of what Leukemia is and why you have to take Chemo. It explains each part of your blood (platelets, white blood cells, and red blood cells) and their role in your body. Then it explains that kids with Leukemia have weird cells in their blood that shouldn't be there (lazy leukemia), they are taking up space and blocking out the important blood cells, making the body sick because the other good, hard working cells didn't have enough room to work. I read the book with the kids and Channing seemed to have a better understanding of what Leukemia is.
I also contacted Child Life at the hospital and asked if they could help Channing understand better what was happening inside of him. Child Life is an AMAZING resource and they did such a great job helping Channing better understand. Kris helped Channing make blood out of corn syrup (plasma), red hots (red blood cells), marshmallows (white blood cells), and rice (plasma). Channing thought it was pretty awesome to be able to squish it around :)
After playing with the 'blood' they got JR out for Channing. JR is a doll who has a port just like Channing. They let Channing give JR medicine, and look at what a real port looks like.
I think Channing really benefited from this experience. I think he felt more in control and had a better understanding of it all.
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