Unsung Heroes

It's been 7 months since my last post. Obviously I don't like coming back here. My time keeps getting farther and farther apart between each post. It's both cathartic and painful. I end up crying as I write 100% of the time. But this time, instead of telling you the next horrible thing that I had to go through, I'm going to share some of the really awesome things that I can now appreciate that other people did. The unsung heroes of BMT kiddos.

1. Did you know you have a diet restriction when you get a BMT? This is NOT the good thing- wait for it... Like worse than a pregnant lady. Needless to say no sushi, no alcohol (ok I was 18 anyways), no deli meat, no cheese really (unless it was super lame cheese like the least sharp cheddar ever), NO FRESH FRUIT (all I wanted was some strawberries, you guys!), etc. Basically, everything had to be cooked until dead. So apparently there was a food all BMT patients wanted at some point: french fries! Because what kid doesn't like french fries?! Problem is, they have to be FRESHLY cooked every time- nothing that had been sitting around. At the time, when my parents brought me some french fries from the McDonald's a block away from the hospital and told me that the McDonald's employees made them fresh for me, I didn't think about it (oh hey self centered 18 year old girl). Now I think about that and smile happy tears. Cincinnati Children's Hospital has one of the largest children's BMT units in the US. The number of times that parents show up to that McDonald's and ask for fresh made french fries (say that 10 times fast!) must have been innumerable (and still happening to this day, I'm sure). And I'm guessing these McDonald's employees know what's down the street (oh hey sick kids) and they do it every time. I mean, they may not have been happy about it all the time, BUT THEY DID IT. And that's all you can ask for. When your chemo'd up kid that barely wants to eat anything- because it is guaranteed to make them vom- wants any type of food, a parent is desperate to get it to them. And that CCHMC McDonald's delivers. So thank you McD's. Because that was a definite staple to my oh-so-specific diet and many other BMT kiddos as well.

2. The guitar guy. Ok so I kinda hated him at the time- not gonna lie. Not him as a person, but the happiness he brought. I was an 18 year old girl who watched her friends on Facebook go off to college and have fun, who knew what she was missing. So this guy with his guitar and soothing songs pissed me off. And he knew it. When I first met him, I tried to be nice and listen. But that quickly ended as I felt worse. Finally, one day he came by and didn't play a thing. He just asked me what kind of music I like. The next day I got a mix CD from him and it was actually pretty good. Some of the songs I knew, some I didn't. But more than what he did for me, it's what he did for the younger kiddos- the five year olds who wanted to hear the hokey pokey and all those kids songs. He spent his days going from room to room cheering up the little ones and making them smile. Yeah- maybe he didn't quite reach the angsty teenagers, but he helped a lot of kids. I can definitely attest to the fact that a smile is some of the best medicine.

3. The nurses. Yeah- I know that we all know nurses are awesome. They can make a hospital experience 100 times better. And the nurses at CCHMC did. The best example is Halloween. It's not just on Grey's Anatomy that hospital employees dress up in costumes for the pediatric unit- it's REAL LIFE. Whaaaaat?!? For real though. They made candy stations for the kids to go by and get candy (safely so that nobody got sick from one another). They decorated the halls and I think there was even a little music. I didn't fully participate, but I did get dressed up (I have NEVER missed a chance to dress up, guys). So yeah- holiday celebrations in the hospital aren't just for the TV shows. That's real life too- and all because of the AMAZING nurses who take time out of THEIR lives to help the kids feel somewhat normal in their completely abnormal hospital world.

So yeah- life sucked a lot during the BMT years. But there are incredible people out there that do things for kids that they don't even know. They help these kids to feel some bit of happiness in the dark times of their lives. I was able to witness that as an (almost) adult- and even got to benefit from it myself. So I'm going to say thank you to those people- even though I know they will probably never read this. All of you who are reading it will know that they are the unsung heroes of some BMT kid sitting in his hospital room fighting for his life.