09/18/2026
⚠️ Long, educational post ⚠️
With it still being childhood cancer awareness month, I feel the need to post this.
I don't think there's enough talk about the long-term effects or impacts of going through childhood cancer. For so many, you get a devastating diagnosis, you go through hellacious treatment, you ring the bell, everybody celebrates, and we move on. Right? But in reality, the journey is far from over.
Here's just a few things off the top of my head that people don't even realize happens after stopping treatment:
- The child's body has to recover. Not even from having the cancer, but from all the damage the treatment did. For us, we waited a good 10-12 months after her last dose of chemo before allowing her to do things such as get into gymnastics, rigorous fun or exercise, and we remained careful of who we were around for a long time.
- The emotional impact. It takes a toll, mostly on the child of course, but honestly the entire family. We've noticed anxiety & PTSD in Hayleigh. So we've had evaluations and assessments done. She's been diagnosed with anxiety, adjustment disorder, & PTSD. And before you mind goes there, we are not treating the medication. She's currently in therapy to help her with these issues.
- After a child finishes chemo, they attend appointments every 3 months for lab draws to make sure her levels are still on track. If I recall correctly, we will have appointments every 3 months for 2 years. Then it will move to every 6 months, then to a year, and eventually she will move into the survivorship status. I honestly don't recall at this moment what they explained that would look like. For me, I tense up & hold my breath every time we have to go to these appointments. Yes, everything has been great at each visit, but for 2.5 years I constantly heard how low her counts were, that she needed a blood or platelet transfusion, and many times we would go for a treatment in the outpatient clinic and wind up inpatient for several days.
- And then there's the financial recovery from it all. We absolutely had more help financially than we could have ever imagined and we're beyond grateful for that. But even with the help, a family struggles severely. One parent, if not both, have to take leave from work. And when that steady income stops, everything starts getting behind. And I'm sure we all know that for each week you're out of work, you get behind a month per bill.
One side effect we're dealing with is Hayleigh has a delay in losing her baby teeth. She's got one tooth in the front that's been "wiggly" for over a month, but it just won't come out. Her dentist confirmed that absolutely can and probably is coming from the chemo she endured.
As a result of that, she has to go today to have 2 baby teeth removed. She's nervous about it - completely justified. So if y'all could say a quick prayer for her, it would be greatly appreciated.
Also remember all of those that are currently in the thick of it. We see you & we feel you more than you know. 🎗️💜
