Jordan’s Story – Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

Q: How has your child’s cancer diagnosis impacted your life?

Cohen’s diagnosis feels like a curtain–for the rest of our lives, there will always be a before and an after. Slowly those start to melt together again, but time is the best healer of that. His diagnosis and treatment have taught us patience–for all the waiting, all the worrying and hoping and questioning. We’ve learned what it feels like to be surrounded by love and support. People who we always counted on showed up in bigger ways than ever; people we never had met before sent us love and offered help.

This has led me to my biggest takeaway from this whole experience: life is full of challenges and difficulties, and sometimes all we can do is show our love and support. It’s better to tell someone that you’re thinking of them, and offer your help, than to say nothing.

Q: What is one thing you wish others knew about life as a parent of a child with cancer?

Advocacy. Despite your child’s medical path seeming to be on a singular trajectory, there’s still so much advocating and options available. We slowly learned to ask lots and lots of questions, even if it meant going against the norm or questioning one of our doctors.

Q: What is one piece of advice you would give to a parent with a newly diagnosed child?

Believe that it will get easier. Cohen’s first cycles were really hard, but there were still moments of happiness in joy tucked behind the difficulty. Ask lots of questions, talk to the nurses and doctors and seek out solutions. I never once believed there would be any routine or rhythm to any of the treatment or the scans or the hospital visits, but with time it slowly came.