The Perfect Response

As many of my friends are aware a couple of the most important people in my life are my beautiful nieces. After knowing for a few weeks about this cancer crap once again creeping into my life I felt an obligation to tell them about what was going on. Firstly, you must understand that these girls are smart and I knew my older niece had an inkling that something wasn’t “normal”. To understand a bit more about them, my older niece, AKA my princess noodle, is 9 years old and is intelligent, thoughtful, and very intuitive. Sometimes I feel as though she’s a 30 year old living in a 9 year olds body. I can sit and have some good conversations with her. Then I have my “love bug” who is 5 years old and as her nick name describes her, she is simply lovable, sweet, and has a huge heart.

I decided to sit down with my older niece, princess noodle, to tell her that the cancer was back because I felt she was old enough to sense something wasn’t right. Therefore, after a few weeks when I knew I wasn’t going to burst out crying I felt it would be a good time to tell her. The last thing I wanted to do was be a complete mess and scare the crapola out of her. I feel I need to mention how this conversation went because it was truly great. So I sat down with her and essentially told her,

Me: “ You know things are a little different lately, right?"

Princess noodle: “umm… yes”

Me: “Remember when I had cancer, well it came back but this time it found a home in my bones”

At this point my Princess noodle looked at me and then at the floor, all the while I knew she was thinking something.

Me: “What are you thinking?”

Princess noodle: “Well… It’s just that I was hoping you would say you were going to buy me cupcakes”

At this point I couldn’t help but laugh as it was really the best response I have had thus far! Don’t get me wrong if one of my friends responded like that I would probably think they are completely insensitive and ridiculously hungry, however I loved her response. Our conversation about cancer was over and we went to get cupcakes.

Anyone who knows me knows I love kids and this was the perfect example as to why. Kids are blatantly honest and they tell you exactly what they are feeling in that moment. This is the reason I work as a nurse in pediatrics. Kids are strong, resilient little people that I think we can all learn so much from. In saying this I must share what happened to me when I went for my bone scan because it reiterated why I will never work with adults again, NEVER. For a while I had contemplated whether I wanted to go back and work casual with adults. So Chris and I had gone for this test which was at the Foothills hospital. As we sat in the waiting room a lady possibly in her 60s came walking in with a walker. So there’s one word that you must remember, she was WALKING. Ok, so she goes to the front desk to check in and she says to the receptionist, “Am I able to go to the washroom?” The receptionist looks at her and says, “yes, absolutely the washroom is just behind you.” Now you must understand the washroom was possibly five feet away from her and she goes on to say, “Oh that’s fine I’m wearing a diaper, so I’ll just go right now.” I looked at Chris and thought what is happening?? On top of this there was a man continuously belching as though there was nobody else around him. I couldn’t have been happier to get the heck out of there!!! I told Chris right there that there was absolutely no chance in hell that I would ever want to go back to working with adults!! I felt as though I was in an institution with a bunch of people who felt that simply letting go of any inhibition whilst being in a public setting was somehow appropriate. For anyone contemplating for a second as to whether to work with adults or children, always pick children. You will learn the true meaning of strength and resiliency and they will always put things into the greatest perspective, even if it is something as simple as getting cupcakes.