Christy Brown: Alexander’s Last Day of Chemo – We can all benefit from his commitment to hakuna matata

Christy Brown, Senior District Sales Manager – Midwest at Medtronic, shared a post on LinkedIn:

“Alexander update: Last Day of Chemo!

We are in the hospital right now for Alexander’s final chemo infusion! It hasn’t yet sunk in that he won’t have any more chemotherapy. The last 8 months of our life have revolved around Alexander being stuck with needles and given drugs that people have to handle with gloves to avoid their toxic effects. Despite our deep ambivalence (more on that below), we are very happy that his body can be free from the task of coping with these chemicals being introduced into it. We are doubly happy that he can start to enjoy a consistent schedule with respect to diet, school attendance, sleep, and physical activity. I can’t wait to see him grow in the upcoming months.

Our ambivalence: I’ve said this before, but it’s not an altogether joyous occasion. We can’t forget even for a moment why we had to subject him to this. We did everything possible to rid him of cancer and did it in a very short time. We are pursuing a clinical trial that will hopefully improve his chances to remain cancer-free, but we have nothing left to do to cure him. While we were getting treatment, we felt like the cancer couldn’t reappear. That’s not strictly true—some cancer relapses even during treatment—but we have not been stressed about relapse, because it feels like cancer can’t break through while such aggressive treatment is being given. Now, there is no treatment to overpower the cancer every month. We have nothing to do but wait, and we hope we are suspended permanently in our stressful state. It’s better than the alternative, but it is so, so scary.

But, as usual, Alexander is not burdened by any ambivalence. He was excited to ring the bell and be celebrated by the hospital staff. He got the chance to select a song to be played as he took the stage, and the song he selected perfectly summarizes his attitude toward this challenging experience: “Hakuna Matata” from The Lion King! I’m sure you don’t need me to translate, but it means “no worries!” He doesn’t have worries; he only looks at life as a series of opportunities to love, laugh, learn, and play. We can all benefit from his commitment to hakuna matata!”

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Source: Christy Brown/LinkedIn