video of Little Warrior

For Mothers' Day, The Husband gave me my combined birthday/M-Day present, as requested, of a Flip Video camera.

I'm hoping to keep kind of a running documentary of this, our second journey to Cancerville. To let people know what it's like. Because for me, I just had no clue. Cancer was bald kids with big ears and surely their families must be very special, for the universe to have put them in that situation.

Ha. Think that if you want, but I assure you, it gives you no protection to feel that you aren't "special enough" for cancer.

The reality of it all was surprising. It's not Lifetime movies, and heroic mothers (no, really), and brave angelic children. It's just normal kids, who get sick. It's paying $12 for parking and waiting hours for appointments. It's promising your child the moon if they'll just take their medicine. It's people surprising you with their kindness, and to be honest, occasionally surprising you with their stupidity. (Kindness vs. stupidity runs about 20:1, I'm pleased to report.) Most of all, it winds up being very, very normal.

Sad, yes. Scary, yes. But normal.

The thing that I still don't have a handle on, the thing that still surprises me, is being reminded time and again that cancer kids don't start out as cancer kids. Meaning, they're plump, they have hair, they're naughty, they're funny ... they're just normal kids. You see a picture of a bald, thin child ... and then you see the picture of them before they were diagnosed. The normal picture is jarring. Unbelievable, almost.

Anyway, I'll be posting these quickie videos on http://www.lovethroughaction.blogspot.com/

There's one right now. You can look. It's not sad, it's funny. Land Shark! Candy Gram!