Feel The Advantage

Allie DeBor Marketing Assistant Childhood Cancer Awareness “Your child has cancer.” Those were the words my parents heard the afternoon of August 5, 1995. At the age of two, we were just beginning what would be a long journey none of us were prepared for. A few weeks before, I had a persistent cold that wouldn’t seem to go away. I was more tired than usual and in most situations, was found curled up on my mom’s lap, hunched over in pain. After an appointment that felt like days at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, the doctors told my parents that I had been diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, a type of blood cancer commonly referred to as ALL. From there I started chemotherapy that caused me to be an insomniac, lose all of my hair and for a period of time even made me paralyzed. I wouldn’t change any of it though, because without it, I wouldn’t be here today. I don’t think I’ll ever forget what I went through those years I had cancer. That being said,

Carmen Bauer, M.S. CCC-SLP Speech Language Pathologist Valley View Rehabilitation and Nursing Center Impact As I sat back in my car tonight, I reflected on the positives on the day and the things I could have done or reacted to differently. This has been an attempt at decompression before driving home after work. As many you know, the age-old adage of leaving work at work often doesn't bode well for those of us in healthcare. The lives of those we treat become interwoven in our days, and we find ourselves pausing and wondering how X, Y, or Z is panning out for our patients. Today, I found myself struggling to find a positive. After a long week, I could hardly pinpoint exactly if what I did was therapeutic, let alone something positive. As I pulled out of the parking lot, it donned on me: Impact. We have impact on these patients and their families. We have impact on lives just as they have impact on ours. We are incredibly blessed to be in a profession that all