Day 9, Chemo Round 2 :: Brotherly Love

This morning, when I asked Little Jay about his day at school yesterday, he told me that he was sad because he wanted to see his sister.  He spoke with his guidance teacher, Ms. Jackson, and she helped him feel better.  He worked on an art project for Jade about why she's in the hospital.  The red circles are labeled as red blood cells, the white circles as white blood cells, the exes as leukemia, and the orange rectangles as medicine. She can come home when all the exes are gone. As much time as he has spent in the hospital (I think there have only been three days that he hasn't visited Jade), it shouldn't surprise me how much he understands what's going on... but it does sometimes.  He's a little sponge.


I'm glad that he has people all around him -- at school, at home, in the hospital -- that he feels comfortable talking to about how he's feeling.  He has definitely come a long way since Jade's first few weeks at the hospital.  While there have definitely been some regressions in terms of some of Little Jay's behaviors, he has made great progress with transitions and expressing  his feelings and what's on his mind. There are less tearful, fall-out-on-the-floor breakdowns when it's time to say goodbye (on his part and ours), and he lets us know when he's thinking about her, ("Mommy, I want Jade to live with us," one night as I tucked him in at home.)  The Child Life Specialist is his favorite staff person at the hospital, hands-down. She helped us explain Jade's leukemia to him in an age-appropriate way, but also helped us make sure he still feels like he's special and his needs are being met. (She's also got the hook-up with keys to the play room which houses the Wii... that certainly doesn't hurt). We took her up on her suggestion to create a calendar that outlines who's picking him up, special activities, etc. so that even though our previous routine is out the window, he has some sense of what's going on and what to expect.  We also designated a special task for him so that he feels like he's a part of Jade's recovery -- a co-worker offered a flameless candle, which Little Jay is responsible for "lighting" each night to help make sure the angels know where Jade is and can help heal  her...

Looks like Little Jay is following in the footsteps of his uncles and being an awesome big brother.  We thank God for that!