Saturday, October 1, 2011

Chemotherapy & a Selfless Six Year Old

I was recently diagnosed with Actinic Keratosis Lesions, and left untreated AKs may turn into a skin cancer called Squamous Cell Carcinoma.  Fun stuff!  The treatment for this type of skin lesion is a 4 week regimen of a chemotherapy agent applied topically (its a lotion) that will attack the affected skin cells and kill them.  This in turn makes your face oh-so-lovely to look at!!  Not.  It will cause red, irritated, possibly open lesions on the skin for up to, and possibly longer than, 2 weeks AFTER treatment STOPS!!  So I'm looking at up to 6 weeks of beautiful, radiant skin!  Grrr.

Anyhoo, the point of this post (other than to warn anyone that may still be reading this blog of my upcoming facial beauty, and tell them it really isn't an elaborate Halloween mask!!), is to relate a story of my most amazing 6 year old son.

Isaac overheard me telling Nana about the treatment that I'm starting and asked me about it while I was putting him to bed tonight.  He wanted to know if I was going to be embarrassed about my face.  I tried to explain that as you get older, you worry less and less about the things mean people say and how they react to you.  I tried to explain that even though people might look at me strangely, or might make hurtful comments, I don't get embarrassed by it.  I told him I know who I am, I know my Father in Heaven loves me, I know my family and true friends love me and that's all that really matters.  The people I love and who love me are the only ones I care about, and if someone makes a rude comment, they really aren't my friend and it doesn't bother me.  He was still very concerned about how I was going to feel, not wanting me to be uncomfortable at all.

He thought about that, asking a few more questions in the mean time, and finally started to get a little teary.  He said, "Mom?  If you are going to be embarrassed, I'd want to be embarrassed instead of you.  I don't want you to feel like that."  I almost burst into tears right then and there.  I said, "You'd take the embarrassment for me, so I wouldn't have to?"  And with more tears welling up in both of our eyes, he quietly nodded his head, reached out for me and gave me the biggest bear hug ever.  I am in awe of the magnificence of selflessness.  Greater love...

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