I write this letter to you to share with you the letter we wrote to the Cancer Clinic nurses. I call them the forgotten nurses because they are all too easily overlooked. the reason they are easily overlooked is because they are apart of thee everyday routine. We tend to overlook the routine and daily blessings in our lives. But the Cancer Clinic nurses are actually the ones you spend the most time with over time. They are the ones who trained me an your momma (especially momma) how to be Leukemia parents. The first week of diagnosis they came tp your rom and spend as much as an hour sitting with us and explaining the best they could in that moment what we could expect for the next three to four years. I really don't know if your mother could have mentally survived the first week if it had not been for the Cancer Clinic Nurses. Here is your Daisy Letter.
Please accept this Daisy Bouquet as a small token of our appreciation for all that you have done for Andrew and us for four and half years. We have turned in a few “Daisy” nominations over the years but we have always believed them to be inadequate for expressing the total team work required for even the greatest of nurses and staff to do their work. So, this daisy bouquet represents our own DAISY AWARD for excellence. Nonetheless, this bouquet still fails to communicate the profound gratefulness and love that we have for all of you. We are aware that the “Clinic” can often be the forgotten piece of the treatment puzzle. There is natural attachment that occurs on the floor in the intensity of initial diagnosis that is hard to recreate in the long grind of routine treatment. However, the reality is that the Clinic ultimately spends more time giving care than any other group. So, we thank you.
June 2, 2014 is Andrew’s date. All of your patients have a date of life change and that date is ours. We of course had no clue of how much our lives were going to change nor how much Andrew would suffer. We couldn’t imagine how the long grind of the so called “maintenance” phase would beat us all down physically, emotionally, and spiritually as year after year would pass. But we also couldn’t imagine the blessing God was giving to us by introducing all of you into our lives. I will never forget the first time Carey entered Andrew’s room. She began training Robin to be a leukemia mom. I could tell right away that we were entering into a completely different world. I remember it being one of the first times that I began to feel that Andrew was safe. Our first tour of the Clinic produced the same result but at an even deeper level for Robin. For the first time she began to feel like she would be able to handle it after we would leave the hospital. Typical of Andrew “weird”, he would spend well over a month in the hospital before being released. By the time we had to start coming to the clinic we had seen almost everyone of his chemo nurses at least once. So immediately, the Clinic was HOME for Andrew. A place where he has always felt safe. So for us, 3C and The Clinic have all always been the same family.
We thank God often for the blessing of Andrew’s Clinic Team. We think of you often. I have no doubt that none of you fully appreciate how important and special you are for your patients and particularly for us. Andrew’s childhood has been spent with you in the clinic. Some of his fondest childhood memories will forever include you. NEVER DOUBT THE IMPACT, IMPORTANCE, AND NECESSITY
OF YOUR WORK! Nor, our love and appreciation.
Thank You,
Team Andrew
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