September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. In order to raise real awareness about what children with cancer endure, I chose one fact about Benjamin’s treatment for each day of the month and shared it via facebook. On September 26, 2015, Benjamin was hospitalized, and many of the numbers included in the posts prior to that date increased. He received eight more transfusions and added 19 more supportive care medicines to his care regimen, for example. Still, this list provides a comprehensive glimpse into what childhood cancer patients go through, one day at a time.
September 1: Introduction
September 2: Intramuscular Erwinia shots
September 3: Bone Marrow Aspirations
September 4: Cyclophosphamide
September 5: Prednisone
September 6: Hospital Admissions
September 7: Hair Loss
September 8: Platelet Transfusions
September 9: Nadir Period
September 10: Frontline Treatment
September 11: Lumbar Punctures
September 12: List of Chemotherapy Medicines
September 13: Complementary Treatments
September 14: Thioguanine and Mercaptopurine
September 15: Methotrexate and Leucovorin
September 16: Scopolamine Patches
September 17: List of Care Team Professionals
September 18: Allopurinol
September 19: Vincristine
September 20: Liver Toxicity
September 21: Mileage Traveled
September 22: Marinol
September 23: Hudson
September 24: Cytarabine
September 25: Supportive Care Medicines
September 26: Delays in Treatment
September 27: School
September 28: Dexamethasone
September 29: Minimal Residual Disease
September 30: Long Term Maintenance