This essay is dedicated to Cori Raddigan, the best Child Life Specialist a girl could have! Thank you Cori for helping me get through probably the toughest battle in my life. I couldn't have made it through without you!
During my time at Sutter Memorial I had 3 doctors, many nurses, a music therapist Melinda, and a couple of Child Life Specialists, but my main Child Life Specialist was Cori. All played a big part in my life and making me who I am today, but it was Cori who had the biggest impact on my life. You could say she played a big part in making me the person I am today.
The story begins about one or two weeks after I was admitted into the hospital. One day Cori came in with the Child Life Coordinator, Jennifer. They introduced themselves to us and told us what child life specialists do. From that day on Cori came in and spent time with me every day that she was at the hospital, which was Monday through Friday. When she came to spend time with me we would do different things. I remember one of the first times she came in to spend time with me she brought a lot of beads and other jewelry making materials with her. I made a green and white necklace with my name on it. To this day that is one of my favorite necklaces and it means a lot to me.
Another time when she came to visit me she brought a Polaroid camera and some craft things to make picture frames. This picture frame is very special to me. Through the years it has gone through many things. Children have gotten a hold of it and ripped some of the foam decorations on it and it has collected some dust. While it may not be as new as the day I made it, it has even greater meaning than the day I made it. When I looked at that picture when I was sick all I could see was a sick girl who was fighting a losing battle. I saw a girl whose dreams were slipping away. Everyday she was dealing with unimaginable pain, physically and mentally, and didn't want to keep going. Every bone in her body just wanted to be done with all of the pain. Now I look at it and I see a completely different picture. I do see a sick girl, but I also see a girl who is strong and brave. A girl who is strong and brave enough to endure anything because she's already faced the hardest thing she ever had to deal with. I didn't know how much that picture and picture frame would mean to me, and Cori probably didn't know how much it would mean to me either, but it does mean the world to me and I have Cori to thank for that. The only times I would feel good at all without being drugged up was when Cori would come to visit me.
Coming to visit me isn't the only thing that Cori did to help me through this time. While I was in the hospital I also had to meet with physical and occupational therapists. I know now that, and honestly I knew then that that they were only doing their jobs, but at the time they just annoyed me. They would especially annoy me when they would just drop in, and expect me to drop whatever I was doing. If I was sleeping I would have to wake up just to do my therapy. Cori knew how much I hated when they would do this so she came up with an idea to make a schedule for my day. She bought a chart and then we decided together the parts of my day that I wanted on the chart. She made it where the physical and occupational therapists had to schedule appointments to me with me so I would be expecting them and I wouldn't have to drop whatever I was doing. Having that schedule made a lot of things easier for me. It made my already bad days a little bit better.
Another thing that was really hard on me during my time in the hospital was all of the surgeries and procedures that I had to have done. It seemed like every time I turned around there would be a surgery or procedure that I would have to have done. When I just had procedures done one of my parents was aloud to come in with me until I was asleep and that helped me feel a little less scared, but when I had surgeries done my parents weren't aloud to come in the operation room with me. Cori was aloud to come into the surgeries with me though and that made me feel a lot better. Laying there in that cold room with a bunch of doctors standing around me made me scared, but having Cori there with me holding my hand made me feel a little better.
When I was diagnosed with cancer I was 13 years old, but it was only three months until my 14th birthday. For my birthday Cori and the whole Child Life Department decided to throw me a birthday party. They made a poster to hang on my door that said, "Happy 14th Birthday Michelle!" Before my birthday Cori had also come in and asked me what I wanted for my birthday. On the day of my birthday Cori couldn't be there , but one of the other Child Life Specialists, Becky came in and visited with my family and me and gave me my presents.
Cori was always there for me and in a lot of ways and made my stay in the hospital a lot easier. I had never heard of Child Life Specialists before having cancer, but I am so greatful for learning about Child Life Specialists and having Cori there for me while I was in the hospital.
A few years after my battle with cancer and when I started to think about what I wanted to do with my life I thought of Cori. I thought about how much she had helped me and how without her I don't think I could have made it. I realized how important Child Life Specialists are in a child's life when they are in the hospital. I knew that if I didn't have Cori in my life when I was in the hospital it would have been a lot harder and I possibly wouldn't have had the strength to make it through this time. Thinking on all of this made me realize that being a Child Life Specialist was exactly what I wanted to do. I want to be someone who can help and be an inspiration in a child's life just like Cori was in mine!
No comments:
Post a Comment