The beginning of our new "Normal"

Normal, what is normal? That word is used so much that I don’t think there is a set definition for the word normal. When Erick was born, he was such a normal baby, he met all the learning blocks that the doctors said he had to reach by the age he had to meet them. He only woke up to drink his milk, he barely cried because he was fussy, and he was growing both in height and weight steadily. As he was growing up, everything was normal. Before Erick was diagnosed, I had done what every parent would “normally” do, which is register him for kindergarten. I went to kindergarten orientation, kindergarten registration, even signed him up for science camp for the summer. I was so prepared to buy his school supplies, school clothes and I was even ready to hear his stories. Of course all of that changed, and we were faced with our new “normal”.

During that week, we met a lot of the staff that are going to be in Erick’s life for the next three years. We met all three doctors, the nurses dedicated to the hematology clinic at the Mission Cancer Center and also the two social workers. Each day that passed we received more information and oddly enough we became a little more at peace with Erick’s diagnosis. Each procedure was explained thoroughly, when they gave us medications the nurses told us what purpose they had, even the social worker was giving us different programs for whatever need we had. All this knowledge gave Luis and I a little more peace and relief that we needed. One thing I will recommend all parents is write everything down, any question write them down, please don't be afraid to ask any questions or to repeat any questions. And most importantly, breathe. While your child’s diagnosis isn’t a good time to breathe or relax, you need to remember that your child still needs their parent.

We stayed in the hospital from June 6, 2017 till June 14,2017, a good week and half a day, and by that time, my little trio was exhausted, Luis and my mother had finally returned to work, Erick’s appetite had finally came back, and he was finally his playful self; somethings in our life were slowly returning to normal. When we were finally discharged from the hospital, the nurses explained the new medications that Erick was going to begin to take, also explained what Erick’s first appointment was going to be like, and explained how Erick’s first month of treatment would go. Then we were finally discharged.

Erick’s first appointment was going to be that following Friday (we were discharged on a wednesday) giving us one day to finally relax. And on our only day off all we did was relax. Everything was so overwhelming so all we did was enjoy that day off. We watched movies and we played, he was walking around and eating everything on site. It was good to be back home and finally breathe. It wasn’t until that Friday morning that it hit me that our life was never going to be the same. This diagnosis was definitely going to cause a big impact on Erick’s life and on mine. Our whole world had turned upside down.