In Amber’s mother’s words: I wanted to share a story with you that Amber shared in class last night.
When Amber had her brain surgery back in December 2009, she had 2 MRIs done. Both with contrast. Having a needle put into your arm is difficult enough for anyone, let alone a 7 year old child. Since surgery, she has had a total of 10 MRIs. All with contrast. Prior to her joining Kids Kicking Cancer, I would literally put my face in hers to get her to focus on me. Every test included crying and arguing about not wanting the “poke”. Some worse than others.
After joining Kids Kicking Cancer, Amber learned to do the breathing technique but it really did not sink in right away how helpful this was. It was repeated over and over in class that this would help but just did not sink in. In the Fall 2010, Amber joined Cross Country running in school and showed her teammates how to use the breathing technique to calm their nerves. Several of them told her afterwards that it helped. December 2010 brought us to her latest MRI. It finally sunk in how the breathing technique could help and for the VERY FIRST TIME, she used it without my helping her and telling her to breathe deeply in and out…..to push the darkness out and let the light in. I could only stand there with tears in my eyes watching my beautiful child totally handling this on her own. No words were needed from me.
Please, let all who volunteer in this program know this program does work. The trick may be to get the children to believe….but once they do….stand back and watch because it is an absolute joy.