"...like a firefighter!"

I had the most precious encounter with one of my patients last week, that represented a different kind of pain associated with childhood cancer.

She was sweet, she was cute, she was tired, she had cancer, but this patient also had Downs Syndrome. For whatever cruel reason, children with Down Syndrome are at an increased risk for developing cancer than other children; so it is not unusual to see these precious children in the oncology setting. The chemotherapy was taking its toll on her, leaving her content to rest quietly in her bed watching her beloved Disney movies while I came in and out taking blood pressures, temperatures and making her get up to use the restroom. It took until the afternoon for her to warm up to me, but when she did, she looked up from me in her bed and said with a clear confidence, "You know, I'm brave. Brave like a firefighter." To which I replied, "Yes you are! You are SO brave!"

And she is. Fighting her own type of fire, but a fire nonetheless.