“She won’t tell me what is bothering her. But I know she is scared to be here in the oncology clinic. Look at her.” A mom tearfully told me.
Her seven year old daughter (we will call her “Sadie”) sat in the hospital bed with her eyes scrunched closed.
“She squeezes her eyes shut like that so that she won’t cry” the mom continued.
Sadie had just been diagnosed with leukemia and was in the midst of a very difficult first month of treatment (called induction). Induction involves aggressive treatment of the cancer which includes having to take a lot of steroids and chemotherapy. So not only is a child in incredible amounts of pain and discomfort from their cancer, but now they are taking very intense medications that can cause them to feel even more nauseous and irritable.
“Oh, Sadie.” I turned to her.
“It is okay to cry. You don’t need to hold it in.”
Immediately tears began streaming down Sadie’s face.
Due to Sadie’s temperament and development, I knew it would be important for me to find a way to give Sadie a voice to express her feelings and worries surrounding her diagnosis and treatment. So, I thought I should introduce her to her new friend, Worry Buddy.
I presented Sadie with a paper bag, markers, feathers and stickers. I told Sadie that Worry Buddy’s job was to eat up her worries and her “sads.” Worry Buddy knows that it is okay for Sadie to feel sad and worried. And she also wants to help Sadie by carrying those worries and “sads” so Sadie doesn’t have to carry them all on her own.
The way Sadie can feed Worry Buddy is by drawing pictures of the things that make her worried and sad and then putting them in Worry Buddy’s mouth (which we carefully cut out with scissors). I suggested to Sadie that when she lets Worry Buddy carry her worries and “sads” for her, maybe she can let Worry Buddy worry and be sad for her (even just for a little bit) so she can think about other things to help her feel a bit better.
Sadie agreed and began to create her own Worry Buddy, who she decided to name “Worry Pink.” (As you can probably gather from the picture, Worry Pink holds true to her name with all of her lovely pink feathers!)
Once Worry Pink was complete, Sadie and I then spent time making food for Worry Pink by coloring on small pieces of paper. On the menu today- “yucky medicine”, “hair falling” out and “seeing the doctor”. With each worry/sad Sadie would color, I would ask open-ended questions (“Why do you think your hair is falling out?”, “What happens when you take the medicine?” and “I wonder why you worry seeing the doctor?”) Sadie would then begin to slowly respond and answer my questions and disclose more about her feelings surrounding her treatment. This also provided opportunity for me to introduce coping strategies for her to try and provide additional diagnosis education about medicine, hair loss and doctors.