A Long Journey 

Today I interviewed the parents of a 14-year-old-boy eighth grader. He's spent the last six months in and out of the hospital, undergoing chemotherpy for leukemia. He's also very autistic. This chain of beads was made for him by the pediatric nurses at UMass Medical. Each bead represents on treatment. The red beads are blood transfusions, the green are chemo doses. The airplane is morphine and the ambulances are trips down to the Emergency Dept. The spiky-looking thing is for a lumbar puncture. I'm happy to say that after all this, plus a six-week hospital stay for a bowel infection, and cardiac trouble, the leukemia is in remission. Their son will be a freshman in high school this fall.