The Big, Red, Cuddly, Christmas Bear

Date: December 21, 2002
      My son, under treatment for ALL Leukemia for over two years now (2 and one half years shy a day or so), has long deemed it necessary to provide stuffed animals to the Day Hospital and to Clinic D at the Lucille Packard Children's Hospital.
      There are so many little kids.
      They are always so serious.
      Their parents are always so serious.
      No, no, and no people! Smiles are better medicine!
      So he does his best.
      And because I've almost lost him more times than I wish to count - - - I indulge him.
      As long as I am working, why not?
      Stuffed treats are a simple thing.
      We have brought in frogs (so cuddly that they both were - - - "acquired" - - - I believe is the word), and big colorful turkeys, and Easter bunnies.
      This is besides the 4 lb. box and many smaller ones of candy.
      And the artificial roses so real people are still commenting - and the glass vase to hold them.
      For Christmas, we brought in big, 3' tall, red, soft, squishy, cuddly bears.
      Clinic D has theirs on the counter.
      The Day Hospital put theirs in the chair next to the blood pressure machine and scale.
      So it sat.
      In its own chair.
      Until - - - - -
      She is smaller than the bear.
      She has had 6 weeks of that first battering chemo.
      She was just out of the hospital and back for daily Amphoterasin - the stuff that set my son screaming and led to his bed rails being bent over and three doctors running. (I was screaming too - "Shoot him up! More drugs! He's still screaming! Stop this!")
      Oh I remember that well.
      I can relate.
      She did not want to be in the hospital.
      She did not want anything to do with her treatment.
      She was angry.
      And upset.
      And they couldn't help her.
      They couldn't reach her.
      Until she saw the red bear.
      She latched on to it.
      It made the world of difference to her.
      She loves the bear.
      She even smiles.
      So now the nurses set it on her bed before she gets there every day.
      They tuck it away when she leaves.
      When she is finished with this daily adventure, they will let her take it home with her.
      I agree.
      She gets the bear.
      "Lolly" is the poster child for the latest blood drive.
      She was interviewed for Channel 4 News (San Francisco area) - with the bear.
      She was curled up asleep on it when my son arrived for his chemo.
      They got me a picture.
      Simple things.
      We had seen the bears at Albertson's and my son wanted the light blue one. It's his cuddle pillow.
      At 6'1" - he will cuddle.
      And he has always loved stuffed bears. He has acquired many of them over the years.
      Even in high school, one day he was having a bad day. I kept him home. I bought him a big white bear with a red heart.
      "Upset? Hug the bear!" It worked.
      I have a purple one. He picked that out for me. I use it for a pillow too while sprawled on the new sofa in front of the TV.
      He sprawls on the other sofa with his blue one.
      We got the red ones for the hospital at the same time.
      And a 3' green iguana (which he decided to keep for a bit. There was no room left on the counter.)
      We had to have a second basket going through check-out that day.
      We have days like that.
      We chose to bring things to the hospital that pass the test - soft, cuddly, cute. And able to sit on the counter.
      The bears were big and outrageous - but they suited Christmas.
      A simple purchase, $10 each at the Grocery store, on a whim. Simple fun for us.
      Such an effect.