March 28, 2013

www.thechemobag.com
www.facebook.com/TheCHEMOBag

What an amazing morning!

Last night we checked and double checked all the bags, counted them properly (48) and put them in the back of our van in anticipation of bringing them to Lehigh Valley Hospital Muhlenberg Campus this morning at 10.

I knew in advance that we would be met by the infusion center director and a photographer. What I didn’t know was that we would also be met by a hospital “big boss” and a man who would be writing an article for a hospital publication. A few days back I had signed a consent form stating that they may use pictures of Michelle that may be taken today. I also provided them with a photo of Michelle but I was unsure of why they needed that. Now I know why.

Lehigh Valley Hospital currently is promoting a “Superhero” campaign and if you live here in the Lehigh Valley then you may have seen a billboard or two with a child on it. That child has a thought bubble and in that thought bubble is an animated picture of the child as a Superhero. We now have a photo of Michelle as a Superhero. She also has a cape. A red superhero cape. How cool is that?

We were brought immediately to the infusion center where the director and Michelle began to hand out bags to the patients. To be honest I was unsure at the time if that was a good idea. An infusion center can be a scary place; some folks in there appear to be awfully sick. But Michelle was a trooper. Politely introducing herself to the patients, explaining to them the idea behind The CHEMO Bag and showing them each and every item inside the bag. She was followed by a photographer and  her dad and I as we answered questions for the article they are writing.

The patients were kind, treated Michelle with respect and seemed quite pleased with the items in their bag. No two bags were the same so each patient got something a little bit different from the other patients. We even received a monetary donation from a family member (friend?) of one of the patients. As a mom, I was quite impressed with how Michelle handled herself. She behaved like a mature little lady and was kind to the patients. Sometimes a cancer patient can feel like a freak, at least I know I did at times, so to have a young person talk to you as if having a port, an IV bag hanging and a bald head was a perfectly natural everyday occurrence must be a good feeling. She even received a hug or two from the patients.

We then took a break in the delivery for Michelle to have a little photo shoot. She put on her superhero cape and posed some crazy superhero poses for the photographer. I am not sure what exactly will be done with those photos, but I can’t wait to find out. I have asked for copies of all the photos for our own use and was told they would need to crop out the patients in the photos so that we can use them on our webpage or facebook page. But I suppose that whatever publication they put the photos in will have pictures of Michelle with the patients as I saw the patients signing consent forms. For the privacy of the patients we didn’t take any pictures of Michelle handing out the bags.

After the little photo shoot we returned to the infusion center so that Michelle could hand out a few more bags.

The people from Lehigh Valley Hospital Muhlenberg Campus really made Michelle feel good. We didn’t start this project so that she could become a “superhero”, we started this project so that we could, in Michelle’s words, “make people smile, and let them know we care.” I am glad they made a bit of a fuss over her, and I am glad the patients reacted so positively to her as this will help keep her motivated to continue promoting our charity and getting more people involved.

Not every bag delivery will be like today’s, but I am blessed that today happened the way it did.

And I have you to thank for making Michelle’s idea a reality.