Beads of Courage

I love this! After Brayden moved out of the PICU on the floor with the other kiddos, one of the Social Workers came to see him to give him his Beads of Courage. It's his story to tell of all that he's been through. Each week in Clinic he gets new beads based on what he's had to go through. It's really amazing and they tell us how many beads some kids get after years of treatment. It's going to be quite a story for him to tell. He's already gotten a few special ones:
- PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) - Square Heart
- Bone Marrow aspirate/biopsies - Beige
- Emergency (Angel 1 Transport) - Magenta
- Blood Transfusion - Red
- Chest Tube insertion - Aqua
- PICC Line - Orange

Here are what the other beads represent:
- Course of Chemotherapy - White
- Clinic visit - Blue
- Port Access/Blood draws - Silver/Black
- CT scans - Light green
- Sleep over at Hospital - Yellow
- Morphine - Purple
- Dressing changes (for PICC line) - Silver

There are a few he hasn't gotten yet:
- Bone Marrow Transplant
- Hair Loss
- Isolation (we've forgotten to ask for this one)
- Radiation treatment
- COMPLETION OF TREATMENT!!

Here's Brayden this morning stringing his Beads of Courage for the first time. He got to pick out 1 special bead after finally visiting the gift shop after clinic this last week. It was to celebrate him conquering his NEMESIS: TAPE! Brayden (along with a little help from Oxycodone) had no problem with the tape this week and was eagerly ripping it off for the nurse! This was the nurse we should have rewarded with flowers after last week's 1 hr work of gingerly working with the 3 1/2 square inches of tape over his PICC line, millimeter by millimeter. I winked at her Wednesday and said, "We drugged him up for you this week!" Don't judge me yet. Brayden hasn't taken many things they've given him for pain and nausea. He had so much anxiety over going back this week because of all the trauma with the tape. So his nurse was sweet last week to suggest it and didn't agree though when I asked her if the parents could be medicated with a dose as well? This really helped ease Brayden's emotions and anxiety this week and allow it to be a less traumatic week in clinic for him, so I'm thankful it worked. For his reward, he picked out this special cross bead in honor of all those prayers for him!