The most important youngsters’s hospital in Atlantic Canada desires to make it simpler for teenagers to know their most cancers analysis.
The IWK is giving youngsters the possibility to don a lab coat for the day and see the illness at a mobile stage.
Dubbed the Cellfie Venture, the initiative permits sufferers with a leukemia analysis to check out their blood and bone marrow cells below a microscope.
“I clarify to them, ‘Would you prefer to see your most cancers cells, would you prefer to see your wholesome cells? Would you prefer to be taught extra about what’s taking place to you?’” mentioned Dr. Valérie Bourque-Riel, IWK Well being Pediatric Hematologist-Oncologist.
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“More often than not the reply is ‘Sure, I’d like to go right down to the lab to see my cells.’”
A go to to the lab makes the affected person an honorary pathologist. They’re given a white coat and a USB drive with photos of their cells.
“It’s a life-changing expertise, and by life-changing I’d say that some youngsters are utilizing the “Cellfie Stick” in school to clarify to their schoolmates what is occurring to them and present them why they’ve a central line, why they’re so pale, and dropping their hair,” mentioned Bourque-Riel.
Children are additionally given a brand new stuffy to take house with them. The crocheted buddies are donated and plenty of of them have been made by health-care employees.
“Having one thing to really take house with them that’s cute they usually can present their pals and all the pieces, it’s actually fairly fantastic,” mentioned Allison Williams, a medical laboratory technologist.
This system launched in 2022 to assist take a few of the uncertainty out of navigating a most cancers analysis. Since then, it has continued to develop to assist extra sufferers.
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