One Wednesday a month when I open my clinic door, to call for the next patient, I find the face of a little boy staring up at me, his mom or dad right behind him. Ambane is the boy, and he has ALL – Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia and is in remission. He doesn’t smile or say much, but he comes each month and allows me to check his blood and then give him chemotherapy, like we have for the past 2 years. He use to cry when he saw me, then he would only cry when we put in the IV for his chemo, now he just watches the needle go in without flinching. He has had more needles in his little body at the age of 5 then most people have their whole lives. Although Ambane doesn’t smile much, his parents sure do. They smile because all four of their sons are still alive, because Ambane’s hair is growing back, because Ambane is able to go and collect water and firewood for their house. They smile because he is beating the cancer, something I doubted would happen because in my experience, we don’t beat cancer in PNG. A few pts after Ambane, a little girl walks into my room with her arm in a sling. I only saw the pain of the girl’s face and so I focused on her and asked what happened. I found out she fell and after examining her arm, I set out to write…
Source: A mom's smile from Erin Meier – Asia Pacific