My Beaded Journey

The Children's Hospital in Calgary is such a wonderful place to be. There are so many people here that really want to help. They have so many programs set up....something for everything and more. One of the programs we were approached with is called "My Beaded Journey" It is a way to honour and tell the story of Scarlett treatment path through different color beads placed on a rope. Beads of different shapes and colors stand for the many important points, both medical and non medical, along her treatment path. Basically the kids get long piece of twine with there name in beads. Then the receive a diagnosis bead (obviously Scarlett got a Leukemia Bead) and then they receive a different bead for every procedure they have to go through along the way.

Eg:

Black Bead = Poke
Green Bead = Dressing Change
Red Bead = Blood Transfusion
Purple = Lumbar Puncture, Bone marrow aspirate/biopsy
Orange Bead = Tube Placement
Yellow Bead = Tests/Scans
Brown Bead = Hair Loss
Cream Bead = Chemotherapy

Etc, etc, etc.....There are lot's of them.

In the end, once the child is in full remission they have this wonderful length of beads to show all the different steps they went through. It's a great little craft for the kids to do...It was nice for me because it was an easy way for me to explain things visually to Isabelle to help her better understand what Scarlett is going through daily. The Nurses said many of the older kids will take there beads to school for show and tell and explain what each color represents.

Here is a picture of how Scarletts "Beaded Journey" Looks so far......