Everything You’d Want to Ask A Pediatric Oncologist

Dr. Erin Guest, pediatric oncologist specializing in cancer genetics and infant Leukemia at Children’s Mercy Hospital, has the hardest job in the world. Well, that’s what I thought.

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As we sit together in a bustling Starbucks, she says, “To me there are other areas of pediatrics that would be much harder. In the ER, you see children who were perfectly healthy taken away from their families instantly. With a cancer diagnoses, the family has time to start coping. Most of our patients get better, even if temporarily.”

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I agree, as I think back on my family’s experience. Through treatment, our son Jonah got better, even though it was ultimately temporary. After his sudden diagnosis of Stage Four High Risk Neuroblastoma at age three, our family was able to adjust our sails, fight for what we loved most, and then do what we always thought unimaginable, accept the inevitable. After two and half years, Jonah passed on April 5, 2017 at 5 years old.

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Dr. Guest is one of Noah’s Bandage Project’s grant recipients and was actually Noah Wilson’s doctor (Note: this article mentions both Noah and my son Jonah). And, although Jonah had a different oncologist, we knew Dr. Guest’s warm presence from our stays on the Children’s Mercy Hospital cancer floor. Together we inhabited the same battle field, but in different roles; me, terrified but courageous mother; her, one of the steadfast soldiers saving the day. I always wondered, what is this experience like for them?

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