What is trauma, anyway?

Trauma is defined as the emotional shock following a stressful event or a physical injury, which may be associated with physical shock and sometimes leads to long-term neurosis.

Trauma is defined as the emotional shock following a stressful event or a physical injury, which may be associated with physical shock and sometimes leads to long-term neurosis. 

While PTSD is more associated with veterans of war and emergency first responders, an estimated 10-20% of parents with medically fragile children meet the clinical criteria for PTSD, according to a blog written by pediatric psychologist Kate Junger of Cincinnati.

The sound of fireworks or a car backfiring might trigger a response in a veteran or first responder who associates it with a bomb or gunshot. But PTSD looks different in parents of sick kids.

Symptoms may include: re-experiencing disturbing thoughts through nightmares or flashbacks; avoiding people, things and places that remind them of the trauma; fighting negative thoughts and feelings of guilt, anger and sadness that can lead to withdrawing from others; and a sense of hypervigilance that can result in difficulty sleeping and irritable outbursts.

If you have ever attended an event for Mitchell’s Fund,
you will remember his Beads of Courage.

If you have ever attended an event for Mitchell’s Fund, you will remember his Beads of Courage.

Beads of Courage is an art in medicine program to help families and patients record their journey with a critical illness. There is a daily journal to track all the medical procedures like chemotherapy, blood Transfusions, pokes, lumbar puncture, chemo in his spine, antibiotics, neutropenia…Every morning Mitchell’s mom would sit alone and track Mitchie’s procedures from the day before. Some days he got up to 10 beads.

Mitchell’s strand of beads are over 45 feet long.  They are priceless to Meg and represent his journey. They now serve as a tangible way to show his fight and as an example of what the sick children and families that Mitchell’s Fund serves go through.

MITCHELL BAYS TURNER LIVED 774 DAYS

YELLOW BEADS:
He spent 184 days in the hospital

RED BEADS:
He received 75 blood transfusions

WHITE BEADS:
He took 417 chemo treatments.  Almost every day he had more than one treatment.  His parents had to learn to administer chemo and run IV machines at home.

GREEN BEADS:
Mitchell was in isolation 457 days

SPECIAL BEADS:
His first steps

When he said Mama for the first time.

When he went home for the first time after 64 days hospital.

And a butterfly at when God set him free at the end of his two-year fight. 

Donate today to support mental health counseling for sick children
and their families.