How can we make Thanksgiving special, just the two of us?

Does a child have to be off treatment to do Make-A-Wish?

• Hi, In my last question(very similar to this one), I asked when the best time to do Make-A-Wish was. Now I really want to know if the wish child has to be off-treatment to get their wish. My son is 5 years old and was recently diagnosed with Stage 3 Diffuse Anaplastic Wilm's Tumor, a rare and high risk type of cancer. I know he's going to beat this beast, but sadly, I also know that we never know what can happen. We've been learning to live in the moment, and take it all day by day. I already feel pretty bad because we were supposed to go on vacation for Thanksgiving, and I told my wife it would be better if we waited until after New Years. She insisted we should go for Thanksgiving, and I insisted New Years. Two days before our trip, my son was diagnosed. I feel SO guilty about that, and don't want another repeat. My sons protocol gives two weeks off at certain points, and once he's done with this daily radiation, he'll have chemo once a week only, so that may leave room for his wish trip and we can do it around the time where the doses are lower so it can be around a time where side effects wont be that big of a problem and he'll be feeling OK. We kow infection will be a problem, but we'll be sure to protect him from that. He'll already wear his mask out in public and wont feel embarrassed because he knows it protects him. He says his wish is Disney World. He was really little when we went and really did EVERYTHING and doesn't remember. We went a few months ago, but we only went to EPCOT and Hollywood Studios(In my opinion, they're the least kid-friendly, but we wanted to do the Nemo and Toy Story rides and didn't stay long enough to go to MK and AK). I would contact them, but I really haven't had the time. My wife is over at St.Jude's with my son and I'm at home with my other two kids and I literally just sat down for five minutes to do this before I have to start dinner. If no one knows then I'll try and give them a call as soon as I can. Until then, hope some one knows :) Thank you, Daniel

• Answer:

  You really need to talk to your child's social worker and oncologist about this. It is possible to do Make-a-Wish before treatment ends- for some kids. It's really impossible to tell how your son will do as far as his blood counts, and if it will be safe for him to be at a place like Disney on one of his two-week breaks. Some kids do okay, but others are more effected by the chemo and their ANCs are quite low, which makes it unsafe to be in big crowds like at Disney. It also depends on how your child actually feels. Some kids get pretty wiped out from chemo and won't really enjoy Disney, while others seem to have endless energy and would do fine. Most of the kids I see who go while on treatment have leukemia, and they go when they hit maintenance (these kids are on chemo for 2.5-3.5 years.) I personally have seen a child with WT go during treatment, but that doesn't mean it can't happen. The good thing is that Make-a-Wish really gets it, and they know how to reschedule a trip at a moment's notice. So if you do plan and it turns out your son isn't well enough to go at that time or his counts are too low, they will postpone and try again. But the actual decision really needs to be made by the oncologist. It is he or she will will be signing off on the wish itself.