Dilemma

How do you tell a three year old that tomorrow (or rather later this morning), they're going to hospital to have medicine which will make them better in the long run...but in the short run i.e. for 48 - 72 hours, it's going to make you feel very sick and tired?

I guess the dilemma for us as parents is do we tell Leo that the chemo he needs over the weekend is going to make him quite poorly? We don't want him to equate having to go to hospital with him being given meds to make him sick. The other regular visits for blood, or the short push of Vinc on a Friday should be relatively pain-free and quite fun for a 3 year old who can be distracted by the painting, drawing, colouring, play-doh etc etc. But in the meantime, every 3 weeks until the end of October, we need to take him to hospital to make him unwell, albeit to make him better over time.

It's a dilemma PJ and I have thought about constantly both as individuals and together this week, and we still cannot fathom a way to tell Leo. We're both of a mind that Leo should know about what's going on i.e. he has a baddie behind his eye which needs to be made better. So that' the first thing, but now we need him to understand that to get better, he needs to be sick first!

He asked us this morning if we can go back to Spain tomorrow as his friend Jack is saving his old Spiderman bike for him. I said we'd go back soon and once his baddie is better. Leo screamed and kicked off that he didn't want his baddie to be better, he just wanted to go back to Spain tomorrow. It's heartbreaking but then thank goodness, Leo is only thinking about Spain and not worrying about all the things we're all worried about!