Amy
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Amy was the picture of health, both physically and mentally when she was first diagnosed. She had just started her first year at school, where she had made lots of exciting new friends. She was loving life living with her family in a small farming community about 15 minutes west of Casino in northern New South Wales.
Amy’s hospital journey began when she had an asthma attack. She didn’t respond to the treatment doctors gave to help her breathe, so she was sent for some blood tests. |
Amy’s parents, Jane and Greg, vividly remember the 19th of April 2007. This was the day they were told their bright, bubbly daughter had ‘acute lymphoblastic leukaemia’ (ALL) - a type of childhood cancer.
Within 24 hours, Amy was receiving chemotherapy at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Brisbane - miles away from friends, family and home.
For the first three weeks of her chemotherapy treatment, Amy had stress headaches every day and needed to stay in a dark room because she vomited if she went anywhere.
Jane explained, “Amy just shut down completely. She wouldn’t communicate with any of the hospital staff - she wouldn’t even look at them. It was like she just didn’t want to be here any more,” she said. So in addition to having leukaemia, Amy’s emotional health was in need of some kind of treatment that chemotherapy could never fix.
It was at this point that Amy started going to music therapy sessions twice each week. Initially she would sit on her parents lap and curl up. She wouldn’t respond or communicate in any way with her music therapist, Maggie.
But eventually Amy started looking around. Occasionally she’d move a finger to the beat of the music, or tap her toe….and after a few weeks Amy finally started to have fun!
Music therapy has helped Amy and her parents immeasurably. Her Mum and Dad say the change they’ve seen in Amy has been unbelievable. At first she started talking and interacting with her music therapist. Then she began interacting with nurses, hospital staff and even the doctors! Once Amy began enjoying and participating in music therapy, she also started doing arts and crafts and playing again. It also means Amy doesn’t mind going to hospital anymore. Jane said “sometimes the music therapists drop by the cancer outpatients area, just to say hi to the kids, and Amy gets so exicted when she sees them!”
Amy says the best part of music therapy is playing the piano, and her favourite songs are the rainbow song and frog song. She especially likes taking her doll to music therapy, who is named Sunshine, a very appropriate name given by a bright little girl who has come such a long way thanks to the magic of music!
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