Week 3 - Research that Benefits Children and Families

Hello, all!

This week has truly made me think about research and the risks and benefits. I was adamant about not subjecting children to research if the benefit was not guaranteed. However, during a conversation with one of my co-workers, I had to sit back and re-think this because of the research that was done on my daughter.

Three years ago my daughter was in the beginning stages of kidney failure. This put me in quite a shock as I had to make a decision as to what should be done after talking to the doctors. You see, I could wait and do nothing, and ultimately she would go into full kidney failure, begin dialysis, and be put on a kidney transplant. I certainly did not want any of those for my daughter; the second option was looking to be the clear, concise option to save her life. The doctors were quite honest with us in the very beginning; they did not know if this would be a successful surgery, but we had no other options.

The surgery consisted of re-building and re-routing her bladder, her colon, her bowel, and possibly re-routing her entire intestines. The doctors had to re-build her bladder using her Sigmoid bowel, and she now has to perform self-catherization for the rest of her life. Now, going in to this surgery we did not know if would work. The doctors could not tell us if this would be 100% guaranteed, but we had not other choice. We did not want to lose our daughter at 10 years old to full blown kidney and bladder failure.

I did not think of this as research while I was being so adamant about not subjecting children to research. However, I put my own child in more than minimal risks for the sake of research, but at the time, I did not think of research; I only thought of saving my sweet daughter. With this surgery and the outcomes, doctors can use the results as research findings and help other children who have her same problems.

I am proud to say this was a successful surgery; however, my daughter will never be totally out of the woods. We have to have kidney and bladder scans every 3 months (for the rest of her life0, we have to have 2 month checks ups (for the rest of her life) as well as trying to build up her immunities. This has, however, been quite challenging for my daughter as she has to leave class to perform her self-catherization. What I am most proud of is my daughter took this challenge on and has done wonderful. She is an avid athlete! She runs cross country, track, basketball, as well being a cheerleader. She has not let this set her back.

So, my opinion has somewhat changed in the name of research. Because of the surgery performed on my daughter, the results can be used for research. I am very thankful to my co-worker for making me re-think some opinions I had about research.