Brooke Atkinson
April 2017
Brooke
Atkinson
,
BSN, RN
Hematology Oncology
Children's National Medical Center
Washington
,
DC
United States

 

 

 

My son was treated for osteosarcoma a few years ago, during which time we first met Brooke. Unfortunately, I never had the time nor the bandwidth to write this letter of appreciation. My son has been back for treatment after another recurrence.
Our first admission back, Brooke was working on one of the days and popped in to say "hi", knowing how hard this has been on my son and family. This chemo round, my son was receiving different chemo drugs that made him extremely sick, vomiting, bloody stool, etc. Despite just stopping to say "hi", Brooke quickly assessed how miserable my son was feeling. Not only did she speak with me about which drugs he was taking, but suggested adding other anti-nausea meds. She also spoke with his assigned nurse as she knew my son well enough to know that he was feeling extremely sick. I can't thank Brooke enough for stepping in and advocating for my son. As a parent I just thought that my son's body needed to adjust to this onslaught, just not grasping that there were additional meds that he could potentially take to feel better. Personally, I think I was still numb from the news of a third recurrence.
Two chemo rounds later we had Brooke assigned to us and she continued to diligently work with my son and his doctors to make him as comfortable as possible. We now have "(my son's) Golden Nausea Schedule" in a notebook that I have to record all pertinent info. His next two chemo rounds have been the best ones with no vomiting or any other bad side effects. I can't begin to express my gratitude to Brooke for not only realizing that my son needed different meds because he was feeling so sick, but she also knew different meds to try out, advocating for my son when I couldn't and then worked until we found the right combination of meds to make him as comfortable as possible. This is the type of nurse that every patient and employer would love to have.