“We told Grace to feel her feelings and then look for the bright spot, rise up and move forward,” added mom Aubrey. “By encouraging Grace to bounce to the bottom and then come back up, she was able to truly feel the hardship and then consciously turn it into a positive, regardless of the actual outcome.”
When Grace Eline was diagnosed with a brain tumor, teams at The Valerie Fund Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children’s Hospital of New Jersey at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center and at the Laurie Proton Therapy Center at Rutgers Cancer Institute and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick supported her and her family through the diagnosis, treatment and recovery from a brain tumor.
They were able to provide seamless patient care between the state’s only National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center and the state’s largest health care system, RWJBarnabas Health.
The Valerie Fund became a comfortable place for Grace to truly feel her emotions and allowed her to maintain a positive outlook. While sometimes easier to say than implement, Grace and her team embraced the “Game On” attitude. From the initial diagnosis, Grace worked with The Valerie Fund’s art therapist to express her emotions. One poignant illustration created by Grace showed flower petals falling from the sky, but the clouds above were drawn with a silver lining.
“We told Grace to feel her feelings and then look for the bright spot, rise up and move forward,” added mom Aubrey. “By encouraging Grace to bounce to the bottom and then come back up, she was able to truly feel the hardship and then consciously turn it into a positive, regardless of the actual outcome.”
Grace was able to attend school remotely via a robot that The Valerie Fund uses called VGo, and in the summer she attended The Valerie Fund’s Camp Happy Times, a one-week overnight camp experience for children battling cancer and young survivors.
Grace understands she is one of the fortunate ones as her brain tumor dissipated after only three chemotherapy treatments, surprising even her doctors. She is continuing with radiation treatments to decrease the likelihood of the tumor returning and will be monitored for the rest of her life for any signs of recurrence.
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