From Caregiver to Cancer Mom

My name is Lindsey O’Hara. Twin mom, nurse, and now—a cancer mom.

I had made a career of being a caregiver as a nurse. I felt I was prepared for anything until my family experienced a crisis of our own—our four-year-old son, Flynn, was admitted to the hospital for leukemia. I went through a whirlwind of emotions—how do I explain this to a four-year-old, what do I tell his twin, Bennett, and their sister Nellie? Flynn LOVES his friends and family and LOVES being a kid. He spent that first week in the hospital feeling very sad, scared, and defeated. He missed his friends and family so much. He had never spent this much time away from his twin, Bennett.

When he got home, we adjusted to a new normal of frequent hospital visits for chemotherapy, blood, and platelet transfusions, and unplanned hospital admissions…all while during a pandemic. There were no visitors allowed in the hospital.

We began to see the light at the end of the tunnel with Flynn as we headed into the maintenance phase that would last from August 2021 to February 2023. Then, the unthinkable happened. Something that had a less than 1% chance of happening. On August 2, 2021, Bennett was diagnosed with leukemia too.

Both of our sons had cancer.