…and the idea was good,
but the work was plenty…
yet, she persisted!
…She being me, Dr Mfon Umoren, the host of this podcast, ‘The Storytime Clinic‘.
I am a pediatrician – that is a doctor who takes care of children. In my current job, I mainly work with kids who have cancer or immune system problems. These kids tend to be sicker than your average child, and they often spend a lot of time in the hospital. As you can imagine, this can impact a lot of normal aspects of childhood – it affects family dynamics, relationships with friends and peers, schooling, play and fun activities, and much more.
So, why did I start this podcast?
First, I wanted to understand more about my patient’s experiences. As doctors, sometimes we only get a small glimpse into our patients’ lives (when they are in clinic or hospital for a checkup, or getting treatments) and we don’t really get to see them within the context of their everyday lives. So I thought that reading books about children with health conditions would be one way to get some added perspective, particularly about the psychosocial aspects.
The second reason is that I wanted to improve my writing. Over the past year I started experimenting with fiction writing (my eventual goal is to write health-themed children’s books with an African context). This proved to be much more challenging than I expected. Writing a good children’s book is not child’s play, so I have to take a moment to shout out all the authors out there. As I started writing, the advice I came across over and over was to read more books.
Which leads me to my third reason – I wanted accountability and consistency in my reading. ‘Read more!‘ has featured on every one of my New Year’s Resolution lists for the past several years. During this time, I have discovered that I am very good at buying books and reading the first few chapters, and I am very bad at finishing them. Well if you have the same problem, here is a little tip: Children’s books are the way to go! For the most part they are short, entertaining, full of adventure and imagination. And authors know that kids have short attention spans, so the writing really has to be engaging. This is definitely a plus for some kids’ doctors that also have short attention spans, erhhmm…
So, with those three reasons, the idea for this podcast came together. I hope this will be a way to share what I am learning about how childhood illness affects wellbeing, and to connect other caregivers with helpful books and resources that I find along the way. Most of all, I hope these books can help to promote better understanding and support for kids with health conditions. So there you have it, now all you have to do is SUBSCRIBE and listen in!
