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Recording studio in hospital about more than music
2009-01-01
HOUSTON - Just down the hall from the chemo infusion rooms at Texas Children's Hospital, Jalen Huckabay was about to slip into another world, away from the wearying regimen of pokes, prods and pinches she'd endured since being diagnosed with lymphoma in November. Muzi.com News 10085611-1 (muzi.com)For the next few hours, the curly-haired, cherub-faced 16-year-old would become a songwriter. Muzi.com News 10085611-2 (muzi.com) Purple Songs Can Fly, a one-of-a-kind program at one of the country's largest pediatric cancer care facilities, gives patients a chance to record their own songs in a fully equipped recording studio at the hospital. Muzi.com News 10085611-3 (muzi.com) More than 116 songs have been recorded since Purple Songs began in March 2006 as part of the cancer center's Arts in Medicine program. Some of the recordings have been featured on audio tracks aboard Continental Airlines flights, and flown into space aboard the space shuttle. Muzi.com News 10085611-4 (muzi.com) Yet Jalen hesitated and hawed when her oncologist asked if she wanted to write and record a song. She wasn't sure what to expect. She is normally reserved, prone to one-word answers and prefers to stick close to her mother. She doesn't like singing in front of other people. Muzi.com News 10085611-5 (muzi.com) But she can talk for hours about Jasmine, the pint-size Yorkshire terrier she got as a Christmas present last year. The puppy she calls MYD. My Yippin' Dog. Muzi.com News 10085611-6 (muzi.com) Purple Songs founder Anita Kruse immediately knew that Jalen's words contained the kernels of a song, and that behind the girl's shy exterior, a creative spirit lurked. Muzi.com News 10085611-7 (muzi.com) "There's a point where the kids realize they are not thinking about anything else. It's just about being in that creative place," said Kruse, a Houston-based singer-songwriter who raised $10,000 to start Purple Songs, which is funded through donations. "Seeing someone going through something really difficult let that go, even if it's just for the moment, it's beautiful." Muzi.com News 10085611-8 (muzi.com) _____ Muzi.com News 10085611-9 (muzi.com) It had been an especially rough week for Jalen, who is no stranger to rough weeks. A few days earlier, a good friend and fellow transplant patient had died. Then, the day before Jalen's first double chemo session, her grandfather had open-heart surgery. Muzi.com News 10085611-10 (muzi.com) A rough week, coming at the end of a rough year. Muzi.com News 10085611-11 (muzi.com) In March, Jalen's doctor told her parents she would die within two months without a lung transplant. Her own lungs, weakened by cystic fibrosis, could no longer sustain her. It would be the second transplant for Jalen, who received a new liver four years ago. Muzi.com News 10085611-12 (muzi.com) "We just prayed that those lungs came quick," said Karen Huckabay, Jalen's mother. Muzi.com News 10085611-13 (muzi.com) A donor match -- the lungs of a 19-year-old girl who died of an aneurysm -- were found in eight days. The transplant was performed at Texas Children's, one of three hospitals in the country that perform pediatric lung transplants. Muzi.com News 10085611-14 (muzi.com) A few months later, an infection sent Jalen back to Texas Children's -- she needed 17 operations over 11 weeks. In November, doctors detected a type of lymphoma that can occur in transplant recipients. They found post-transplant lymphoma in her tonsils and put Jalen on six-month course of chemotherapy. Muzi.com News 10085611-15 (muzi.com) For all but four weeks of 2008, Jalen and her mother have lived in an apartment near the hospital, 400 miles from home in Albany, Texas. Far from Jalen's father, her younger sister, her friends -- and Jasmine. Muzi.com News 10085611-16 (muzi.com) That's why she wanted to write the song. Muzi.com News 10085611-17 (muzi.com) "I miss her very much," Jalen said of her pet. Muzi.com News 10085611-18 (muzi.com) Many of the children in Purple Songs write about their pets, or families, or other bits and pieces of home life. Muzi.com News 10085611-19 (muzi.com) "So many of them want to express gratitude and thanks to their friends or family or the doctors for being there for them, to that element of whatever is comforting during this time," said Kruse. "That dog is comforting for Jalen." Muzi.com News 10085611-20 (muzi.com) _____ Muzi.com News 10085611-21 (muzi.com) Inside the recording studio, Jalen reached into the purse dangling from the IV trolley and pulled out a cell phone. She wanted Kruse to see photos of her little Yorkie. Muzi.com News 10085611-22 (muzi.com) "Oh, she's adorable!" said Kruse. "Of course, she needs a song about her." Muzi.com News 10085611-23 (muzi.com) "So do you call her a puppy?" asked Kruse, as the two worked side-by-side in the cramped recording studio. Kruse sat at a Mac with a piano keyboard and Garage Band software. Jalen sat next to her beeping IV monitor, a protective face mask around her chin. Muzi.com News 10085611-24 (muzi.com) "We call her Jaz, Jasmine," replied Jalen, speaking barely above a whisper. Muzi.com News 10085611-25 (muzi.com) Kruse, her long flaxen hair reaching down the back of a long purple jacket, jotted Jalen's words onto her notepad with a purple-inked pen. Then she hummed softly. "Yipping dog ... she high fives ... twirls." Muzi.com News 10085611-26 (muzi.com) "She loves beef jerky," Jalen added, her muffled voice inching up just a notch. "If you give it to her from the bag, she'll be your best friend... If you pat your tummy, she'll jump into your arms." Muzi.com News 10085611-27 (muzi.com) "She's just a year old? Would you say her hair's curly?," asked Kruse. "When it's long, it curls?" Muzi.com News 10085611-28 (muzi.com) "We dressed her up in a Build-a-Bear wedding dress," laughed Jalen, the words tumbling out a little easier. "Whenever you give her a bath, she hates the towel. She attacks the towel." Muzi.com News 10085611-29 (muzi.com) Without realizing it, Jalen was composing lyrics. With each phrase, a new verse filled Kruse's notepad: "She does high fives. She sits. She twirls. If we let her hair grow, she has pretty curls." Muzi.com News 10085611-30 (muzi.com) Kruse gave Jalen a thumbs up. "That's one verse. Now we just need a chorus." Muzi.com News 10085611-31 (muzi.com) "You've got to have MYD. My yippin' dog," joked Jalen's mother. Muzi.com News 10085611-32 (muzi.com) Jalen and Kruse looked at each other. That was it. Muzi.com News 10085611-33 (muzi.com) Kruse's pen flew across paper. Muzi.com News 10085611-34 (muzi.com) "MYD is my yippin' dog. Got her last Christmas on the 23rd. We call her Jaz. She's the Yorkie we chose. We dress her up in Build-A-Bear clothes." Muzi.com News 10085611-35 (muzi.com) Jalen hunched her shoulders and pulled the IV cord up to her lips. Behind her hands, she was smiling. Muzi.com News 10085611-36 (muzi.com) _____ Muzi.com News 10085611-37 (muzi.com) Karen Huckabay peered into the recording studio, amazed. Moments earlier, too shy to sing in front of onlookers, her daughter had banished everyone except Kruse from the room. Muzi.com News 10085611-38 (muzi.com) Now Jalen was standing behind a microphone, singing her newly-minted song ... and smiling. A grin spread across her mother's face too. Muzi.com News 10085611-39 (muzi.com)
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