Lynsey和Colten Cluff在29周之前过早地患有双胞胎。男孩们在Cardon Children's的Banner Children's的NICU度过了一生的头三个月。当布拉克斯顿（Braxton）和布里格斯（Briggs）回家时，克拉夫斯（Cluffs）的生活开始陷入他们的新常态。
根据Braxton的妈妈,工作,他总是been just what you’d expect from a boy his age. He loves all things dirt and Ford, she explains. Braxton has also always loved music.
“Braxton and Briggs have been in music classes since they were very young,” Lynsey said. “They turn everything into a song.”
布拉克斯顿（Braxton）在NICU的时光只是他旅程的一部分，后来他面临着另一个重大挑战。一切始于2017年的感恩节，当时全家人生病。
While most of the family recovered quickly, Braxton seemed to keep battling something. He would have fevers and complain of his mouth hurting.
Doctors were pretty sure it was just a sinus infection.
In January of 2018, Braxton finally started to feel better. One Saturday night, Braxton, Briggs and their 2-year-old brother, Tate, were running around the house, behaving as 3 young boys would. Colten saw Braxton and thought he had something in his mouth, so he offered a father’s warning of no horseplay with food in the mouth. The strong-willed Braxton swore his mouth was empty.
Colten called him over and looked in his mouth. Braxton’s soft palate was so swollen it nearly touched his tongue. Colten knew something was wrong, so the family quickly made their way to the emergency room.
到他们到达那里的时候，布拉克斯顿嘴的肿胀开始影响他的喉咙。他被镇静和插管。但是，这个家庭不知道三个痛苦的日子怎么了。
“We are a very religious family, so there was a lot of praying and a lot of crying,” Lynsey said.
诊断麻烦
1月16日，医生能够告诉Lynsey和Colten他们儿子的问题。答案是令人震惊的：布拉克斯顿患有伯基特淋巴瘤，这是一种非霍奇金淋巴瘤的一种形式。这是一种癌症，可攻击淋巴系统，通常被认为是一个人可能面临的生长最快的肿瘤之一。
林西说：“当时我们有失去他的高风险，医生担心它会传播到他的大脑上。”
Braxton was in a fight for his life. He had lost 20 pounds, nearly half of his body weight, and treatment was very hard on him. He began to distrust the people caring for him and saw them as the people making him take nasty medicines or giving him shots. For someone his age, it was traumatic.
但是，他取得了足够的进步来摆脱关键清单，并能够搬到卡登儿童教堂（Cardon Children's）。尽管如此，他在Cardon儿童的头几天还是很粗糙，因为他是如此害怕。
Help was on the way
Olivia Houck is a board-certified music therapist at Cardon Children’s. She first met Braxton shortly after his arrival to the inpatient oncology unit and could tell he was very anxious and had a lot of stress.
她建议布拉克斯顿（Braxton）访问苏菲（Sophie）的地方，即卡顿儿童会（Cardon Children's）的音乐疗法室，远离医院的房间。她告诉Lynsey和Colten，她认为Braxton可以在他自己可以成为一段时间的环境中从他的房间里受益。
“At four years old, everything is new, and everything is different. I wanted to provide normalization through interactive play and exploration,” Houck said. “We had a hang out day, and I wanted to show Braxton and his family what was available to them in our hospital.”
林西（Lynsey）和科尔滕（Colten）因音乐与家人的重要性而跳进了治疗计划。
What is music therapy?
有些人可能会想像坐在椅子上听音乐时听音乐，但音乐疗法远不止于此。根据Houck的说法，儿科环境中的音乐疗法通常是关于互动，让患者触摸和演奏乐器。
It is a clinical and evidence-based use of music to accomplish individualized goals, explained Houck. Those goals certainly do not always have to be musical.
霍克说，实际上，音乐疗法可以实现身体，情感和心理目标。它可以帮助减轻疼痛感并增加社会化。这也是人们搬家的好动力。
霍克说：“你不禁跳舞或敲打脚。”“音乐有节奏。”
Houck also explained that music therapy has been around a lot longer than most people realize. In the United States, it became more established as an organized, clinical practice in the 1940s. It has also helped some high-profile individuals when they needed it, including Gabby Giffords, who worked with a music therapist for her speech rehabilitation.
音乐疗法是跨学科治疗计划的一部分。当与传统治疗与传统疗法一起使用时，音乐疗法将完全根据个人和家庭的需求完全侧重于现场目标。
In Braxton’s case, Houck wanted to focus on his anxiety and fear. But, that wasn’t the only thing she wanted to focus on.
霍克说：“布拉克斯顿的最大目标之一就是给他选择和控制，因为他们在医院里没有得到。”“音乐疗法给了他们这个机会。”
转折点
“我曾在音乐疗法方面工作，”前儿科理疗师助理林西说。“我知道这可以让他表达他需要的情绪。”
The first time Houck met Braxton, she introduced him to Sophie’s Place, the music therapy room. Sophie’s Place at Cardon Children’s was the third such facility at a children’s hospital started by the Forever Young Foundation, the charitable organization started by hall-of-fame NFL quarterback Steve Young.
索菲（Sophie's）于2017年3月开业，是一个最先进的设施，为音乐治疗师提供了小组或私人治疗课程的场所。另外，录音室，听力站和练习室为患者提供了很多探索。
而且，这就是布拉克斯顿所需要的。
“他打，踢球，”科尔滕说。“奥利维亚是个娃娃，让布拉克斯顿做他想做的一切。这是转折点。”
霍克回忆起，让布拉克斯顿为自己挑选了一项乐器，一个为她挑选了一个乐器，一个让他的父母扮演的乐器。然后，他们从三楼的索菲（Sophie）的位置进行了即兴游行，回到他在七楼的房间。
Not only was this good for Braxton, but it also helped the staff. It allowed them to see Braxton as a normal kid—not just a patient. And, it allowed the staff to do something with him other than treatment.
今天的布拉克斯顿
On August 24, 2018, Braxton—with Colten, Lynsey, Briggs and Tate by his side—celebrated his end of treatmentwith family, friends and staff. The ceremony marks the moment the patient has officially finished their cancer treatment, and part of the ceremony allows the patient to ring a gong.
布拉克斯顿（Braxton）看上去很轻巧，充满活力，手里拿着槌，当他的父亲将他带到锣时看着人群。科尔滕给了他一些指导。
“You get to hit that as hard as you want. One big swing,” Colten said. Braxton cocked back his arm, and as his dad counted to three and said, “hit it,” little Braxton unleashed a mighty swing.
另请参阅：Braxton celebrates his end of treatment
Today, Braxton is back at preschool, enjoying life as a kid, again. While his treatment may be over, he still has follow-up visits with the doctors at Cardon Children’s. But, that’s not the only stop he makes.
“To this day, when we go back to this hospital, we can't leave without seeing Olivia,” Lynsey says.
For Houck, music therapy is a way to help the patient with self-esteem and to give them an activity to succeed with. It provides stability and gives them an interactive place to take care of their emotional needs.
然而，林西和科尔滕认为这是更多的。
"We owe his life to child life and music therapy," Colten said. “It gave him hope. Hope heals.”
