just been diagnosed with HL

Less than one minute read time.

FormerMember

29 Jun 2011

I am a 39 year old mother of two beautiful girls and it has just been confirmed that I have HL. Apart form the initial kick in the guts, I feel like I'm having an out-of-body experience? does anyone else feel like that??

My major concern is how much to tell my girls, who are 8 & 13 and having to tell my dad and brother was for me worse than actually being told of the diagnoses myself!!!

I now feel that I have my mask on, my emotions tied up nicely! and every one has been told to deal with it how they need to at home, but not to bring it to me, I feel that is the only way I'm going to get through this?

Are these feelings normal??? please tell me they are !!

nene x

FormerMember over 13 years ago

Hello Nene

Sorry to hear your diagnosis. It is always a terrible shock when first diagnosed.

I can't tell you what you should tell your children, as to be honest only you can decide that as you know your children better than anyone.

But what I will tell you is that when I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer, my son was only 3 so I didn't tell him what was wrong with me as it wouldn't have meant anything to him, he just knew i was poorly. I only told him when he was older and a mother of a friend of his was diagnosed so it helped as re-asurance.

When I was first diagnosed with Lymphoma, he was 15 and I told him before I told anyone else. I decided that he needed to know and he has always been brilliant at dealing with it. He is an only child and I am divorsed from his father, so I was concerned that he would feel very alone as he has no-one who understands exactly how he feels. I have been astonshed at how well he has coped and how incredibly mature he has been. There were a couple of things I hid from him during my treatment (which was a mistake) as he thought things were worse than they actually were at the time which frightened him more than was neccessary. I hide nothing from him now. If he asks me anything I'm honest with him.

I hope this is of some help.

Jo
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