Emotional roller coaster, as a parent of a child with cancer.

hi SFay 

Welcome to our community, I hope you find it both informative and supportive.

Our son at 20 reported having gone blind in one eye, refered to the eye hospital the consultant diagnosed that his optic nerve was being crushed and it turned out he had a craniopharyngioma. Two round of brain surgery and then a fell course of proton beam therapy and things seem ok but he is not dependant on steroids since his own system is all over the place.

 I spoke to people on the phone line here and at our local Maggies, already familiar with them since my wife has being living with cancer for over 10 years now.

Something I find quite helpful is looking at your emotions when someone has cancer as being able to recognize the emotions and accept them as normal and valid can help to make them less overwhelming.

You might also like to look at/post in one of our lymphoma forums and possibly too the Parents of children with cancer forum 

<<hugs>>

Steve

Thanks, I’ll take a look Steve. 

Hi SFay,

I can empathise completely with how you're feeling. My lovely daughter was diagnosed three years ago in May with a very aggressive breast cancer. A bladder tumour was also found through the staging. She had 8 chemo cycles before the breast surgery, then bladder surgery when she had recovered from the first op. One of the chemo drugs had affected her heart and she then had heart surgery. This was followed by 15 sessions of radiotherapy, then a further 24 chemos. 

We are now coming up to a year since treatment finished and she's slowly getting back to normal life ... although it is a 'new normal', life is never quite the same again. She still has side effects but they're manageable with meds. She is back as work more or less full time, although her immune system is still rubbish and she catches every bug going. But she's still here and for that I will be eternally thankful.

Daughter is single so I've been her support at every appointment, cared for her post surgeries and through chemo. It was the hardest thing I've ever done and totally broke me. However old they are, they're still your baby. One of the hardest things was letting her talk about what she wanted if treatment didn't go well. But these are things people have to be allowed to do and somehow I got through it. You will too.

I considered counselling but very gradually started to feel stronger. I'm not there yet, but I don't think about cancer every day now. Worries come back when it's time for another scan but I'm coping. 

Wishing you and your son the very best. Sending love and strength. x