Hi everyone I am new to all this.
My dad has recently been diagnosed with lung cancer & has had his first lot of chemo. I am really struggling to get my head around it all & just don’t know how to support him.
He is very scared but can be defensive & get cross especially with my mum & I worry for her. I also have a 6 yr old who idolises her grampy and I am at a loss to how I explain to her what’s happening & why he is so tired all the time.
Any advice would be amazing, I feel like I am a big mix of emotions going from crying all the time to being cross & even avoiding it. Is this normal??
Thanks in advance
AJ
Hi ALJ and welcome to our community, though always a little bit sorry to see a new friend here.
I think one of the first things I needed to learn with my wife's cancer was how to manage me - if we look at Emotional support for family and friends we can fairly easily see now normal we are. Indeed when I opened up about my wife's cancer at work all sorts of people all around me felt empowered to say "me too" - and now we all feel less alone. Perhaps that old saying of a trouble shared really does have some power.
As for your daughter we have Talking to children and teenagers, our own son is 18 now but has seen far too much of the inside of hospitals for someone of his age.
One of our sister charities Maggies also provides some excellent support in this area, if there is a branch anywhere near you they are well worth a visit.
<<hugs>>
Steve
