Hi, my daughter was diagnosed with Acute Leukemia in February last year, she was in hospital for most of the year and I cared for her two children aged 8 and 10, my daughter had a stem cell transplant last October and is now in remission, but still obviously not 100% fit again. The children were amazing last year and the beginning of this year, I couldn't fault them, they were brave resilient and wonderful. Mum is now out of hospital only returning for bloods and spine chemo. My daughter stays with her partner and spend so many nights as my home, seeing the children every day. Their behaviour has deteriorated, but only with Mum? This is upsetting her and also them, I feel they are without doing it on purpose or knowing they are, punishing her for being away from them, is this something that happens? Their father has not been around for over 5 years. I want to help them all but I am unsure what to do.
Hi Lynne31 and welcome to the Online Community although I am sorry to hear about your daughter's journey. I am Mike and I help out around our various Blood Cancer groups as well as our dedicated Stem cell transplant group
I don’t have Leukemia but I was diagnosed back in 1999 with a rare, incurable type of NHL Stage 4a eventually going on to have 2 Allo (Donour) Stem Cell Transplants so although my Blood Cancer ‘type’ is different I appreciate the challenges of this journey well.
I am older so we did not have the problems your Daughter is dealing with..... but i can understand the problem. We have 4 granddaughters between 5 and 10 and we never have problems when they stay........ but once they go home they turn into something completely different and that is without their parents having been through a very demanding cancer journey.
Lets see if we can connect you with others who have similar experiences. The Community is divided into support groups (discussion rooms) so can I suggest you consider posting in some of our supportive groups listed below.
These are safe places to talk to others who may have a similar experiences, to ask questions and get support.
You may also find this post in our Stem Cell Transplant group helpful Life after a SCT - A Survivor's Guide
If you'd like to connect in with a group click on the Green (Bold) link(s) I have created above. Once the group page opens click on the black banner that says [click to join] at the bottom, or the [Join] button under "Group tools."
You can then introduce yourself by putting up a ‘new post’ by clicking in the box near the top right with + New or + (Depending on the device you are using) and you are ready to go. You could copy and paste the text from this post into your new post.
Talking to people face to face can be very helpful so do check to see if you have any Local Macmillan Support in your area, do also check for a local Maggie's Centre as these folks are amazing supporting all the family.
Give me a shout if you need further help.
All the very best.
The post Stem Cell Transplant journey can be hard and long..... you can see my story by hitting my community name ((hugs))
