Hi Wongoe10ea5 and a warm welcome to the Macmillan Community but so sorry to hear about your son’s diagnosis.
A cancer diagnosis in the family like this can be such a challenging and stressful time but getting support from others who are dealing with the ‘exact same' support challenges can help you a lot.
The Community is actually divided into dedicated Support Groups (Discussion Rooms) so can I recommend you look to join and post in our dedicated…….
Bowel (colon and rectum) cancer
……. support group.
This group is a safe place to talk to others who may have a similar diagnosis, treatment experience, to ask questions and get support from family members who are navigating the same support journey.
As for the practical and emotional challenges of supporting your son and indeed yourself you may benefit from joining and posting in our……
Carers only (if you are his caregiver)
……. support groups where you will connect with a wide range of members navigating the exact same support challenges.
To connect with a group click on the “Bold Links” I have created above …… then once the group page opens click in the [Black - Click to Join - Banner] that appears at the bottom of the page and this will then confirm that you have joined the group.
When you are ready……. you can introduce yourself by putting up your very own post by clicking [+ Create new post] or [+] in the top right of the group page.
You can copy and paste the text from this post into your new post.
It is an emotional time supporting family so you might find this Macmillan information your feelings when someone has cancer helpful as well as this link getting help with your emotions.
The Macmillan Support Line is open between 8am-8pm (timings may differ across services) 7 days a week on 0808 808 00 00…… this service provides cancer information, practical information, emotional support or just a listening ear.
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.
Do get back to me if you need further help navigating the community.
This is the rollercoaster that no one wants to be on…. But taking control of the parts that can be controlled…… can define how we get through this.
When I was diagnosed in 1999, my wife and 2 daughters (14 and 18) were on the journey from the start….. I was diagnosed with a rare (8 in a million) hard to treat incurable types of slow growing Cutaneous T-Cell Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma….. I was 44 then.
Then in late 2013 a second, very rare (4 in a million) more aggressive fast growing type of Peripheral T-Cell Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma came along taking me to stage 4……. by then our daughters had moved out, graduate, got married, set up very successful businesses and provide us with 4 beautiful granddaughters…… but everyone in the family were involved in my/our journey……
Due to me having to be treated for my 2 rare T-Cell NHLs at the same time my main treatment journey from late 2013 to late 2015 was rather complicated (See my story) but……. but as a family we navigated it all with the youngest to the oldest playing their part.
I am over 10 years out from my last treatment, I turn 70 in a few days and I doing great.
Communication, communication, communication is very important, not just in the family but the wider support network…… support is important.
((hugs))
