-
When your family is facing cancer, you might feel like you are continually running on fumes. You haven’t showered, gone grocery shopping, or slept nearly enough in the past week, and you are constantly bracing yourself for another round of bad news. When you feel like you’re ready to crack, the smallest act of kindness from a friend or a stranger can give you the …
Isolation – it’s one of the many painful challenges cancer families experience during and after treatment. Many parents feel they can’t leave their child’s side, and they feel guilty if they leave the hospital or the house to do things their child can’t. On top of it all, it can often feel like nobody else you know understands what your family is going through. But …
When your child is diagnosed with cancer, it changes the lens through which you view the world. Things look and feel different, and certain things matter far more or far less than they used to. With the help of our partner, Momcology, a national peer support and community building foundation, we asked a group of pediatric cancer families, “What do you see differently since becoming a …
If you could go back to the day your child was diagnosed, what advice would you give yourself, knowing what you know now? This is the question we asked a group of cancer parents through a Facebook discussion facilitated by Momcology, a national peer support and community-building foundation for pediatric cancer families and partner to CCRF. In the parents’ answers, we noticed a few themes. …
Occasionally, parents of children with cancer experience surprising and tense situations with clinical care teams. For Nicole, mother of acute myeloid leukemia survivor Jacob, this meant having honest conversations with Jacob’s doctors and nurses, or pushing back and diligently asking questions to effectively make decisions for his overall health. When Jacob was going through the thick of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant and not feeling …
When you’re caring for a child with cancer, self-care could easily be the last thing on your mind. Caregivers frequently hear phrases like “you have to take care of yourself to care for your child” or “you can’t pour water from an empty cup,” but self-care isn’t easy when all your energy is going towards your child. CCRF asked caregivers how they care for themselves …
When your family is facing childhood cancer, the friends who go above and beyond make all the difference. But if you are that friend or family member, it can be hard to know what to do or say that will lighten some of the burden. We asked families who have experienced childhood cancer to tell us about a time during their cancer journey when a …
As any parent who has ever had a sick child knows, sometimes it takes more than a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. Helping kids take medicine is never easy, but for children with cancer, it’s even more difficult. For these kids, taking medicine often means swallowing large pills or taking liquid medication that tastes downright foul. This might make a child …
During the stress and uncertainty of cancer treatment, a home-cooked meal from a friend can be a welcome relief. If you’re considering bringing a meal to a family facing childhood cancer, here are a few things to think about to make sure your good deed is most appreciated. Think beyond dinner. If the family has a circle of friends rallying around them, they may be …
If you are the kind of person who would gladly offer to make a meal or run errands for a family facing childhood cancer, but don’t know any personally, it can be difficult to know what else you can do to help. Read below for three simple ways you can help a child with cancer, even if you never meet them. Give blood. Children going …
Cancer is a complicated disease, so it can be hard to explain it to your child if a friend or classmate has cancer. However, it is important for your child to know enough about what their friend is going through to be understanding, compassionate and inclusive. If your child knows someone with cancer, here are some tips for talking about it with them. Find out …
If you know a child battling cancer, you may want to show you care with a gift. It might be hard to know what the child would enjoy most, or what they can even use while they aren’t feeling well or are stuck in a hospital bed. If you’re looking to brighten a child’s day with a gift, here are a few suggestions and words …
A cancer diagnosis may mean that plans will have to change from what they’ve been in the past. Maybe your sister always hosts Thanksgiving dinner, but this year has been busy helping her child through treatment. Perhaps you and friends meet up to take the kids ice skating on Christmas day, but their child’s treatment has left them too weak to come this year. If …
If you’re planning to bring a gift to a friend battling cancer, you might not know that some traditional gifts are discouraged – even against the rules – in hospitals. Read below to see what gifts may not be permitted, and what to bring instead. Balloons: Latex or rubber balloons may not be allowed due to potential allergic reactions. Additionally, metallic or mylar balloons may …
Many cancer patients who are undergoing chemotherapy can become immunocompromised – this means their immune systems are very weak, and they are prone to sickness and infection. For children with weakened immune systems, a flu virus or the common cold can be detrimental to their health. Lucky, there are some simple things you can do to lessen the risk of passing along dangerous germs. Even …
Being a sibling of a childhood cancer patient can be scary and confusing. Family dynamics change, schedules are unpredictable and schoolwork and activities can start to fall through the cracks. Many parents of kids facing cancer express guilt that their healthy children are unintentionally overlooked while they are forced to focus on their sick child’s immediate needs. There’s no way to consistently balance the attention …
In April 2014, doctors found a mass in Joe’s left kidney. Two months later, he was formally diagnosed with metastatic Ewing sarcoma. After he recovered from surgery to remove his kidney, we moved to chemotherapy. When chemotherapy finished, Joe had scans and we went to his appointment to discuss radiation. We were blindsided when Dr. Staddon said radiation wasn’t necessary after all. Confused, we looked …
I never wanted to be in the hospital. Nothing about leaving my home for a week, skipping school or missing Friday night football games to have poison drip into my body was enjoyable. I spent so much time in the hospital that my floor became a home. Although I did not want to be in the hospital, each time those elevator doors opened it was …
