This year, the holiday season is extra important for Mason’s whole family. Last December, just 8 days before Christmas, their entire world was turned upside down.
Pediatric Cancer
Cancer is confusing, and It’s hard to find the right words to help a child understand such a difficult disease. While we can’t tell you exactly what to say, we hope these books give you a good starting point for open and honest communication. The list includes insightful and educational stories to help your entire family find comfort and inspiration when it’s most needed.
While there is no way to fully prepare for a cancer diagnosis, for parents coping with childhood cancer it's important to pay attention to any warning signs and recognize symptoms.
Last October, at age 19, I was diagnosed with cancer. I had recently graduated from high school and begun working. And then I started not feeling well – I was tired and under the weather all the time.
Erin has gone through a lot for a 15-year-old, with four surgeries to put in medi-ports, two for tumor removal and two for eye reconstruction, with more reconstruction to come.
Childhood cancer rates have been rising slightly: in the United States, 10,380 children under the age of 15 were diagnosed in 2016. And there are still a lot of unknowns about why children get cancer.
Our 2017 tree lighter, Mashayla, has a smile so bright that we expect it will steal the show and warm the hearts of all attendees (even if winter weather starts to come our way)!
Nobody expects to hear the words “Your child has cancer.” Nobody is prepared. And in our family’s case, our son Emmett was diagnosed with leukemia in an emergency room, and treatment began that day in the ICU. We had no time at all to prepare, or even to comprehend it all at the time.
Clinical trials are a key reason why childhood cancer treatments and survival rates have improved significantly in recent years.
As kids grow, their muscles, tendons and ligaments grow as well. So when they complain about aches and pains, it’s often due to the rapid pace of their developing bodies. But if the pain persists, or the pain is coupled with other ailments, it might be something more serious.
When Dr. Donald Pinkel graduated from medical school at the University of Buffalo in 1951, the world was a pretty dark place for kids with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). They didn’t live long after diagnosis, and experts in the field of blood cancer were convinced the disease was incurable.
Children with brain tumors or with acute lymphoblastic leukemia are most likely to have late effects in the brain, but any child treated for cancer is at a higher risk for learning disabilities, memory loss and social distress.