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. If you’re in a place where you could use some encouragement, here are some things that cancer parents wish they could have told themselves when times were toughest.
None of this is your fault.
Did I cause it somehow? Was there anything I could have done to prevent it? Should I have caught it earlier? These are among the thoughts that may have raced through your mind when your child was first diagnosed. Parents who have had these thoughts say they wish they could go back and tell themselves that none of this is their fault, they didn’t miss anything and now is the time to look forward, not back.
“Take a deep breath – there were not prior signs, so stop beating yourself up that you missed something. Our little guy had appendicitis which is what landed him in the ER. That’s when we found out about his leukemia diagnosis.” – Laura