When A Parent Has Cancer

Let's face it, cancer sucks. This book provides real-life advice from real-life teens designed to help teens live with a parent who is fighting cancer. One million American teenagers live with a parent who is fighting cancer. It's a hard blow for those already navigating high school, preparing for college, and becoming increasingly independent. Author Maya Silver was 15 when her mom was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001. She and her dad, Marc, have combined their family's personal experience with advice from dozens of medical professionals and real stories from 100 teens—all going through the same thing Maya did. The topic of cancer can be difficult to approach, but in a highly designed, engaging style, this book gives practical guidance that includes: How to talk about the diagnosis (and what does diagnosis even mean, anyway?) The best outlets for stress (punching a wall is not a great one, but should it happen, there are instructions for a patch job) How to deal with friends (especially one the ones with 'pity eyes') Whether to tell the teachers and guidance counselors and what they should know (how not to get embarrassed in class) What happens in a therapy session and how to find a support group if you want one A special section for parents also gives tips on strategies for sharing the news and explaining cancer to a child, making sure your child doesn't become the parent, what to do if the outlook is grim, and tips for how to live life after cancer. My Parent Has Cancer and It Really Sucks allows teens to see that they are not alone. That no matter how rough things get, they will get through this difficult time. That everything they're feeling is ok. Essays from Gilda Radner's "Gilda's Club" annual contest are an especially poignant and moving testimony of how other teens dealt with their family's situation. Praise for My Parent Has Cancer and It Really Sucks: "Wisely crafted into a wonderfully warm, engaging and informative book that reads like a chat with a group of friends with helpful advice from the experts." —Paula K. Rauch MD, Director of the Marjorie E. Korff Parenting At a Challenging Time Program "A must read for parents, kids, teachers and medical staff who know anyone with cancer. You will learn something on every page." —Anna Gottlieb, MPA, Founder and CEO Gilda's Club Seattle "This book is a 'must have' for oncologists, cancer treatment centers and families with teenagers." —Kathleen McCue, MA, LSW, CCLS, Director of the Children's Program at The Gathering Place, Cleveland, OH "My Parent Has Cancer and It Really Sucks provides a much-needed toolkit for teens coping with a parent's cancer." —Jane Saccaro, CEO of Camp Kesem, a camp for children who have a parent with cancer

At some point in our lives, many of us will face the crisis of an unexpected illness. For parents, the fear, anxiety and confusion resulting from a cancer diagnosis can be particularly devastating. When A Parent Has Cancer is a book for families written from the heart of experience. A mother, physician, and cancer survivor, Dr Wendy Harpham offers clear, direct, and sympathetic advice for parents challenged with the task of raising normal, healthy children while they struggle with a potentially life–threatening disease. Dr Harpham lays the groundwork of her book with specific plans for helping children through the upheaval of a parent's diagnosis and treatment, remission and recovery, and if necessary, confronting the possibility of death. She emphasises the importance of being honest with children about the gravity of the illness, while assuring them that their basic needs will always be met. Included is Becky and the Worry Cup, an illustrated children's book that tells the story of a seven–year–old girl's experiences with her mother's cancer.

Learning that his mother has cancer, a little boy becomes frightened then works through his fear with the help of both parents.

Explains to parents how to talk to children to help them cope when their mother or father is diagnosed with cancer, in a book that also has an illustrated activities section.

Sara is a married forty-something mother of two and part-time lawyer in London, Sara managed her life by to-do list after to-do list. However, when breast cancer appeared on her list, Sara's life as she previously knew it, was thrown upside down. Ticking Off Breast Cancer is a chronological narrative of Sara's life from the day of her diagnosis and throughout treatment. It follows her as she deals with the physical, emotional and mental challenges thrown at her by cancer and provides an honest insight into the treatment given to a breast cancer patient together with the impact that this has on someone's life. By sharing many of her to-do lists in the form of checklists at the end of each chapter, Ticking Off Breast Cancer provides thoughtful, helpful advice for every step of the way.

They are four words that can terrify any parent to the core: Your child has cancer. Each year more than 13,000 children and teenagers are diagnosed with cancer in the United States. The shock and demands of that diagnosis can be overwhelming for the parents, children, family, and friends as they face the emotions, along with the need to understand what the diagnosis means as well as what treatments are available and which are right for them. Parents, family members, friends, and professionals in healthcare will find support in this book. Written by a specialist in Pediatric Oncology, who is herself a cancer survivor as well as the mother of three young children, this book is clearly-stated and offers comprehensive information about the cancers that strike our youngest. They are four words that can terrify any parent to the core: Your child has cancer. Each year, more than 13,000 children and teenagers in the United States are diagnosed with cancer. The shock and demands of that diagnosis can be overwhelming for the parents, children, family members, and friends, as they face the emotions along with the need to understand what the diagnosis means, what treatments are available and which are right for them. In this book, there is support for all. Written by a specialist in Pediatric Oncology who is herself a cancer patient as well as the mother of three young children, this guide offers clearly stated and comprehensive information about the cancers that strike our youngest. Dr. Howell explains the 12 types of childhood cancer, with leukemias and tumors of the brain and nervous system most common. She tells us what the overall prognosis is, and how cancers affect children differently than they do adults, as well as what little is known about the causes, and she details the controversies on that subject. Howell explains common procedures and tests before, during, and after therapy, as well as the potential side effects. This compassionate physician does not ignore the vitally important issues of emotion—how to find the calm and strength to help the child or teen and be his or her best advocate, how to tell the child the diagnosis, what questions to anticipate, and how to deal with other family members and friends.

For families with a seriously ill parent--advice on helping your children cope from two leading Harvard psychiatrists Based on a Massachusetts General Hospital program, Raising an Emotionally Healthy Child When a Parent is Sick covers how you can address children's concerns when a parent is seriously ill, how to determine how children with different temperaments are really feeling and how to draw them out, ways to ensure the child's financial and emotional security and reassure the child that he or she will be taken care of.