N
nessy j
Guest
My mother in law was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer last week and the doctors are talking 6-9 months.
I lost my mother to cancer 6 years ago so my husband and I know what to expect but we are struggling with how much information our children can handle without causing too much distress for them.
My 3 year old at this stage has been told that grandma is sick and she is going to the doctor a lot to get medicine to help her pain - there is also a secondary tumor on her T1 that is occluding on the nerves causing mum immense pain, she starts radiation for that in 3 weeks to try and reduce the size and therefore some of the pain.
My 6 year old is the one I am struggling with, I have told her that grandma has had some scans and in the pictures they saw something on her lungs that shouldn't be there. This was discussed before she had had the lung biopsy so we did not know details then. My daughter asked if her grandma would die from it and I answered not in the next few days or next week but yes it may be the cause of her death. Since then we have learned the full extent but have only talked to her about half the story,she asked me last night if grandma is getting better and I answered honestly that she isn't, we did not go into any further detail.
From other people's experience how much is too much information for younger children? We have discussed death before, but always in a general context ie this is what happens to your body when you die and they have experienced animals dying but this will be some much more personal. Has anyone found any ways to explain cancer and knowing that someone will die without freaking kids out?
I lost my mother to cancer 6 years ago so my husband and I know what to expect but we are struggling with how much information our children can handle without causing too much distress for them.
My 3 year old at this stage has been told that grandma is sick and she is going to the doctor a lot to get medicine to help her pain - there is also a secondary tumor on her T1 that is occluding on the nerves causing mum immense pain, she starts radiation for that in 3 weeks to try and reduce the size and therefore some of the pain.
My 6 year old is the one I am struggling with, I have told her that grandma has had some scans and in the pictures they saw something on her lungs that shouldn't be there. This was discussed before she had had the lung biopsy so we did not know details then. My daughter asked if her grandma would die from it and I answered not in the next few days or next week but yes it may be the cause of her death. Since then we have learned the full extent but have only talked to her about half the story,she asked me last night if grandma is getting better and I answered honestly that she isn't, we did not go into any further detail.
From other people's experience how much is too much information for younger children? We have discussed death before, but always in a general context ie this is what happens to your body when you die and they have experienced animals dying but this will be some much more personal. Has anyone found any ways to explain cancer and knowing that someone will die without freaking kids out?