Cancer and the family

Mickey Guisewite, Parent With A Purpose, shares advice for parents with a child diagnosed with cancer on how to help your family through the tough process
Pediatric Cancer Advice | Helping Your Child Through The Treatments
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Cancer and the family

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When we got the diagnosis that my son had cancer, our entire world was turned upside down. Everything was different; nothing was the same. I went from being a mother who worried about scrubbing pesticides off the apple my son was about to eat to a few days later seeing a line sticking out of his chest and worrying and wondering if the toxic chemicals that were being pumped into his chest were going to save his life. It was completely overwhelming, and it was really difficult for our son. I mean, he's the one who had cancer. He was a normal 12-year old boy and suddenly there he was; he was losing his hair, he was losing weight, he was taken from his comfortable home environment and stuck in a hospital, he couldn't go to school, he couldn't see his friends, nothing was the same. I think the way we coped with that was to try to take one day at a time. When you look at the spectrum of treatment and what it's going to be like and you think, "Okay, we're going to be doing this for months. How are we gonna get through this?" You have to stop yourself and say, "No. What I need to do is get through today, and really what I need to do is get through the next five minutes." And ficus on that and try to take a deep breath.

Mickey Guisewite, Parent With A Purpose, shares advice for parents with a child diagnosed with cancer on how to help your family through the tough process

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Mickey Guisewite

Parent with a Purpose

Mickey Guisewite is a former advertising executive and syndicated newspaper columnist who started The Bottomless Toy Chest after her son successfully completed cancer treatment. The Bottomless Toy Chest is a nonprofit organization devoted to delivering toys, crafts and hands-on activities to hospitalized pediatric cancer patients. Mickey lives at home with her husband, son, daughter, two dogs, two cats and two turtles. When she’s not delivering toys to sick kids, she’s at home trying to find a tiny space on the couch among her two-legged and four-legged family members. 

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