Dealing with a Child with Cancer

    Having a child with cancer can change your life dramatically .
          There are more nights at the hospital then there are at home. If you have more then one child then you might be paying less attention to your other children  Also, this can cause financial difficulties. More importantly you want your child to be happy and healthy and have a normal childhood. But how can you manage your life like this? Well, you should pay equal attention to all your children. You want the child who is sick to feel good, but the more you try to comfort him or her, the more the other child will feel left out. You want to keep the siblings out of the hospital but you want to update them on whats going on. You also want the siblings to play with the sick child and keep the sick child engaged in as many normal activities as possible. At the same time you don't want to overdo it. Keep the social activity to a minimal level because it can be very unsafe. Kids with cancer have a higher risk of catching common conditions like the cold or the flu!

         Financial effects are very hard to deal with. Between the hospital bills and bills in general, it just adds up. Some parents quit their jobs to support the child in the hospital. It just gets harder to support the family if you quit your job. The family might be living off the money of another parent or from relatives. That is not enough to cover all the bills. You should get a part time jobs. If both the parents have part time jobs on different dates, that means one parent will be able to stay with the kid in the hospital and the other will be able to work.

      Now your life just got a little bit easier, but who is going to clean the house or take care of the pet, if you have one? Consider asking a friend or a family member to help out with some chores or errands. When your child is asleep, you can run home and get as much done as possible!

I hope this is helpful!