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Child diagnosis for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

chigz999
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Hi,

Unfortunately my 6 year old nephew has recently been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. We are obviously distraught but I'm hoping to reach out to any other parents who might have been through something similar and if there is any advice that you could share? We are aware that the probably of the cancer going into remission and him being cured is reasonably high but we are more concerned about the longer term impact on his  education, the (lack of) social interaction with others due to his low immunity levels and the gruelling first 6 months of his treatment. Any advice would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance

  • Hi chigz999,

    Welcome to Cancer Chat. I'm so sorry to read of what your nephew is going through at the moment - I can imagine this must be incredibly difficult for all of you.

    My reply here will boost your post so more people will see it, and if anyone has similar experience to share then hopefully they'll be along soon. Do also browse or search (using the button in the blue bar above) the forum for other similar discussions/topics if you haven't already.

    Wishing your nephew and all of you all the best,

    Ben
    Cancer Chat Moderator

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    Hello

    I was older at age 21 when I was disagnosed with ALL. I am so sorry to hear about your nephew, I was at college studying child care and I tried to carry it on but treatment took it out of me. I returned back to studying when I was better, so my advice with education is do not worry about it. He will bounce back children are amazing at being resistant, I learnt this in my studies. Spend as much time as you can with him, have lots of laughs and try not to get too bogged down by cancer stuff, you need to keep his spirits up as treatment is long for leukaemia. I think everybody is effected by the social side as hospital stays are so long but everytime he is able to leave hospital try and get him out and about when he feels upto it, I suffered alot with anxiety after leaving hospital but I would say this is normal as your life has changed so much.

    Keep strong as a family and he will beat this with the support of loved ones around him.

    I am here if you would like any advice about ALL.

    Alice 

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    Hi,

    I was diagnosed with ALL as a young teenager and finished my treatment just over a year ago. I'm really sorry to hear about your nephew, and I truly wish him the best. The treatment is gruelling and difficult, and sometimes in the moment you don't realise how hard it is, and then later on it really hits you. Something I would've done differently when I was having my treatment would be to find other people like me. I was lucky to have great friends and family who were very supportive, but I think I would've also greatly benefitted from talking to people who knew exactly what all this is like, especially people who were my age as sometimes I felt very isolated from my peers. You really don't realise how tough it is until you go through it yourself, or around someone. In regards to education, I would make sure the school are aware of how tough his treatment is and are understanding about how it effects his learning. I never asked my school for help until after all my treatment was over, because that's when it really hit me how not-okay I was. I'm happy I did ask for help with that after minimising the impact of everything for so long. 

    Again, I truly wish your nephew the best of luck and send love to you as a family around him. I can't even imagine how hard this must be with the extra stress of the pandemic, but if he can get through this, he can get through anything - and the same goes for everyone else there for him. 

     

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    Hiya,

    I hope you guys are all managing well. Your situation resonated with me immensely, I was diagnosed with ALL at 7. From a personal perspective, keep your nephew interacting with his friends as much as possible, I'm sure with COVID it is a lot harder than it was when I had it, but you could try facetimes or park trips? Outside play could limit the risk of any shared germs.

    I know personally, I have only just come to terms with my experience. It is not easy being a young cancer survivor, you hold onto those feelings but can't really resolve them because everything is fuzzy. I cannot recommend enough encouraging him to express those feelings now. Whether this is to you guys or a therapist. It is so surprising how easily kids pick up on adult's emotions, I always felt like I had to be strong for the people around me. Let him know it is okay to be scared, it is okay to cry, it is okay to feel the emotions that come with being treated. It will do him a world of good in the long run.

    From the education point of view, I was so lucky in that my school were very understanding about my situation. Encourage him to do work when he feels like he can, but make sure to maintain the healthy balance of work/play. When he is at a stage which you all feel able to, maybe he can go into school for the afternoon? He could wear a mask depending on how comfortable you all are with his peergroup or you could ask if the class could have an outdoor play session? 

    I really hope you are all coping well, if you have anymore questions please do ask.  

  • Offline in reply to laz.dog

    Thank you so much - I'm happy to write he's actually started going back to school in the last few weeks which has made a huge differnce for him! 

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