Communicating with our children is hard. I am not sure there are any set rules about how to communicate with your children because every situation is different. I think that the foundation for healthy communication is to tell them everything that you know and in a form that they will understand it.
Real Life Cancer Story
When Nick was diagnosed with cancer a second time, we found out everything we possibly could about rhabdomyosarcoma. We looked into the treatment protocols and we researched every nook and cranny that was possible. We sat down with the doctors and asked them all the questions imaginable. We had no idea what the storm would really be like. We didn’t expect 70 days in the hospital, 106 doctors office visits with long days and long nights. I think that we were able to get through it because we would talk about every little thing that was happening. There were moments when Nick was asleep and he was going to have blood drawn or his temperature checked and we would wake him to tell him what was going on. The road one takes to fight cancer is like the rest of our lives; one never knows what can happen. The best thing you can do is to communicate what you understand as you travel down the road and make sure your children know that the road may change. The more our children know about their lives, the easier they can prepare for the challenges they face regardless of how big or how small.