Like a natural disaster, the diagnosis that your child has cancer can leave you and your family feeling helpless. How do you explain the disease to the child and to his or her siblings? How can you communicate your child's needs to the hospital staff? What are the best ways to reduce the physical side effects and the emotional distress of treatment?How will you, your child or teenager, and the rest of your family cope with cancer, and what can you do to help? When and where do you find good psychological help for your child or your family? How do you manage financial and school issues? How can you foster your child's development and self-esteem? More than 12,000 American children will be diagnosed with cancer this year, and roughly 75% will survive. In addition to excellent medical care, their survival depends on a strong support network, which may include parents, siblings, extended family members, friends and neighbors, classmates and teachers. In this down-to-earth guidebook, the authors draw on their own family's experience with cancer as well as their professional expertise and stories from others to help families address the psychological impact of cancer. The result is a book filled with sound emotional guidance, useful information, and practical advice for families coping with cancer.

Annotation The authors lay out practical strategies for coping with overwhelming medical information, frequent invasive procedures, heavy financial burdens, and crippling stress.

More than 325,000 children, teens, and adults in the United States are survivors of childhood cancer. The surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and stem cell transplants used to cure children can affect growing bodies and developing minds. If survivors know of these potential problems, they can take steps to identify, cope with, or treat them early if they do develop. The third edition of Childhood Cancer Survivors charts the territory for survivors by providing state-of-the-art information about: " Medical late effects from treatment " Emotional aspects of surviving cancer " Schedules for follow-up care " Challenges in the heath-care system " Lifestyle choices to maximize health " Discrimination in employment or insurance Woven throughout the text are stories from more than 100 survivors and parents. Authors Keene, Hobbie, and Ruccione are experts in the field of childhood cancer. Keene is the mother of a survivor of childhood leukemia and the author of several books including Childhood Leukemia, Childhood Cancer, Educating the Child with Cancer, and Chemo, Craziness & Comfort. Hobbie is Associate Director of the Cancer Survivorship Program at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Ruccione is Co-Director of the HOPE (Hematology-Oncology Psychosocial and Education) Program in the Children's Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases at Children's Hospital Los Angeles.

Since the late 1960s, the survival rate in children and adolescents diagnosed with cancer has steadily improved, with a corresponding decline in the cancer-specific death rate. Although the improvements in survival are encouraging, they have come at the cost of acute, chronic, and late adverse effects precipitated by the toxicities associated with the individual or combined use of different types of treatment (e.g., surgery, radiation, chemotherapy). In some cases, the impairments resulting from cancer and its treatment are severe enough to qualify a child for U.S. Social Security Administration disability benefits. At the request of Social Security Administration, Childhood Cancer and Functional Impacts Across the Care Continuum provides current information and findings and conclusions regarding the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of selected childhood cancers, including different types of malignant solid tumors, and the effect of those cancers on childrenâ (TM)s health and functional capacity, including the relative levels of functional limitation typically associated with the cancers and their treatment. This report also provides a summary of selected treatments currently being studied in clinical trials and identifies any limitations on the availability of these treatments, such as whether treatments are available only in certain geographic areas.

When a child is diagnosed with cancer, life flips upside-down. Suddenly, our days (and our thoughts) are dominated by doctors, nurses, child life specialists, and a million technical terms that will make anyone's head spin. Add extreme fear and anxiety to that, and you've got a recipe for the most stressful time in a family's life.What Happens When a Kid Has Cancer is a book written with purpose of relieving the anxiety and confusion that comes from a child's cancer diagnosis and treatment.What Happens When a Kid Has Cancer covers the main points of pediatric cancer - what it is and what the experience of treatment is like - and shows how it can change a kid's day. The book is great for ages 4 -10 and discusses:- The science of cancer- Changes to routines- Surgery and anesthesia - Chemotherapy- Hair loss and hair changes- Port, central line, and tubies- Hospital stays- Radiation- Scans and blood draws- Emotions relating to cancerOver the course of a year and with the help of both experts and families who have been through pediatric cancer, author and illustrator Sara Olsher explains the science of cancer (in an age-appropriate, totally non-scary way) and uses an illustrated calendar to show how various treatments affect a child's day-to-day. This method of teaching is based on decades of solid science about how kids learn and cope with the major day-to-day changes that result from issues like cancer. By creating a routine that kids can see and understand, parents can restore a sense of safety and predictability in their kids' lives, helping them to be more resilient in the face of life's inevitable challenges. What Happens When a Kid Has Cancer? helps families that want to reduce their kids' anxiety surrounding a very scary diagnosis. It aims to empower kids with knowledge, which is proven to help kids through traumatic situations.

This second edition of the most complete parent guide available features detailed and precise medical information about solid tumor childhood cancers, including neuroblastoma, Wilms tumor, liver tumors, soft tissue sarcomas, and bone sarcomas. In addition, it offers day-to-day practical advice on how to cope with procedures, hospitalization, family and friends, school, financial issues, and communication. Woven among the medical details and the practical advice are the voices of parents and children who have lived with cancer and its treatments. As many parents know, advice from "veteran" parents can be a lifeline. Obtaining a basic understanding of topics such as medical terminology, how drugs work, common side effects of chemotherapy, and how to work more effectively with medical personnel improves the quality of life for the whole family. Having parents describe their own emotional ups and downs, how they coped, and how they molded their family life around hospitalizations can be a tremendous comfort. Just knowing that there are other kids on chemotherapy who refuse to eat anything but tacos or who have frequent rages can make one feel less alone. Parents who read this book will find understandable medical infomation, obtain advice that eases their daily life, and feel empowered to be strong advocates for their child. It also contains a personal treatment summary and long-term follow-up guide for your child to keep as a permanent record.